Call for Session Proposals

Proposals accepted through 12 p.m. EDT, June 19, 2023

Download Session Proposal Document Here  | Submit Proposal Here

KASA is accepting education session proposals for its annual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Leadership Summit. The planning team is seeking sessions that explore new and improved ways to tackle issues that educators face every day and bring positive change to the profession and the classroom, through effective Kentucky programs, promising practices, and personal growth.

About the Summit
This leadership summit is an opportunity to share innovations, build community, and collaborate while exploring the importance of DEIB and processes to set priorities at the school and district level. Sessions should go beyond the rhetoric and prioritize strategies to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts in our schools and school communities. This summit is for any school leader who wishes to build diverse, high performing teams that impact all students.

Session Strands:
Sessions for this year's summit should fall within one of the following three strand areas:
                1. Effective Programs in Kentucky
                2. Promising Practices
                3. Personal Growth
 

Goals of the Summit

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The DEIB Leadership Summit will equip and inspire education leaders to:
  1. Identify inclusion and diversity strengths and opportunities
  2. Develop strategies and plans to examine ways in which we include all diverse backgrounds
  3. Systematically examine all aspects of their districts to enhance and ensure its effectiveness and ability to meet the needs of its diverse staff and students
Participants will walk away with:
  1. Tools that can be implemented immediately to lead their district
  2. List of contacts from around the state to network with
  3. Success stories from other districts and how they addressed challenges
This event is designed to build capacity for sustaining the education profession into the future by:
  1. Fostering new collaborations and networks among education leaders
  2. Sourcing new ideas and opportunities from the communities we serve and our colleagues
  3. Influencing how the world sees our field and demonstrating our ability to deliver societal value and impact
 

Guidelines for Submission

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Session Type: 60-minute concurrent education sessions on specific topics that are designed to share knowledge and develop skills and expertise among participants.

Session Title: A brief and descriptive explanation of your session

Session Description: A 75-word description of your session, including a summary of the topic and information that will be provided, takeaways, benefits, or lessons that you expect conference participants to gain. This is the primary element of your proposal that the reviewers will use to evaluate your session.

Session Leaders and Presenters: The accurate names, titles, organizations, and contact information for the people organizing the session, presenting, and facilitating discussions.

Session Strand: One of three session strands that best describes the major content focus of your session and will be used to help conference participants find the content most relevant for them.

Topical Tags: Up to three topical tags provide additional information on the topics discussed within your session. Tags will be used by the reviewers in assessing the range of content across the program and will be searchable by attendees in finding sessions most relevant to them.

Target Audience: Audiences will be used by evaluators to help determine the mix of sessions for attendees at the summit and will be used by attendees to find sessions most appropriate for their leadership development.

Session Format: The session format should be designed to provide the experience and the takeaways desired for your intended audience. Make clear what kind of interaction and engagement will be provided in your session content. The format will help set expectations for what attendees will experience.

For assistance in refining topics or identifying other speakers to add to your session proposal, please contact Kathy Fields (kathy@kasa.org).
 

Session Formats

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Select the format most appropriate for your topic and will best involve the audience to create effective learning opportunities.

Panel:  A session with three to four presenters in a moderated panel discussion, followed by 15-20 minutes of questions and answers. Diverse panels should consider each participating institution's location and setting, size, type, budget, and other diversity factors.

Café (Round Table Discussions): A moderated session that opens with short presentations of three to five minutes per presenter (maximum of three presenters), followed by roundtable discussions that allow the audience and presenters to interact. A session leader articulates the issues and facilitates both the discussion and wrap-up.

The Solution Room: This format is designed to provide peer-supported advice on individuals' most pressing problems within the topic or theme of the session. Each participant is given time to think of a challenge they are facing. Participants are then divided into groups, and each person has a chance to present their problem and have it brainstormed by the group in short cycles lasting five to seven minutes. Groups then share out their solutions and can create a visual that identifies all the challenges.

Hands On, Minds On: This workshop format has participants working together in an interactive session designed to be hands-on and collaborative. While there may be lessons conveyed by the session leader, the emphasis is on facilitated peer-discussion, hands-on activities, and real-world problem solving.