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The organizations represented in this session seek to improve education for students by giving community residents a stronger voice in shaping the policies that affect their public schools and building parent capacity to advocate for the educational needs of their children. Ricardo Martinez of Padres Unidos, Mike Kromrey and a parent leader from Metro Organizations for People (MOP), David Portillo from the Denver Foundation, Luz Santana of The Right Question Project, present stories of their efforts and share their specific techniques for working with parents in the struggle for educational justice. Participants also have the opportunity to engage in some of these techniques.

As educators, we want to know that students are leaving our schools with the awareness, habits of mind, and values to be productive citizens and lead successful lives. Come hear from a diverse group of CES graduates discussing the choices and commitments they have made as family and community members, workers, students, and citizens. The panelists, Alia Tyner-Mulings of Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), Loran Simon of Leadership High School, Erin Martinez of Eagle Rock School, and Asma Fouathia of Humanities Preparatory Academy explore how their Essential schools helped them form their views and develop their commitments to promote democracy and equity in their lives.

This interactive panel speaks to strengthening and creating a public school system that embraces and serves all of our communities. Laurie Olsen of California Tomorrow, Maria Salazar of Denver University, and Liliana Vargas and of Internationals Network for Public Schools, address best practices in English language development, inclusive curriculum design and teaching strategies. They focus on the experiences of English language learners in schools and share strategies that help parents of ELL students become active participants. They share lessons on building the capacity of educators to support the language acquisition of every student. The session also touches on effective policies that enable schools to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate instruction, programs and services.

Restorative justice is a broad term encompassing a growing social movement to institutionalize peaceful approaches to conflict, problem-solving, and violations of legal and human rights. Restorative justice views conflict as an opportunity for a community to learn and grow and operates on the premise that individuals must accept responsibility for repairing the harm they cause. In schools, restorative resolutions are used as part of discipline and safety strategies that engage students who break the rules, those who are harmed, and their school community in search of solutions that promote repair, reconciliation, and the rebuilding of relationships. In this interactive session, we hear from Linda Biehl of the Amy Biehl Foundation, Liz Sullivan of The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, Adelric McCain of Young Women's Leadership Charter School, Patricia Zamora of PAZWorks, and Brian Gonsalves of Fenway High School, about their work in schools, foundations, and policy organiztions to promote humane methods for working with youth.

No Child Left Behind was widely hailed as a bipartisan victory for American children, particularly those traditionally underserved by public schools. NCLB emphasized improving education for students of color, those living in poverty, new English learners and students with disabilities. Now, five years later, the debate over the law's reauthorization has a different tone. In this session, Linda Darling-Hammond from Stanford University, LaShawn Route-Chatmon Executive Director of BayCES, Delia Pompa Vice-President, Education for the National Council of La Raza, Isaac Ewell from Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), and Monica Martinez from KnowledgeWorks Foundation, discuss the ways communities of color have used NCLB legislation to leverage meaningful change in local education, citing specific examples and cases of interest. Panelists also contemplate NCLB’s reauthorization, and how it might be developed to benefit students and communities of color and to create a national policy that enables schools to meet the intellectual demands of the twenty-first century.