captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- [applause] >> i would like to report to you that this past year has been a whirlwind of activity as we continue to grow.

bringing support and assistance to you, the members, who have so graciously decided to join us today and for the next few days, with great breakouts from wonderful keynote speakers. certainly, a great opportunity to networking and figure out those best practices, sharing your knowledge with each other. we have done some webinars at low prices, you might want to check those out on our website. we also have a newsletter that has gotten quite a bit of circulation. we invite people to submit articles for that newsletter. about 14 months ago, we have less than 100 members. today we have grown to over 3000

members. established in 2003 to bring greater focus for latino leaders and educational issues. now more than ever in these trying times, the needy exists to further establish partnerships and provide training, and support, for administrators, superintendents, and educators for those that serve hispanic students. my favorite news story [no audio] immigration laws passed, cannot get tomatoes harvested? that was too bad. one of our major goals was to

start a superintendent leadership academy. i am proud to report to you that we are now in almost of the third session, coming up in january there is another one called 17 candidates. they were selected after going through a rigorous process of being identified. administrators, with mostly their assistant directors, principles, they exhibited the passion and commitment needed to provide the skills and knowledge necessary to run schools and school districts across the country. we have 17 of those people. many of them are here today. please stand if you are a charter superintendent leadership academy participant. [applause]

they will be introduced formally tomorrow. they are from new york, california, arizona, just about everywhere you can think of. we expect high expectations. in the second week of the leadership academy, one of ours got hired as a superintendent in monterey, california. we are playing in service to that. what do you think of that? [applause] for those of you interested, we are taking applications.

there is more information about the second, beginning one year from now. i would like to acknowledge our leadership sponsors this year. leadership world and htc. give them a round of applause. [applause] we are greatly indebted to them. this year, we are also sponsored by promethean. please help me welcome the vice president of marketing for prometheus. [applause] >> well, good afternoon. one word comes to mind. courageous. courageous is the word that i used to describe the work that

alas is leaving and we are proud to support. you have demonstrated to courage and advocation for this nation and more -- most historically underserved. especially in these economic times. you are this nation's greatest hope as we educate children into the future of this nation. we are passionate about education and are delighted to continue our support and commitment for alas. we were the first to say yes to the leadership academy. we listened, responded, and learn from you. we are in the middle of a transformational. . -- period.

achievement for all students is our common goal. regardless of background, nationality, language, or economic status. promethean and the mexican government are collaborating opportunities to deepen, strengthen, and improve primary and secondary education in mexico. the possibility of sharing real time space information for support of student learning, regardless of their location. this summer, the power of the math program by an indiana delivered a dynamic learning environment determined by individual students' learning progression. imagine, real time assessments and the real time intervention

for every student. gone are the days where education technology was about boxes and wires. today it is about learning outcomes. about deeper explorationtogethee classroom and we can change the world. thank you for your courageous leadership, and i hope you enjoy this summit. [applause] >> we have a very special guest, carlos garcia is here to introduce our special guest. carlos. >> good afternoon. it is really a pleasure to move the schedule to accommodate this great man.

truly a pleasure, because we have made him an honorary latino, even though he is the first asian member -- mayor of the city of san francisco. [applause] he is one of hours. honorable mayor lee was appointed to be the mayor and started his term in january, not too long ago. not too long ago he decided -- the community decided he was doing a good job, and everyone decided to push him -- he is a worker bee. he was an administrator in the city in three and a lot of different apartmendepartments aa great job. when the board of supervisors appointed him to be the interim mayor, little did we know he would do such a great job that there was a community out for. so be signed started to appear that said run, ed run.

i am not taking sciensides becai work for everyone as a superintendent, but it has been a real honor and privilege working with the mayor who knows what work needs to happen to get things done. it is not just go for the photo op, but rolls up his sleeves and knows what it takes it has the will to work with us in a school district to say every child in siemenses go is my child. it is different to work in the city were the major use the children of differences go as his children. he wants to be partners with us. once to be -- the amount of investment that the city and county of san francisco give to our school district is millions and millions of dollars. without those funds we could not

do half of the programs we do that bring families together, provide public services for them, and integrate all the services to the other so we're working together and smarter, even in this tough economy to make things right. in addition to that come each year for the past three years we have been fortunate. the mayor and the board of supervisors has given the rainy bail fund to bail out the school district. we have been making cuts, and yet they have stepped up the city to say here is the rainy day fund, use it wisely and use it to keep our children better the most important thing in san francisco state and what a great education. i could go on for days, because this gentleman deserves that, but it is an honor and a privilege to invite our honored guest, edwin lee, the mayor of san francisco. [applause]

