COMMERCE, Texas -- Key stakeholders in the public schools are invited to the Texas Re-Inventing Education Symposium set April 13-15 in Mesquite.

Sponsored by the Texas A&M University-Commerce College of Education and Human Services and the Department of Educational Leadership, the symposium will be in the Hampton Suites and Convention Center, 1700 Rodeo Drive.

Featured consultants/facilitators will be Wendy Battino, executive director of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, and Rick Schreiber, director of Operations for the Coalition.

"Teams" from the public schools, including superintendents, principals, teachers, business partners, parents, and students are invited to attend the symposium.

"We are very pleased to offer a symposium of this caliber to school leaders in the DFW area," said Dr. Michael Copeland, conference director and faculty member in the educational leadership department.

The objective of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition is to create "lighthouse schools" to serve as models for other schools seeking to become the best in meeting the needs of 21st Century students. 

"Numerous attempts through legislation and mandate have attempted to improve public education with little consequence because the current system is obsolete," Copeland said.

Finding the answers to reinventing public education for this new era belongs to the students, their teachers, their parents, and their administrators, he said.

"We must identify new ways to unlock the creativity of educators and concerned stakeholders who view the current system as one that meets the needs of only some students - perhaps less than 50 percent in many cases," Copeland observed.

The purpose of the symposium is to start a dialogue to "thinking differently" about what is possible and to use imagination and collaboration to create a new era of schools where the needs and voice of the student is "truly paramount and has real-time and real-life application."

The symposium will focus on leadership building, shared vision development based on the needs of all stakeholders, a standards-based design implementing "best practices," and a continuous improvement process, which leads to excellence.

Those interested in attending the A&M-Commerce sponsored event need to contact Dr. Joyce Harper at 903-886-5517 or email at joyce_harper@tamu-commerce.edu.