On the Road

On October 30, State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster met with Manufacturing Works, a grassroots effort to address the shortage of skilled manufacturing workers in the Northwest region of Wisconsin, to discuss ways the education community can support the group. Manufacturing Works was formed in 2003 to heighten awareness and explore opportunities for K-12 technical education.

DPI has supported technology and engineering education programs since 1964. Burmaster assured the group that our New Wisconsin Promise continues to support career and technical education as an important educational focus in ensuring the economic success of our state. Burmaster and DPI staff from the Career and Technical Education area met with Manufacturing Works representatives Dan Conroy of Nexen Group, Bob Meyer of UW-Stout, and Gerry Munyon, a retired superintendent now consulting for Manufacturing Works.

Burmaster keynoted the Global Best Practices Conference in Lake Geneva on October 31. The annual conference for faculty and staff from PK-12 and higher education institutions featured discussions on faculty and curriculum development; international education policies and practice; international exchange study and professional development programs for students and faculty; and international teacher preparation.

“We need citizens with the skills and understanding to communicate across their borders, beyond borders, and despite borders. We need citizens who can see through the eyes of another culture,” said Burmaster. “Now, more than ever, as a nation at war, we know the urgency of this vision. This generation is defining what it means to be an American in the world today. We must ensure it is the definition we want, and one that will indeed promote peace and prosperity and the common bond of human dignity.”

That afternoon Burmaster chaired a meeting of the International Education Advisory Council, held following the conference.

On November 1, the state superintendent participated in the Milwaukee Partnership Academy (MPA) Executive Partners meeting in Milwaukee. The MPA is a coalition of education, labor, business, government, university, foundations, and community groups who work to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Milwaukee Public Schools. Executive Partners include representatives of the Helen Bader Foundation, the Greater Milwaukee Committee and their education subcommittee, Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, the Private Industry Council, Cardinal Stritch University, and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

That afternoon, Burmaster welcomed about 300 participants to the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) Fall Conference in Wisconsin Dells. The conference was held by WLA in partnership with the Wisconsin Health Science Library Association. “What you do every day as librarians, library friends, and library trustees is vitally important to everyone in Wisconsin and to the future of our state,” Burmaster told the group. “Libraries are key to education, key to a vibrant culture, a healthy economy, and key to a strong democracy. Wisconsin has a proud tradition of quality libraries of all types—academic, school, public, and special libraries—including the fine health science libraries that are partners in this conference. All of you, and your libraries, contribute to the strength of our state.”

On November 2, Burmaster met with members of the Milwaukee Alliance for Attendance at Cardinal Stritch University. In 2002-03, State Superintendent Burmaster led the Alliance for Attendance Initiative by organizing youth dialogues and key stakeholder meetings in Milwaukee. Based on those meetings, a template for the Alliance was developed to return and keep students in school by building understanding and awareness, using data and resources, sending consistent messages, and implementing an action plan that showed how the community could work together to increase attendance and close the achievement gap. Similar efforts are also underway in the Beloit, Green Bay, Janesville, Kenosha, Madison, Menomonee Indian, and Racine school districts.

Last updated on 11/6/2006