The USC Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa is pleased to announce that the speaker for the 47^th Annual Emery Stoops Lecture Dinner is Dr. Angel Barrett, principal of Plummer Elementary School in North Hills and the California 2009 National Distinguished Principal. Dr. Barrett came to Plummer in 1999 as an assistant principal when the school was among the lowest-performing elementary school in LAUSD. Since becoming principal, Barrett has transformed the learning culture of her school by implementing professional learning communities aimed at closing the achievement gap and improving outcomes for the students at her school, 100 percent of which qualify for free or reduced priced lunch. Under her leadership, Plummer teachers helped raise its API score nearly 500 points, which has led to the school being exited from Program Improvement for under-performing Title I schools. Prior to coming to Plummer, Barrett served as the coordinator for the district magnet schools program and was a teacher at Euclid Avenue Bilingual Gifted/High Ability Magnet School in Boyle Heights. Barrett received her Ed.D. in educational leadership from the University of California, Los Angeles and her master’s in education from California State University, Los Angeles.

The Emery Stoops Lecture Dinner, established in 1964, is an annual event for the USC Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa (PDK), the largest professional society of educators in the world. Dr. Emery Stoops, who lived to see his 106^th birthday and passed away in spring 2009, was a longtime elementary teacher and administrator for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He joined Phi Delta Kappa in 1932 and rose through the ranks to become president of the USC Chapter in 1936 and then also the first president of PDK International from 1954-56. After earning his doctoral degree from USC, Dr. Stoops joined the USC School of Education faculty in 1970 and chaired over 125 dissertations for Ph.D. students in the urban leadership program in his 17 years with the university. Dr. Stoops was also known for his generous philanthropy, establishing numerous fellowships for graduate study in education at USC and with PDK and endowing the Dean’s Chair at the USC Rossier School of Education, currently held by Dr. Karen Symms Gallagher.

This year’s USC Phi Delta Kappa Emery Stoops Lecture Dinner will be held on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at the USC University Club (formerly the Faculty Center). To RSVP for the event, please contact Lisa Regan, Chapter President, at lisa.regan@lausd.net or visit the USC Phi Delta Kappa website at http://www.pdk-usc.org.

     Flash forward to this past spring. Similar scenario. Mired deep in recession, California found itself facing not only an unforgiving and impossible job market, but the seemingly unthinkable: slashed public education funding. Teaching becomes just one of many careers that Americans thought would never undergo massive layoffs through reduction in force, and over 3,000 teachers were “RIFed” in Los Angeles County alone. So with rising class sizes and decreased funding and staffing, how can we, as Kappans, lead our schools into the 21^st century and improve student achievement for all?

     I am honored that our membership has selected me as its president during these unprecedented times, and I thank you for the opportunity. But as Robert Browning once wrote, “Progress is the law of life.” Therefore, our theme for this year is “Teaching, Leading, and Learning in a Time of Change.” Borrowing from two of the leaders in modern management thinking, Peter Drucker and Peter Senge, our theme stems from a need to foster creativity and innovation and march onward toward progress even with these difficult circumstances. Just as Drucker and Senge point out, this time of change requires all school leaders to focus on and invest in opportunities rather than problems, preserve institutional values that are at the heart of any great school, continue to build trust, and attract and motivate the highest-caliber professionals—our dedicated teachers, counselors, administrators, and support staff. Our cadre of 2009-10 PDK-USC Dinner Meeting speakers, our March Dinner Research Panel Discussion, and all of our programs will reflect this theme throughout the year.