>> thank you, carlos. and i did not get pushed to come here. i ran to come here. and iran to come here because i am so enthusiastic. we have a lot of things to work on and celebrate. how many of you are dreamers? this week we got something really big to celebrate. the california dream act was signed by the governor. what about wonderful? [applause] in my previous life, and you know this as a fact, i used to be a civil rights attorney before i started working in government, and it means so much, especially now since carlos and i are from is burt -- immigrant families, and now we have to be leaders of immigrant families to seek good legislation and promises that really start filling the challenges of our youth.

not to be able to fill the stream all over the country is the incredible challenge we have before us. we made a great statement in the state of california. i want to make sure we build on that. that is why i came here today. i rushed to make sure i congratulate all of you to be part of alas, which means wings. people will take off because of what you do with us. i want to make sure you enjoy yourself while you are here because we brought the sun for you as well. i know you are all here to join government leaders at all different levels to really get going on innovative ideas, best practices, because guess what, besides new york, besides florida, texas, california is next. 25% of the population of kids will be latino.

we have to get an agenda forward. we have to make sure we're filling the gaps. that is what we've been doing here in san francisco. that is why i have loved working for carlos, in my education adviser is the school board president and works as have my office. county is that? the school board president right next to you, because any other programs that are rolling out every other month --. -- how neat is that? the most exciting days i have is when i can get to the classroom in see the kids in gauge with their teachers and know they are getting agitated. the00- they are getting educated. do you know about the million dollar club? that is the difference between

the kids that graduate from high school looking for a job, and the child goes all the way to college. it is a million-dollar difference in their career at how much they can earn. do you want to join the million- dollar club? what is san francisco doing about it? we're supporting every new initiative weekend find to do this. beginning with kindergarten. we have our treasurer creating college funds for kids in canada earn in debt immigrant families, aimed at kids that are on the meals program so they and their parents can start college funds when the kids are and in the garden. that is innovation. that is a commitment all the way to education. we have to do that across country. that is what is going to reflect the commitment we have in education that you want to do. i want to come right we all of you for coming here --

congratulate you for coming here for joining us and the industrial leaders to challenge as to the 21st century needs of our kids. i am so excited, because i know you will come out with even better ideas, and i will be in the position as mayor of san francisco, along with carlos, to help promote the idea is you have. i will use the position of san francisco mayor to talk about what we can do across the country, the federal government, every area of the country, and be a shining beam every way we can be, because we have to have hope in this country. everyone is filled with so much frustration. you have occupied this and that. i can hear that frustration. i can join with them and that, but we also ought to have hope and programs that work. this is why educators are coming in, because i will pick up on you to get hold of the best ideas coming out. how can we support the

professional educators doing their job even better? for the hispanic kids across the country and a growing population, we can do even better. we have double digit did our performance just because of carlos' focus on how we can fill those gaps. -- double digited our performance. i am excited about doing that. i am excited about your capacity building. promoting a of best practices, transforming of educational institutions. california will be the next large state where by 2025 latino children will make up 25% of our school age population. we have to do this for ourselves. that is why i am proud to be a mayor of a great diversity of immigrants. everybody is an immigrant in san francisco. everybody came from someplace

else, and we're very proud to put that in our -- on our sleeves. we are proud they speak more than one language. and that is fantastic. [applause] you have to speak more than one language. that is our strength. that is where we will prove to the rest of the country we can do it better right here in unite everyone. we can be dreamers all across the country, and not just complainers. we will pull up our own bootstraps and show people how we can do it, and i want to do that with all of you in san francisco and here in the state of california. they do to the association of latino and a streeters and superintendents for well, bridget for recognizing the importance of this topic, and i want to just signal, by recognizing alas by producing what we can do here, our

certificate of honor. let me present this to the president, as well. this is to your convening here this october 12, 2011, to the association of latino administrators and superintendent. congratulations. [applause] do not go yet, carlos. he will be busy with you all day tomorrow, and we are celebrating latino heritage month in city hall. he will not be able to join us over there. and i know how carlos so much deserves this, but i want to say it is fun of working with you. you are not only talented, your staff is dedicated, you have gotten the school district focused on things that we had to be focused on. the improvement in that performance is there. we're giving hope to all of our parents from all the things we're doing together. we're europe -- we are uniting the city in ways which we never

