Public Forums and Education Issues

What happens in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, is a matter of local policy and practice, and increasingly is affected by state and federal policy. The purposes, effectiveness, funding, regulation, and future of public education are the subject of constant public debate and policy decisions. Our own schools need to be understood within this context.

Reaching Heights organizes and sponsors public forums that bring these ideas and policy debates to our community in order to support informed public discussion and awareness of critical issues affecting our schools and community, and education as a public institution.

On November 28, 1990, Ron Wolk, the founding editor of Education Week, was the featured speaker in the first Reaching Heights public forum, Can Our Schools Succeed? Since then national experts in education, the economy, technology, demographics, and state and local policy makers have addressed significant issues including education for the 21st Century, school funding, school governance, school quality and accountability.

If you would like to receive email notification of future public forums please click here as end us your name, address and email address.

Reaching Heights Public Forums

School Governance  

Governing Our Public Schools, A Forum – October 14, 2003
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Steven Minter, Moderator – Executive-In-Residence, CSU
Barbara Greene – Principal, Common Good Consulting
Dr. Ronald Fowler – Former President, Akron Board of Education
John Brandt – Executive Director, Ohio School Boards Association

Public Schools for the 21st Century Series (PS 21) – 1996- 1999
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Reaching Heights issued a report in 1999 that summarized the common issues raised in this stimulating process. The report also includes summaries of the first five speakers. For the complete newsletter on PS21 speakers, click here.

• Harold Hodgkinson, Demographer - Who Will be the Students in the 21 st Century and Why they Must Succeed – January 17, 1996
• Alan November, Technology and education – Technology, Education, and the Future: What Parents, Educators and the Community Need to Know – March 6, 1996
• Hedrick Smith, Journalist and author – Rethinking America: How Innovators in Schools and Businesses are Responding to a Global Economy – Sept. 25, 1996
• Dr. Linda Darling- Hammond, Research and teacher educator - Redesigning Schools To Focus on Student and Teacher Learning – April 4, 1997
• Major Owens, U.S. Congress - The Education Emergency in Public Schools: The Need for a Total Opportunity to Learn – April 22, 1997
• Dr. Lorraine Monroe, Founder, Frederick Douglass Academy - What is the Mission ? What is the Work? - December 9, 1998
• Dr. Victor Young, Director, Learning Communities Network – Implementing and Sustaining Effective Schooling for All Children: Just Whos is Responsible for What? – January 28, 1999
• Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III, President, University of Maryland , Baltimore County – Raising Academically Successful African American Males – March 4, 1999

If you'd like a full report on these speakers or would like to borrow the videotapes of their presentations, contact Reaching Heights.

Middle School Education

• Joan Lipsitz, Director, Center for Early Adolescence, University of North Carolina – Middle School Education – May 12, 1992
• Julia Thomasen – Teaming in the Middle School – September 8, 1992
• Hayes Mizell, Program Officer for Middle School Education, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation – The Achieving Middle School – 1993

School Funding

School Funding in Ohio : It's Broken – Can We Fix It?- September 29, 2004
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James Van Keuren, ED.D – Ashland University
Joseph Regano – Superintendent, Solon City Schools
State Senator C.J. Prentiss – Ohio 21 st District
Jan Resseger – United Church of Christ , Minister for Public Education & Witness
Mayor Georgine Welo – Mayor, City of South Euclid

TABOR for Ohio? – May 19, 2005

Marcia Egbert - Senior Program Officer, The George Gund Foundation

Student Achievement

What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action to Impact Student Achievement – October 4, 2004
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Robert Marzano- Senior Scholar, Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning

Rising Scores, Rising Expectations; Using Standards and Accountability to Inspire Teachers and Students
October 26, 2005

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Deborah Delisle, Superintendent, CH-UH City Schools

Denine Goolsby, Principal, Wiley Middle School

Kelly Stukus, Principal, Oxford Elementary School

Tara Keller, Teachers, Oxford Elementary School