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Networking Feedback From AERO Conference

Ed: This week we asked people on the AERO Conference listserve to send us some short examples of the results of networking for them at the AERO Conference. Here are a few examples:


At the Portland AERO conference, I was talking with an alumna of Goddard College who told me how great Goddard was. As a parent of a young person who was at that time considering post-secondary options, I was interested to hear more. It had been my understanding that Goddard was a college for older students. She let me know that although Goddard had focused on older students in the past, it was now reaching out to those of a traditional college age and advised me to talk with the person representing the college at the Goddard table. I went to the circle of tables for the different colleges later that day and talked with the school's representative, Karen Stupski. I asked her about Goddard for my daughter and, after hearing about my daughter's accomplishments as an unschooler, said that she was just the type of student Goddard was looking for. 
 
The AERO conference was at the beginning of August that year. By the beginning of September, my daughter was accepted into the Individualized Bachelor of Arts program at Goddard. She is now in her second year and loves it! As someone who has devoted their career to alternative education, I have never known such devoted and exceptional faculty as those at Goddard. And if it weren't for networking at AERO, I would have never thought that Goddard was an option.
 
Carol

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I attended the AERO conference in Portland, Oregon in 2016. At that conference I connected with people from Village Free School in Portland. I ended up doing a staff internship at Village Free School for the school year. A fantastic experience! I also connected with people from the ALC network at that conference. I have been helping support Free To Learn ALC this year. Great things came as a result from the community connections I created with people from all over the US and the world, thanks to the conference.

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In my many years of attending AERO events, I have had the good fortune of networking with amazing people that have led to long-lasting friendships, connections and future endeavors. Two of many examples I could cite are being lucky enough to meet David Marshak from the Self Design Graduate Institute   which ultimately resulted in my becoming a faculty member, and meeting many folks from The New School and The School Around Us in Maine which also led to becoming a member of The New School. I also remember at one the AERO events I attended meeting the youth and Ken Danford from North Star Teens and being profoundly impacted by their stories of transformation. ( Ed: Ken Danford will be a speaker at this year's conference) .
 
Over the years I have had the distinct honor to meet and speak with Sir Ken Robinson, Sugata Mitra, Alfie Kohn, John Taylor Gatto, Peter Gray, Jonothan Kozol, Zoe Reddhead and many, many others.  
 
The highlight for me, of course, was meeting Jerry and being given the opportunity to become more involved with AERO. Most recently at last years conference, the stars aligned and I met Jenai Fitzpatrick and Cath Fraise from Workspace Education in Bethel, CT.   It would have been enough just to have met them and learn about what they're doing but it didn't stop there. This connection led to the Workspace community hosting the AEROx Regional Conference .  
 
I could spend days writing about all the connections I have been lucky enough to make through AERO. I place such a high value on the connections I have made to what I call "the AERO family," and in large part, this is due to the AERO conference.   PB
 
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I met someone at AERO and wound up working at their school, in this case the director of a Charter school in California. Whilst I don't think she came to AERO looking for staff members, you could say that it allowed her to meet people of an alternative education mindset that her regular staff hiring process certainly did not.

To register for the AERO Conference go HERE.
To see some of the more economical possibilities see the article below.
See this Apple anti-homework ad. Let us know what you think! We'll post your comments in the next newsletter.
The Best Registration Deals for the AERO Conference

We are announcing new features for the AERO Conference all the time and several more are in the pipeline. For example, later this week we'll announce a special life coaching for students by a life coach coming from Oregon with a lot of his constituents. But the price is going up as we get closer to the conference, June 28-July 1 at LIU/Post Campus. .

The registration rate for the AERO Conference is $250 , eventually to go up to $350. We do have a special rate for low income attendees of $200 , and another good choice is to get a package deal of registration and a single room or shared room in the dorms at Long Island University/Post. The student rate is still only $175 , and this includes college and university students. The rate for children under 12 is $100 , including childcare. Contact us directly for any special needs or group rates.

See new workshop posts  here .  

Click here  to see some of the the major features of this year's regular AERO Conference in June

  
You can register for the AERO Conference  HERE . A  deposit  can hold this rate.  
Test Boycotts Top 50% on LI as Large Opt-outs Continue

Ed:
This week Newsday, Long Island’s newspaper, reported that Long Island is again the epicenter of the incredible opt-out movement. Think about it: Over 85,000 Long Island students opted out of the testing required of all public schools in New York State. That is 51%! This is an unprecedented expression of civil disobedience. We just wish the parents could see beyond the horrendous testing to the basic flaws in the system that created them.

There are 38 schools in New York State that have been exempt for decades from some of this testing. They are part of New York Performance Standards Consortium .

I contacted one of them to find out more about this. I called the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca, a public alternative started 44 Years ago by Dave Lehman, one of this year’s AERO keynote speakers . He was one of the key people who helped create the Consortium .

The school said they are exempt from almost all of the New York State Regents tests at the high school level. They are working on becoming exempt from the currently mandated tests on the middle school level.

They also don’t give grades.

Instead they do portfolio assessment of all students, a narrative based on the work that each student does. It turns out that colleges really appreciate that and that students at the Lehman school have no trouble at all getting into the colleges of their choice. The principal, Diane Carruthers, said that, in fact, portfolio assessment gave them “a leg up” on other applicants.

Other schools are trying to get into the Consortium. From its website it said that the Commissioner of Education at the time encouraged the creation of the Consortium when he realized that students in these schools were far out-performing other students.

At the AERO Conference we will also have a book launch of Lehman’s new book about the creation of the school, A Principal’s Notebook. --JM

See Newsday article below:

More than half of eligible students on LI boycotted the state English Language Arts test this week — a continuation of high opt-outs despite state efforts to win back students and their parents by shortening the exams. Local school leaders say the pattern of resistance, established over several years, will be hard to break unless the state makes dramatic changes .
Nation’s Report Card Shows Improvements in States with Student-Centered Policies
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data released today show mixed results nationally with strong improvements in Florida and other states that are embracing and faithfully implementing student-centered policies.

See the results here .
Free-range Parenting Law Eyed Around U.S. after Utah Gets Buzz
Ed: This story features Lenore Skenazy, who was a memorable AERO keynote speaker.

After Utah passed the country's first law legalizing so-called free-range parenting, groups in states from New York to Texas are pushing for similar steps to bolster the idea that supporters say is an antidote for anxiety-plagued parents and overscheduled kids .
Rick Hess & His 3Rs National Tour
By John Merrow

I knew he had a tour scheduled, because he ended his ‘apology’ article by suggesting that he is the guy who can set things right: “It’s time for the reformers, funders, and pundits to ask ourselves how we’ve contributed to a culture that’s heavy on cheerleading and light on skepticism — and how to find a better balance going forward . ”  
Florida Students Walk Out to Protest Teens Killed by Gun Violence in Liberty City
In Florida, students at Miami Northwestern Senior High School held a walkout on Monday to protest gun violence and to mourn the deaths of a current and former student killed in a shooting in Liberty City over the weekend. Seventeen-year-old Kimson Green and 18-year-old Rickey Dixon were both killed. Two others were wounded. Liberty City is about 40 miles south of Parkland, Florida, the site of the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which killed 17 people—14 students and three faculty.
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