imagined for so long. it is just another confirmation that we're having this great movement come together in california. i want to recognize you for your great leadership. i know you started this organization, and you are still leading it. and i know it will have a lot of soul and great ideas coming out of it, so i want to give you a personal to ticket of honor to recognize your leadership. think you very much. -- thank you very much. [applause] >> one good deed deserves another, and we have this beautiful crystal we would like to give you for honoring us today and being here with us on this great summit. thank you very much, and keep up the great work, mayor. >> think you. -- thank you. [applause] >> wow, did that get your blood

running a little bit? give him a hand to the mayor as he walks out of the room. i have heard a lot of wellcome's in my career, but that has to be one of the best. this man is so committed. i have never met him in my life, but it makes the heart flutter a little bit. let's continue. ray rodriguez, i know you're in the room. would you please come up and say a few words?

you are not ray rodriguez. he looks like rodriguez to me. >> hi, everyone. ray was kind enough to send me up here to say thank you. by the way, how often you get to follow the superintendent and mayor of san francisco all at once? that is pretty rare and a pretty special evening. what i was most touched about, carlos, and mr. mayor if you're still anywhere in earshot, is the amazing partnership that is taking place here in the city of san francisco. i think it is through partnerships that all the great things have happened and have emerged. my name is john simon.

we thank you for allowing us to be your partners. we have been here with you from the very beginning, and we are incredibly proud of your work in growth. your membership has swelled to a tremendous numbers, and it will keep growing, because the work you do, and partnerships you form that helped to power this organization, and it would help power our organization, because it is through your work that we learn and are informed about what we do. i have been in education 20 years myself. it is incredibly important to me, because it is not my vocation, it is also my application. i have three children. we love it. we are incredibly proud of the program. and of all of our kids, of course. it is this time right now where

we're seeing a transition from state to common standards, from print to digital, from delivering content, delivering learning in one setting to a hybrid model and to blend in learning to online. it is this time of transition from a state categorical funding and rules and regulations to a much more flexible and dynamic world that presents incredible opportunities, but incredible challenges for us. it is through the partnership that we will figure out a way through this and create a better way. we are incredibly proud of you, alas. more than anything, i want to say thank you. thank you for your work and allowing us to partner with you, and keep up a great work. [applause] >> thank you, john.

you are better looking than re anyway. just kidding. i am going to be in trouble here. i think he may have seen on the front cover of our program that the summit this year is in collaboration with two great organizations. one is the california association of latino superintendents and administrators, and the council of chief state school officers. those organizations help to identify speakers. you will see on the program some of the breakout sessions are labeled. they are open to anyone. by pooling our resources, we were able to get some really great speakers, and we're proud of the association we have with those organizations. i would like to ask the current council president to please come to the podium and say a few words. [applause]

>> process. -- gracias. welcome. it is my pleasure to welcome all of you. the association has been in existence for a little over 20 years. what we focus on is eliminating the achievement gap, and we do that by developing fantastic latino leaders. we do that by the mentoring program. we have a summer institute every year, and we have conclave research to practice to look at ideas and affected practices that help us in our classrooms and at our schools to eliminate the achievement gap. i also want to thank each and everyone of you for being here. and i know you have a lot of passion, it is great to see you all here. but that is not enough. we need to have the confidence,

the knowledge-base of what best practices really help our students to eliminate the achievement gap, and that is why we are here. i commend alas for putting this together. it has been our pleasure to help collaborate for this summit. thank you, and i will see you here in the next few days. enjoy it, learn, and have a lot of fun. [applause] >> thank you very much. i would like to invite sharon from the program director for standard assessment and accountability to come up you will not call ray rodriguez on the are you? i've never met you before. i am glad you are you. >> thank you. i am very excited to be in a

room where i am not the only latino. it is very nice. awesome. although we are growing, even in washington. i would like to think you on behalf of the council of achieve school officers. i think it is very fitting that we are here today, because as we launch and have our states implementing the standard, which i am sure you all love, it is very important that we are listening, and also working in collaboration with your leadership and expertise and knowledge. you are really at the heart of how we're going to ensure that latinos are in the middle of the conversation this time, not on the side streets. we are not retrofitting this anymore. we are there. your le