Willard Daggett

Willard Daggett is the founder and chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education and one of the most influential voices in American education reform. He is recognized worldwide for his ability to move preK-12 education systems toward more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students.

The Champion of Rigor and Relevance

Dr. Daggett has spent decades helping states and hundreds of school districts transform their educational practices. His Rigor/Relevance Framework has become one of the most widely used tools in American education for ensuring that academic standards are both challenging and connected to real-world application. Before founding ICLE, he held leadership positions at the New York State Education Department and has advised government officials and education leaders across the country. He has also worked extensively with business and industry leaders on career readiness and workforce development.

Preparing Students for the Knowledge Economy

Daggett’s work bridges the gap between what schools teach and what the economy demands, helping educators prepare students for careers in a rapidly changing world. His keynotes deliver powerful insights on building rigor and relevance in education, preparing students for the knowledge economy, leadership strategies for school transformation, and the practices that distinguish the highest-performing schools from the rest.

Preparing Students for the 21st Century

The skills, knowledge, and attitudes today’s learners bring to our schools and the skills, knowledge, and attitudes they will need to be successful in the technological, globally driven world in which they will live and work have changed dramatically. Dr. Daggett will describe what schools must do to prepare students for their future rather than our past.

Leading Change During Challenging Times — Lessons Learned from Our Nation’s Most Rapidly Improving Schools

Three evolving challenges are about to accelerate simultaneously, causing the perfect storm for K-12 education. Dr. Daggett will describe the implications of 1) the Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Assessments, and teacher evaluation systems, and how they will fundamentally change what and how we must teach; 2) the increasing financial pressure that schools will be forced to deal with; and 3) the challenges/opportunities that emerging technologies and tech-savvy students will pose for all K-12 educators. He will then provide a snapshot of how the nation’s most rapidly improving schools provide solutions to these complex challenges.

Creating a Culture of High Expectations

The nation’s most rapidly improving schools have created a culture of high expectations for all students, not simply because of the pending demands of the Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Assessments, and new teacher evaluation requirements, but rather because they understand the need to prepare their students for our increasingly technological, globally competitive society. Dr. Daggett will explain the imperative for high expectations and provide suggestions on how schools can achieve them.

Creating Systemwide Focus on Effectiveness and Efficiency — The Daggett System for Effective Instruction

To improve student performance, especially during times of declining financial resources, the nation’s most rapidly improving schools have found that it is essential to align priorities and initiatives, and work of all levels of the system, from classroom to school to district; around instructional effectiveness. The design of the Daggett System for Effective Instruction incorporates the best practices in these schools and is based on an extensive review of research and a deep understanding of what schools can reasonably afford and reasonably impact. Dr. Daggett will describe the system and specific tools and strategies that schools can use to improve the performance of all students, even during times of declining financial resources.

Preparing for the Challenges and Opportunities of the Common Core State Standards

Over the next few years, schools will face a series of challenges and opportunities that will have a major impact on both students and teachers. Fueled by moving to the Common Core State Standards and, more importantly, new assessments tied to these standards, schools must make a fundamental shift in both what is taught and how it will be taught. Students will be assessed on standards that are far more rigorous and much more applied than in the past; therefore teachers will need to match their instruction to those higher levels of rigor and relevance. Dr. Daggett will lay out why these changes are being made, the impact they will have on curriculum and instruction, and ways that the nation’s most rapidly improving schools develop and use a blueprint to meet the challenges successfully.

Rigor and Relevance for ALL Students

Highly successful schools have academically rigorous curricula that also incorporate real-world relevance. These schools understand that rigor, while essential, is not adequate to lead all students to high levels of achievement. Dr. Daggett will provide an in-depth look at the Rigor/Relevance Framework®, created by the International Center for Leadership in Education, which has become a cornerstone of curriculum and instruction throughout the country and abroad. Two additional Rs, which are also critical to maximizing student success, will be described: relationships between student and teacher, student and student, and teacher and teacher, and opportunities for reflective thought on what is being taught and learned.

Teacher Evaluation – Take Control or Be Controlled

Over the next two years, the most intensely debated issue in and around our schools will be teacher evaluations. Pending federal legislation will require it, governors are calling for it, and the media are embracing it. As educators we can either take control of the teacher evaluation process or be controlled by external demands. Dr. Daggett will highlight essential considerations that will ensure teacher evaluations focus on instructional improvement. Specific strategies to meet school and district goals through a teacher evaluation system will also be identified.

CTE at a Crossroads

For both academic education and career and technical education, the next few years will be “the best of times” or “the worst of times.” The last decade has presented great challenges for all educators, brought about first by No Child Left Behind and now by Race to the Top, coupled with dramatic changes in the workplace. Dr. Daggett will describe how outstanding programs have responded to the challenges by well preparing students for academic and workplace success by making CTE and academic education a seamless system.

Literacy Across the Curriculum

Both the workplace and postsecondary education are demanding higher levels of literacy. This reality is behind the higher expectations that underpin the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Assessments. Meeting these demands means literacy must become a bell-to-bell responsibility of all educators. Dr. Daggett will describe the nation’s most rapidly improving schools’ best practices for driving literacy across the curriculum.