Don’t miss: NYC Schools Chancellor to keynote Race to Deliver Conference

On Tuesday, September 28, some of the best education minds in Delaware and across the country will gather at the University of Delaware for the third-annual Vision 2015 leadership forum, Delaware’s Race to Deliver.

You’ll want to be there for the whole day, and you’ll definitely want to be there for lunch, which will be keynoted by NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, one of the more visible—and controversial—figures in public education today.

Since becoming Chancellor in 2002, he has emphasized the preeminence of school leaders in education reform.  Klein is building and supporting strong school leaders in NYC, who then, in turn, work to hire and retain strong teachers. His goal is to move from a culture of excuse to one of performance.

Klein’s leadership style was inspired by remarks from Theodore Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

It didn’t take long for this tough, “thick skinned” approach to stir up critics in NYC and beyond, particularly when Klein fired teachers and closed schools. In his first several years he waged a battle termed “savage” with Randi Weingarten, then head of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), yet ultimately was able to find common ground with her.  Today, Klein’s debates are with Michael Mulgrew, the new head of the UFT.  What’s at stake is huge: the performance of a district with 1,600 schools, 1.1 million students, and 136,000 employees.  Come hear him speak about his experience on September 28 and find out more for yourself.

Read more about the Race to Deliver conference here.