AFT's QuEST Professional Issues Conference for Educators
To Feature Town Hall Forum with Education Secretary Duncan
July 13-15 in Washington, D.C.

 WASHINGTON — A town hall-style forum with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a panel with unionized charter school teachers are among the featured events at the American Federation of Teachers' QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) conference next month that is expected to draw more than 1,500 educators from across the country.

AFT President Randi Weingarten will give the keynote speech, discussing the need for shared responsibility for school improvement as well as for an unprecedented, teacher-driven focus on strengthening teaching and learning. Education Secretary Duncan will field questions from the audience of teachers and other school staff, and Stanford University's Linda Darling-Hammond will speak about teacher quality and evaluation. Another general session will focus on several models of community schools, which provide after-school and evening academic, social and community services to disadvantaged students and their families.

In addition, charter school teachers will be attending QuEST and speaking on panels about their newly organized unions, including how their union contract guarantees fair treatment and educator voice while maintaining their charter school's mission of innovation and achievement. Panelists will include teachers from KIPP AMP in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Green Dot New York Charter School in the Bronx; Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston; and Accelerated Charter High School in Los Angeles.

QuEST's specialty is offering scores of workshops taught by experts on various teaching and learning issues. Some of the topics include dealing with classroom discipline problems, best practices for teaching reading and math, teaching English language learners, improving middle schools, bridging the achievement gap in high school, recruiting and retaining teachers in hard-to-staff areas, and teacher evaluation.

QuEST will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Connecticut Avenue in Washington.

The conference's highlights follow.

 Highlights

Monday, July 13:
     1 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. 
          Greetings - D.C. City Council Chairman Vincent Gray
          Keynote Speech - AFT President Randi Weingarten
     2:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
          Workshops
     4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
          U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, with Randi Weingarten - Town hall forum

Tuesday, July 14:
    9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
          Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University
     10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
          Workshops
     1:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
          Workshops, including a panel on charter schools
     4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
          Community Schools Panel, "One Idea, Many Models"
          Featuring speakers from New York City, Cincinnati and Syracuse

Wednesday, July 15:
     9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
          Workshops
     10:45 a.m. - 1 p.m.
          Closing session. Speaker to be determined.

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