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| by A. David Dahmer |
| November 28, 2012 |
JOHN LEGEND, GEOFFREY CANADA TO HIGHLIGHT GROUNDBREAKING FORUM
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The Urban League of Greater Madison has been on the cutting edge of being innovative and proactive to close Madison’s gap in school achievement and graduation rates. The Urban League will continue that momentum by bringing in John Legend and Geoffrey Canada to headline their upcoming educational forum — Educate to Elevate — at the Alliant Energy Center and Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center Dec. 6 and Dec. 7.
“Those two are huge to have at the event. I’m very excited,” says Kaleem Caire, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison (ULGM) from his office on Madison’s south side. “If somebody told you — as I’ve been told in the community —that one percent of our black kids are eligible for college — 5 out of 378 seniors were academically ready for college — you’d think that there would be a war. But we accept that. And once you get to the point of acceptance ... you just live with it. But we can’t live with that. That’s why we’re bringing in a John Legend and a Geoffrey Canada and other people who will bring us out of that state that we’re in.”
Legend is a nine-time Grammy Award winning singer, musician, philanthropist, and education advocate. Canada is a world-renowned education leader and founder of Harlem Children’s Zone. The two will talk about their efforts, share lessons learned, and help rally the Greater Madison community to support the education of their children and their schools.
“We wanted to do something this year that would benefit the community but also build on our mission of education and employment and helping families access both,” Caire says.
Initially, they thought about bringing in the very popular 70s band Earth, Wind, and Fire. When John Legend became available, Caire new it was the person he wanted.
“We jumped at the chance to get John Legend,” Caire says. “He is a tremendous artist. But beyond that, his Show Me Campaign has really done amazing things and he has really shown to be heavily invested in education.”
The mission of Legend’s Show Me Campaign is to break the cycle of poverty using solutions that have been proven to improve people’s lives and to give them the opportunities to survive, thrive, and succeed.
At the VIP Luncheon for Educate to Elevate, people can sit down with Legend and Canada and talk shop. They will enjoy an intimate conversation about what the Greater Madison area can do to close its achievement gap and prepare its children to contribute and thrive in a diverse and global community.
Then, from 2-3 p.m., Canada and Legend will host an educational forum and be joined by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings and Sal Carranza. It will be moderated by Channel 3000’s Neil Heinen. Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former president of the American Education Research Association. Carranza is a Senior Academic Planner in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Wisconsin System and co-founder and chair of the Latino Education Council of Dane County.
“Gloria and Sal are both true champions of education. They are fearless,” Caire says. “Gloria is one of the highest-regarded leaders of education internationally — let alone in this city. She has made it her passion to get involved in the community. Sal knows the issues so well and is a tireless local resource for education.”
The education forum will wrap up a power-packed day of events. But there is more — a whole second day. Day 2 will feature an Education Innovation Summit at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center held in partnership with Madison Metropolitan School District, United Way, and Planning for Greatness. The Summit will bring together leaders of K-12 schools and educational support programs from across the country that have closed the achievement gap and successfully engaged parents and students in schools to share their strategies and lessons learned with Madison-area citizens and leaders. Featured speakers for this event will be Dr. Howard Fuller and Dr. Patrick Murphy.
“We’re bringing in people who are real. None of the people coming in will sugarcoat things,” says Caire. “They are advocates. They are activists. They have worked hard to illuminate issues that they are concerned about and to get people to rally behind.”
Fuller is the founder and director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University and the former Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools.
“I think it was important to ask Dr. Howard Fuller to come,” Caire says. “He was the man out of Milwaukee who made a difference — when I signed up to work for Howard Fuller my life changed forever. I became known in Madison and internationally.”
Dr. Patrick Murphy is the superintendent of the Arlington Public Schools in Virginia. Murphy has been an educator since 1988, serving the Fairfax County Public Schools for 19 years in a variety of instructional leadership positions. During the final four years, he served as assistant superintendent for accountability, where he was responsible for testing, research and evaluation, and division- and school-based strategic planning.
“The reason why we chose him is because of the work he has done at Arlington Public Schools and the struggles they’ve gone through with trying to deal with equity and race and all those issues in a backdrop of a school system where white kids perform very well,” Caire says. “So, [Arlington is] very similar to Madison in terms of size and issues. We wanted him to come and talk about being in the midst of it all. How are they working themselves out of it?”
ULGM is hoping for a big attendance at this event. They are working hard to inspire everyone “in the village” to take responsibility for helping elevate their children to their fullest potential.
“We want this to be a community event so we’ve literally sent out 12,500 postcards to different zip codes so that we can access people who wouldn’t normally hear about this or participate in an event like this,” Caire says. “We’ve been on the radio stations, [sent] e-mail blasts, and [posted] YouTube spots.
“People should come to this Summit so they can be part of this call to action for our young people,” he adds. “We want to show that there are a lot of people in this community who are interested in our children and their future and that they are willing to take time out of their day to be a part of it.”
There are a ton of bright and talented kids out there who are just not being cultivated, encouraged, and given a chance. That’s a shame, Carie says, and doesn’t have to be.
“How many more negative articles or discussions can we have before people become apathetic and don’t feel like change can happen or they get so frustrated that they don’t want to be involved in this?” Caire asks. “That’s the risk of failing for too long. People start to check out. We can’t have that.”
The luncheon will end with a Call to Action. Caire hopes that the “action” is a momentum that goes well beyond just the excitement from the weekend.
“Because it’s the end of the year and people are going through the holidays it’s hard to get people focused on being active, so we want people to be reflective,” Caire says. “They will be reflective in the month of December on what they’ve heard and then in January we will have our MLK event where we get everybody excited.
We can’t take the foot off the pedal on this issue [of the achievement gap] in our community,” he adds. ““We’re at our most challenging point that we’ve ever been. When you’re not where you need to be and floating towards the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. The choice is ours. Do we want to choose to do things that will help us get there and get there faster or do we not want to embrace the challenges all around us and take the slow road to get there instead? We need to focus on that and the importance of world-class schools for our region. We need to know what people are talking about outside of Madison. This event will be very interesting ... I’m hoping to see a big attendance.”
For more information on Educate To Elevate, or to register, visit www.EducateToElevateULGM.com or call Mark Richardson at (608) 729-1200.
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