Keynotes

Jeff Duncan-Andrade | Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete

In this lecture, Jeff Duncan-Andrade draws from his 18 years as an urban educator to explore the concept of hope, as essential for nurturing urban youth. He first identifies three forms of “false hope”—hokey hope, mythical hope, and hope deferred—pervasive in and peddled by many urban schools. Discussion of these false hopes then gives way to Duncan-Andrade’s conception of “critical hope,” explained through the description of three necessary elements of educational practice that produce and sustain true hope.  Through the voices of young people and their teachers, and the invocation of powerful metaphor and imagery, Duncan-Andrade proclaims critical hope’s significance for an education that relieves undeserved suffering in communities.

To see a recording of a similar lecture given earlier in 2010, click here. (note: it is best to start watching at minute 13)

Frank Chong | A Federal View on Community Colleges

Dr. Chong will provide an overview of the President's College Completion Goal which states, “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” Some estimate that in order to accomplish this goal, community colleges would need to graduate an additional 5 million students in the next ten years. Furthermore, the role of research will be a critical component in measuring and understanding student outcomes. Dr. Chong will discuss strategies and share approaches that will enable America’s community colleges to play a proactive role in meeting the President’s goal.

Donna McKusick | The Community College of Baltimore County: One Journey, Many Paths

In the keynote, Dr. McKusick will share CCBC’s journey of the past ten years of becoming increasingly focused on student success. This journey, spearheaded by the examination of learning outcomes and framed by national research literature, has led the college down many individual roads to increase levels of student and faculty engagement, improve outcomes for developmental learners, increase retention and graduation rates, and close achievement gaps. Strategies touched on will include acceleration in developmental education, learning communities, departmental pedagogy projects, culturally responsive instruction, and a college-wide student success course. Participants will hear about both wins and losses, effective strategies and mistakes, and will be encouraged to take an honest inventory of their own practices as they pave their own paths for student success.