AASA's Policy and Advocacy Team invites you to join us on a journey through the nitty-gritty details of federal education policy at this year's AASA national conference in San Diego. We've lined up a stream of can't-miss policy sessions for all considering themselves education wonks.
On Thursday, Feb. 13, conference attendees can check out a number of interesting sessions ranging from school safety and security, vouchers and student data and privacy.
Looking for the perfect strategy for maximizing your intake of policy issues? Try starting your day off at 9 a.m. with AASA's federal education update for latest state of federal education policy issues and a look into what's coming down the pipeline in 2020. At noon, political enthusiasts can attend the Federal Relations luncheon to devour the latest data on federal elections and public opinion polling focused on hotbed educational issues, including class size, parental involvement and teacher pay. Finally, attendees can top off the day at 3 p.m. with a discussion on vouchers lead by AASA Advocacy Director Sasha Pudelski.
Day one of the national conference also features a host of roundtable events where attendees can participate in conversations on fostering professional development pathways and implementing schoolwide equity-based approaches.
On Friday, Feb. 14, attendees can kick off their day at 8 a.m. by attending “Counting Young Children in the 2020 Census: What Superintendents Can Do,” which will offer ways for superintendents to help ensure all kids are counted in 2020. The session will address which children often are overlooked in the census and share tools that educators can use to improve the all-important count in their school districts. Then, after an early lunch, check out the “Why Rural Matters 2019” session at 12:45 p.m. to see the latest state-by-state data regarding rural education issues.
Attendees can close out the day with a session on the AASA 2020 State of the Superintendency Report at 3:45 p.m., where I'll be doing a deep dive into the results of the association’s 2020 decennial survey and discuss the educational trends that are most affecting superintendents.
(Chris Rogers is a policy analyst with AASA.)