Prepare to be challenged as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, helps teachers, school leaders, and other stakeholders take a critical look at what they are doing to improve student learning -- and why so many fail to implement proven practices. Ladson-Billings also will present an analysis of the Effective Schools literature as a template for teachers and school leaders to implement proven, school-based best practices.

Ladson-Billings was President of the American Educational Research Association in 2005-06, and her research on the pedagogical practices of teachers who are successful with African-American students has won numerous scholarly awards. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African-American Children, which addresses the issues of educational incongruity in teaching African-American children in the 21st Century, and Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms.