June 4, 2015
TO
LEA Superintendents
FROM
June St. Clair Atkinson
SREB’S COLLEGE- AND CAREER-READINESS STANDARDS NETWORKING CONFERENCE
I, along with the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), encourage you, along with a team from your district, to
attend SREB’s College- and Career-Readiness Standards Networking Conference on July 13-15, 2015, in Atlanta,
Georgia.
This year, Vicky Phillips, Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will keynote the opening
session on July 13. For information on the networking conference and how to register, go to
www.sreb.org/networkingconference.
This cost-effective conference will showcase the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design
Collaborative (MDC); instructional tools that are helping teachers meet the new standards. LDC and MDC have been
field tested in several states during the past three years and have proven to engage students in deeper learning and
increase achievement. LDC actively engages students to read complex texts and express their understanding in writing.
MDC develops math understanding and reasoning through multi-step math problems.
We understand the challenges of implementing the rigorous new standards. Meeting higher expectations requires a
major shift in how teachers teach and prepare their students for college and careers. The LDC and MDC frameworks
are proven strategies that also meet the need for high-quality professional development to support teachers.
SREB believes in this work so much that they are offering North Carolina teachers the opportunity to come to this
conference for only $150; a very reasonable cost for such high-quality professional development.
North Carolina schools have been deeply engaged in this work, but there is still time to take advantage of this
opportunity. In fact, you’ve probably received information about his grant already. If you’ve been wondering if this
was right for your district, this would be a tremendous opportunity to hear over 200 presentations from around 1,000
teachers who have been deeply involved in this work. Many of these teachers and leaders are from North Carolina.
I encourage you to share the networking conference brochure with your district’s middle grades schools, high schools
and technology centers. The conference is an exciting, open-learning environment for collaboration and networking
around proven classroom tools. It is a great opportunity to learn how other districts are advancing student achievement.
For more information on the conference, contact Jill Potts, SREB’s Networking Conference Coordinator at
jill.potts@sreb.org.
JSA:GB:mw
OFFICE OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT
June St. Clair Atkinson, Ed.D., State Superintendent | June.Atkinson@dpi.nc.gov
6301 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6301 | (919) 807-3430 | Fax (919) 807-3445
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER