Thanks to the more than 400 teachers, administrators, university faculty, parents, students, business and community members who participated in Houston A+ Challenge's eleventh annual Reforming Schools Summer Institute — our largest Institute to date.

The Institute provided a powerful showcase for the change strategies now being used in schools and learning communities throughout the Houston region. This summer, Houston A+ Challenge is celebrating 10 years of supporting local public school improvement, and all of the campuses spotlighted during the Institute's 14 breakout sessions have received funding and technical support from our nonprofit organization.

Our keynote speaker, internationally known education researcher and author Michael Fullan, provided insights on what we must do in order to move our schools from adequate to excellent — and how to sustain that change over time. RSSI 2007 participants received Dr. Fullan's recent book, "Turnaround Leadership." For more information, please see his keynote address; Dr. Fullan is professor of policy studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

In addition to breakout sessions on successful strategies for turnaround schools, RSSI 2007 featured two highly interactive Open Space sessions. Topics for these sessions were created by Institute participants based on their own, personal passions.

Each year, the Institute helps model what we know about learning and professional development:

• The Importance of School Teams
  At RSSI, schools participate in conference activities as part of campus-based teams. This helps educators deepen their shared learning and provides continued support for taking lessons learned back to the campus in the fall.
  
  
• The Importance of a National Perspective
  Through the keynote address, local teachers and school leaders who are engaged in school reform work are exposed to the research and ideas of nationally known speakers. This helps provide a framework for and perspective on what's working elsewhere, what's not, and how these lessons learned might apply in Houston.
  
  
• The Importance of Interactive Sessions
  To spotlight the important work going on throughout Houston, breakout sessions are presented by the very people doing the work -- local area teachers, principals and district administrators. All sessions are designed to provide participants with strategies and ideas for improving their own practice. All sessions are also interactive — supporting active, not passive, learning.
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• The Importance of Guided Practice
  At the end of each day, school teams join forces with a small number of other school teams to reflect on the conference teachings and to plan for the coming year. These "Institute learning communities" are lead by skilled facilitatiors, who help the teams practice skills learned at the Institute and plan how to develop those skills — in order to impact students during the coming year.