High-Stakes Testing to Be Debated in Televised Town Meeting
Urban School Leaders to Convene in Norfolk

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 --  One of America's  hottest issues of the day will be debated at a   National Town Hall Meeting on High-Stakes Testing in conjunction with the Council of the Great City Schools' 45th Annual Fall Conference, Oct. 17-21, in Norfolk, Va.

The weekly cable television program Close Up on C-SPAN will cover the town meeting on Oct. 19, moderated by John Milewski, program host and executive director.  The live-to-tape debate is scheduled to air Oct. 26 at 7 p.m., EST, on C-SPAN.

 Town meeting panelists include:

• Darline Robles, superintendent of  Utah's  Salt Lake City School District and chair of the Council's Task Force on Bilingual Education;

• Anna Dodson, member of the Norfolk Public Schools' Board of Education;

• Monty Neil of FairTest, a group that advocates fair practices and policies in testing;

• Gaston Caperton, president of The College Board, which administers the SAT; and

• Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) of the U.S. House of Representatives' Education and Workforce Committee.

More than 500 big-city school superintendents, senior administrators, board members and deans of colleges of education will convene in Norfolk to discuss issues such as student achievement gaps, urban school leadership and governance, school financing, professional development, and bilingual education. 

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, formerly superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, plans to address his former urban school colleagues.

Urban educators will also hear from Russ Whitehurst, assistant secretary for research and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, who will give a presentation on effective reading strategies.

Scheduled speakers include:

• Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Raspberry, urban affairs columnist for the Washington Post, who will share his thoughts with urban school leaders at a lunch on Oct. 18;

• Mystery writer, novelist and social commentator Walter Mosley, author o five critically acclaimed mysteries starring the charter Easy Rawlins, who addresses the gathering at an Oct. 19 breakfast; and

• Entertainer, lecturer and comedienne Bertice Berry, who hosted her own nationally syndicated talk show, The Bertice Berry Show, and USA Live, an interview and entertainment program on the USA Cable Network, who will be the Oct. 19 lunch speaker.

The nation's urban school leader of the year will be announced to receive the Richard R. Green Award at a banquet on Oct. 19.

The conference will also include extended seminars on the latest reading research, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and case studies on some of the fastest improving urban school districts in the nation.

Hosted by Norfolk Public Schools, the five-day conference at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel will also feature a presentation by actors Tim and Daphne Reid of their American Legacy Television Special, a nationally syndicated program.

Founded in 1956, the Council of the Great City Schools is the only organization in the nation exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools. The coalition represents 56 of the nation's largest urban public school systems.