CollabTalk

What Are CollabTalks?

CollabTalks are interactive zoom meetings hosted by Urban Collaborative and a guest presenter on an issue or barrier that the speaker has worked to remove in their schools to ensure equitable access to all students. If you would like to attend these live, click the button below to see our upcoming CollabTalks!

Upcoming CollabTalks

Prior CollabTalks

This session will focus on understanding that the desegregating of systems must also involve the desegregating of ourselves. The history of racial hierarchy established the rationale for segregation and in order to desegregate ourselves there needs to be a simultaneous removal of its vestiges from systems and our social/cultural behaviors of cross-cultural interactions or who we hang out with and why. This workshop will involve providing educators
1) a framework of racial hierarchy premised on Whiteness that has created a standard cultural lens for understanding cognitive abilities, social identities (e.g., gender, sex, sexuality, class, race), behavioral abilities, etc.;
and 2) a framework of cross-cultural skill develop to interrupt that standard cultural lens.

The Center for Change in Transition Services (CCTS) is Washington state’s technical assistance center for secondary transition planning and post-school outcome data. CCTS team members Meg Iyer, Elaine Marcinek, and Jay Shepherd share an overview of CCTS’s training materials and tools for transition, highlighting the T-Folio transition curriculum.

Join us for a conversation with David Adams, Chief Executive Officer at Urban Assembly. David started with the Urban Assembly in 2014 as the Director of Social-Emotional Learning, where he created the Resilient Scholars Program (RSP), a unique approach to integrating SEL into curriculum and classroom practices across the Urban Assembly network.In this engaging discussion with David, he covers social emotional learning in the age of AI, and how to focus on the skills that matter with students. Don’t miss out on this dynamic discussion!

Join us for a conversation with Stacey Heiligenthaler, Chief Officer of Special Education and Student Supports at Greenwich Public Schools. Greenwich Public Schools was found to be significantly disproportionate by the Connecticut State Department of Education in 2022. Through a systematic district approach in determining eligibility, including comprehensive assessment, consideration of all possible disabilities, and understanding of state eligibility guidelines, the District was able to decrease it disproportionality and found to be in compliance and within state guidelines in 2023. This video will share the disproportionality data and the specific approaches used.

Join Gretchen Shipley from F3 Law as she covers the emerging field of AI in Special Education, from accommodation requests to assistive technology. She dives into best practices for reviewing and adopting tools that incorporate AI; shows you how to safeguard student data and confidential communications; and breaks down the ins and outs of parental consent. Don’t miss out on this dynamic discussion!

Join Facing History & Ourselves to discuss how did we as a society arrive at this place of profound educational inequity, and what can we do about it as educators? Jeremy Nesoff will give an overview of Facing History & Ourselves Teaching for Equity & Justice (TEJ) program that focuses on educator mindsets and strengthens school and district approaches to building a culture where everyone thrives. Their approach begins with an examination of self. Through interactive pedagogy, educators examine historical access to and the purpose of education. With that historical context, they explore current systems of inequity. The shifts in policies and practices that they encourage lead to more equitable student interactions and outcomes.

Join Think College and Urban Collaborative for discussion about access to college for students with intellectual disability. This is an opportunity to hear from experts across the country about supporting successful transitions for students with intellectual disability from secondary education into higher education. Filmmaker Dan Habib of the Westchester Institute for Human Development will facilitate the panel, along with other expert panelists.

Join us for webinar with Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad to dive into culturally and historically responsive literacy. Dr. Muhammad is the author of the best-selling book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, and her Culturally and Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across thousands of U.S. schools and districts across Canada.

Join us for a discussion with Dwaine Millard, from Scholastic, and Christian Adair, from Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, discussing the power of mentorship as a strategy to build equity in school/community partnerships. They highlight how literacy and books can be used as a platform to empower students, families, and volunteers. We will also discuss a mentorship initiative that builds a culture of inclusion using literacy and the power of story that provides an opportunity to engage all students.

In this CollabTalk we discuss children who have experienced trauma and the unique challenges in their personal and academic lives. Stephanie Morgan- Harris, Kankakee School District 111 Supervisor of Student Support Services, proposes a professional development program to equip educators and school staff with strategies to build resilience in children who have experienced trauma.

Join us for a discussion with Lela Rondeau, the Administrative Coordinator of Instruction for the Los Angeles Unified School District's Division of Special Education! Students with disabilities (SWDs) often struggle to reclassify from being English learners to fluent English proficient – California has an assessment that students need to pass to be reclassified. LAUSD has an alternate reclassification method through the IEP team decision, using the state’s requirements in which the team distinguishes between language acquisition and processing deficits. Learn more about how IEP teams make this decision in this CollabTalk.