The summer institutes held for the past ten years are held in Minnesota drawing educators nationally and internationally to the annual event. It is an opportunity to learn together with practitioners at the forefront of education equity consciousness.

This Year:  Summer 2021

Join the National Urban Alliance at the University of St. Thomas  in Minneapolis, MN, for three stimulating  days of collaborative professional learning designed for pre-K-12 educators. You will reignite your belief in the potential of every student to achieve while renewing your ability to inspire your students and teach them effectively. All activities will be based on the principles and practices of The Pedagogy of Confidence within the equity-based CLEAR framework to demonstrate how to stimulate high intellectual performance for all students.

• This virtual conference will be conducted via Zoom, 10 am to 3 pm daily (Central Daylight Time)
• Participants will receive 15 CEUs

To sign up for further information and registration at: 
https://institute2021.nuatc.org

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Last Year:  Summer 2020 Virtually

Last Year:  Summer 2020 Virtually
Student Engagement with an Equity Lens
Communication – Collaboration – Creativity – Critical Thinking
Optimizing Equity Conscious Pedagogy through Virtual Learning
In collaboration with University of St. Thomas
Minneapolis, MN,  June 23—25, 2020
Download the NUA Program 2020 Guide (PDF)

Keynotes

• Yvette Jackson
• Gloria Ladson-Billings
• Linda Darling-Hammond
• Eric Cooper
• Kathlene Campbell
• Rev Hillstrom

Overview
National Urban Alliance and University of St. Thomas hosted three exciting days of collaborative professional learning for pre-K-12 educators and leaders. This annual event brought the fullness of NUA’s power of belief  virtual this year due to the pandemic. All keynotes and interactive presentations were based on the principles and practices of The Pedagogy of Confidence within the equity-based CLEAR framework. The focus is on high intellectual performance for all students. Schools are encouraged to send collaborative teams ready to engage with practical critical thinking tools creating a Pedagogy of Confidence for whole school community success and a CLEAR view for equity.

Purpose
The NUA’s mission is to substantiate an irrefutable belief in the capacity of all public school children to achieve the high intellectual performances demanded by our ever changing global community. Our focus is teacher and administrator quality through professional development that incorporates current research from cognitive neuroscience on learning, teaching, and leading. We partner with school districts to support the building of their capacity to advocate community-wide responsibility for realizing the learning potential of its children.

Objectives
Extraordinary learning growth requires extraordinary teaching. The Pedagogy of Confidence model provides educators and leaders belief in their ability to inspire the vast capacity of their students. Rooted in the latest research on culturally responsive teaching, cognition and language development, The Pedagogy of Confidence uses the science of learning to engage, to teach, and to reach every child, and celebrates students’ strengths and builds on them. The unique approach shows educators how to focus on students’ strengths to inspire learning and high intellectual performance by:

• using processes that reveal students’ strengths to build on academic areas that need improvement
• amplifying students’ voices to encourage a growth mindset
• demonstrating culturally responsive lessons in the classroom to show engagement and motivation; reading of complex texts in the content areas; writing in the content areas to show understanding and for self-expression; and vocabulary and comprehension development to construct meaning of nonfiction texts.

Outcomes
NUA’s Professional Learning Model transforms beliefs about students’ academic potential, improves school-based practices, and revamps school structures to create educational climates where all students learn. Increasingly, teachers see students’ backgrounds and cultures as strengths and develop lessons that are relevant to students’ lives. The summer institutes bring together many excellent educators who are the learners and leaders of school success.

See the Complete Summer 2020 Website

Previous Years:  A History
For the past decade National Urban Alliance has been holding Summer Institutes in the Minneapolis region.