February 6, 2008: MESPA Institute Keynote, Session I

MESPA Home > Professional Development > MESPA Institute > Institute 2008: Changes, Challenges, Connections > Keynote speakers > Ronald Ferguson, PhD

Ronald Ferguson, Ph.D., AGI Director: “Instructional practices are strong predictors of student academic engagement.”

Ronald F. Ferguson, Ph.D.
AGI (Achievement Gap Initiative) Director and Co-Chair; Lecturer In Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government; Senior Research Associate, Wiener Center for Social Policy
Keynote sponsored by VIRCO

Institute Follow-Up
Scroll down this page for PDF copies of Dr. Ferguson's:
A Flock of Poems school poetry collection;
PowerPoint presentation on the Tripod Project;
Teaching the Hard Stuff workbook; and
discount flyer to purchase his new book Toward Excellence with Equity.

For information on the Achievement Gap Initiative: www.AGI.Harvard.edu

For information on the Tripod Project: www.tripodproject.org
If you are interested in becoming part of the research base for the Tripod Project, please contact Dr. Ferguson's assistant Erin Hardy: Erin_Hardy@ksg.Harvard.edu; 617-496-9154

Keynote overview
Principal Leadership for Raising Achievement and Narrowing Gaps:
The presentation will focus on parallels in the roles that principals can play in helping teachers to improve, and the roles that teachers can play in helping students to improve. Ideas and research findings from the Tripod Project for School Improvement will be highlighted. Evidence will be presented on the determinants of trust, cooperation, ambitiousness and resilience.

Ronald F. Ferguson is an economist who has taught at the Kennedy School of Government since 1983. His publications cover issues in education policy, youth development programming, community development, economic consequences of skill disparities, and state and local economic development. His research for the past several years has focused on racial achievement gaps, appearing in publications of the National Research Council, the Brookings Institution, the U.S. Department of Education, Educational Research Service and others.

Ferguson is the director and co-chair of the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University. The AGI mission “is to help raise achievement for all children while narrowing racial, ethnic and socio-economic gaps. Working with scholars nationwide, we aim to serve a variety of audiences including policy makers, educators, researchers and parents, by producing and disseminating research and distilling its implications for raising achievement levels and closing achievement gaps.”

Ferguson is the creator and director of the Tripod Project for School improvement, including a component called "Teaching the Hard Stuff" (THS). In THS, groups of teachers brainstorm to figure out why students in one teacher's classroom did poorly on a particular assignment (an "Item of Hard Stuff"); then they propose instructional responses for the presenting teacher to try.

During the late 1990s, Ferguson was Chairman of the National Community Development Policy Analysis Network. In that role, he co-edited the volume Urban Problems and Community Development, published by Brookings Institution Press.

Ferguson participates in a variety of consulting and policy advisory activities on issues of education, employment, youth development, and urban development. These have recently included, for example, work with public school districts on racial and ethnic achievement gaps, expert testimony in school finance cases, and committees at the National Research Council dealing with educational testing, school reforms, and youth development programming. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his PhD from MIT, both in economics.

Ferguson_book_flyer.pdf

Ferguson__FlockOfPoems__MESPA_Institute.pdf

Ferguson__TeachingHardStuff__MESPA_Institute.pdf

Ferguson__Tripod_Project__MESPA_Institute_Keynote.ppt

Mission: The Minnesota Elementary School Principals' Association is dedicated to promoting and improving education for children and youth, strengthening the role as educational leader for elementary and middle level principals, and collaborating with partners in education to assist in achieving these goals.

Leading schools toward excellence through the MESPA vision to be the premiere resource for preparing today's principals for tomorrow and a strong leading voice for public education.

Minnesota Elementary School Principals' Association

1667 North Snelling Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108

651.999.7310 MN toll free 800.642.6807

Fax: 651.999.7311 E-mail: mespa@mespa.net