Creating a Networked Professional Learning Community (Luncheon Keynote)
If we are to bring all students to a level of learning demanded by our society and create real paths to opportunity and democratic participation, we must fundamentally rethink the way we structure and organize learning environments. True transformation means deepening the focus of learning to include skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, autonomy and collaboration, while rigorously covering the core academic content. It means using the latest technology to customize learning so it matches individual student needs and interests.

The South Carolina Board of Education wishes to encourage and recognize districts and schools that are moving toward this new conceptualization of learning, shaping a new learning-centric, personalized system of education so that each individual--from early childhood through adolescence--is preparing for life, work and citizenship. It is our hope that, working with the EOC, Legislature, and private entities, we can drive toward creating an environment in which pioneering schools and districts can test new practices and create an evidence base about which materials, methods, and learning environments are most effective in generating dramatically improved levels of learning.

Across such a network of pioneering practitioners, we will need to address these key questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish? What problems are we trying to solve?
• How do we understand the system in which the problem is embedded?
• What changes will we introduce?
• How will we know if these changes are improvements? How will we measure student growth in knowledge, skills, and dispositions?
• How will we share, expand, spread what works to other classrooms, schools and districts?

Gerrita Postlewait,
Chief K12 Officer for the Stupski Foundation
 
Gerrita has served as a district superintendent for many years, most recently completing a decade’s tenure as superintendent in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She served as president of the South Carolina Superintendents Association, was named the state’s Superintendent of the Year and the South Carolina School Boards’ Outstanding Superintendent of the Year.
 
She has been actively involved at the state and national levels in school reform and has received many recognitions, including distinction as a Fellow of the National Effective Schools Institute; designation as West Virginia's Leader of Learning; recipient of an Honorary Doctorate Degree for distinguished public service; recipient of the exemplary service award from the Association of Teacher Educators; and selection to the governing board of the American Association of School Administrators. She currently serves as a member of the South Carolina State Board of Education and the ETV Endowment Board.