Since 2005, the America’s Best Urban Schools Symposium has been the backbone of the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST).  Even then, we knew how important it was to celebrate the amazing work of principals, teachers, support staff, and entire communities who were coming together to create fantastic learning opportunities for students.  We believed it was essential to help others throughout the country know and understand that Black students, Latinx students, English learners, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families can achieve remarkable academic results and evidence their learning in a multitude of authentic ways.  As well, we knew it was just as important to create opportunities for educational leaders (including teacher leaders, principals, district leaders, and other service providers) to come together and learn about the factors that influenced the successful pursuit of educational excellence and equity in elementary, middle, and high schools.  Today, we continue to believe that the America’s Best Urban Schools Symposium is one of the most important aspects of our service to public education in this nation.

Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced public schools to move outside their comfort zone and explore different ways of connecting with and serving their students, the pandemic is prompting NCUST to move outside our comfort zone and explore different ways of delivering our America’s Best Urban Schools Symposium.  Our 2020 Symposium cannot be conducted in a way that will adequately ensure the safety of the wonderful educators we wish to celebrate and serve.  However, the America’s Best Urban Schools Symposium is NOT cancelled.  We are planning to expand our virtual capabilities in ways that will make the event accessible to thousands more educators throughout the nation.  We are committed to making this our best symposium ever! 

We will host a virtual celebration in March of 2021 consisting of both recorded and live sessions.  We envision school teams making use of this rich trove of content as professional development tools.  We anticipate educators feeling invigorated as they hear from teachers who serve students similar to their own share teaching practices that have made a powerful difference in helping their students understand complex concepts.  We know leaders in schools across the nation will be inspired as they hear our award-winning principals describe how they overcame the challenges that frustrate so many leaders who serve low-income, diverse communities.   We are convinced that educators across the nation will love having the opportunity to ask questions and engage in dialogue with educators who have achieved results similar to the results they hope to emulate.  We anticipate that thousands of leaders will be both informed and inspired by the words of our amazing keynote presenters.

Over the past 15 years, we have learned that educators in America’s Best Urban Schools never give up!  They persist because they believe their students deserve the very best!  Accordingly, NCUST will not give up because we believe you deserve the very best.  We want you to succeed in creating wonderful schools where all students achieve academic proficiency, evidence a love of learning, and graduate well prepared to succeed in post-secondary education, the workplace, and their communities.  We want you to succeed because ALL of America’s children deserve the very best.  Please stay tuned for more details as we redefine and recreate America’s Best Urban Schools Symposium.