A Conversation with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Roberto Rodríguez

Join us for a fascinating discussion with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, Roberto Rodríguez. Hosted by Glenn Whitman from The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, this session dives into pressing educational issues, innovative policies, and the future landscape of learning. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear insights straight from a key figure in American education and government.

Roberto J. Rodríguez

Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education.

Roberto J. Rodríguez currently serves as Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education, where he leads the development and review of the Department’s budget and advises the Secretary on all matters related to policy development, implementation, and review. Roberto’s distinguished career in public service includes senior government roles in the White House, as Deputy Assistant for Education to President Barack Obama, and in the U.S. Senate, as Chief Counsel to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Most recently, Rodríguez served as President and CEO of Teach Plus where he built an equity-driven teacher leadership movement that engaged thousands of teachers to shape public policy and instructional practice to deliver greater opportunity for students.

Roberto Rodriguez

Session location and time will be published via the Festival App in late September.

Helping Students Regulate Their Own Learning

When children start school, it is completely up to the teacher to see to it that students learn. But as they grow older, they become increasingly responsible for their own learning. They must learn how to read complicated texts independently, and not just for comprehension, but to remember the contents. They must learn to avoid distraction, commit content to memory, take notes, judge when they have studied enough, avoid procrastination, and more. Studies show that most college students use very inefficient strategies for most of these tasks. In this talk I will summarize research from the last twenty years on a subset of these tasks, focusing on practical applications that can be communicated to students so that they can regulate their learning more efficiently.

Prof. Daniel Willingham

Professor, University of Virginia

Daniel Willingham is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1992. Until about 2000, his research focused solely on the brain basis of learning and memory. Today, all of his research concerns the application of cognitive psychology to K-16 education.

He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Why Don’t Students Like School?, and most recently, Outsmart Your Brain. His writing on education has appeared in twenty-three languages.

In 2017 he was appointed by President Obama to serve as a Member of the National Board for Education Sciences.

Daniel-Willingham

Session location and time will be published via the Festival App in late September.