Paul Gorski: Rural Poverty Challenge - Achieving Equity Literacy

CESA 5 is excited to welcome back Mr. Paul Gorski, the foremost expert on reaching and teaching students in poverty. Mr. Gorski's 2016 presentation will address the complexities of our rural schools and communities in poverty. This workshop seeks to create a learning experience that connects, inspires, and engages participants through active discussion and interaction.

Too often, approaches for creating equitable learning environments for students in poverty focus on understanding a make-believe "culture of poverty"- the idea that all low-income people have the same values and beliefs. If we want to shrink the economic achievement gap, we need to begin with an approach built around a more robust set of knowledge and skills.

The event will focus on developing our equity literacy, which means focusing, not simply on identifying the supposed "deficits" in low-income families, but rather on understanding how the barriers that students in poverty face inside and outside schools- the biases, the inequitable access to opportunity--affect their school performance. With this knowledge in mind, we will discuss research-backed strategies for what we can do in our own classrooms and schools to create more empowering conditions for our most marginalized students.

About Paul C. Gorski:

Paul C. Gorski is an associate professor of Integrative Studies at George Mason University and the founder of EdChange.  He has written several books and articles, with recent work focused on how educators can develop equitable learning environments for students in poverty.

Price:

$175 for CESA 5 School Improvement Consortium Members
$250 All Others
~$25 Early Bird Discount if you are registered by 10/3/16!~

**Click here for membership listings.**

One graduate credit available through Edgewood College for an additional $175.  Edgewood handles registration and payment separately at the event.

Questions?  Contact Melissa Sumwalt at:  sumwaltm@cesa5.org
 

Cancellation Policy: Registered participants will receive a full refund if they cancel before 10 working days before an event, minus any material costs that have already been incurred. Because of our commitment to the trainer and the food vendor, participants who cancel less than 10 working days or do not attend, will be billed the full fee. CESA 5 reserves the right to cancel any event. Registered participants will be notified via email if a cancellation occurs and will receive a full refund. Inclement weather policy: Every effort will be made to hold an event. CESA 5 will notify participants via email as soon as possible if an event has been canceled due to weather conditions.