We encourage you to share your knowledge by submitting a session proposal for A Dream Deferred 2012. The strength of the conference stems from sessions developed and led by dedicated educators and professionals like you.

Please consider submitting a proposal that showcases trends, new initiatives, effective strategies or best practices that have inspired your African American students. We are especially interested in learning about:

• Raising expectations and academic achievement
• Preparing African American students to enter a global economy
• Education initiatives for African Americans post-baccalaureate
• Involving parents in education
• Attracting and preparing more African American teachers
• Using data to inform instruction
• Implementing testing and accountability measures
• Building partnerships between K-12 schools and higher education institutions
• Effective early education programs
• Innovative teaching strategies
• Leading African American advocacy initiatives
• College programs showing academic success and persistence
• Successful academic programs overcoming budgetary challenges
• Effective higher education recruitment and retention strategies

Preference will be given to proposals for sessions that:

• Highlight programs, services or policies that improve educational access and success for all students.
• Include speakers from multiple institutions and/or regions
• Foster dialogue between educators from different professional areas
• Provide research and data to support claims and document outcomes
• Share best practices

Benefits

As a session leader, you will have an opportunity to:

• Share your knowledge and experiences
• Gather valuable feedback from peers
• Showcase educational partnerships that promote advancement and opportunity
• Help shape the agenda of the College Board and the education community

All proposal submissions are due by October 21, 2011. To submit your proposal online:

1. Follow the conference guidelines and procedures outlined below
2. Submit a proposal by clicking on the link at the top of this page.

Guidelines and Procedures
Please read and follow the proposal submission guidelines. We cannot consider submissions that do not meet these criteria.

• All sessions are scheduled for approximately 60-75 minutes. Plan your session to allow for sufficient question and answer time.
• Submit a proposal only if you have secured funding from your institution to attend the conference and only if you are available to present at any time on April 26-27, 2012.
• Presenters are offered a discounted conference registration fee of $300.
• Presenters are responsible for their own travel and hotel arrangements and expenses.

Writing the Session Description
As you are writing your session description, follow these guidelines:

• Limit the description to no more than 90 words.
• Focus on what participants will be doing, rather than what they will be receiving. Use action words such as "survey," "review," "assess" and "examine" to keep the description centered on the participant experience.
• Write in general terms about the topic, rather than reviewing the entire presentation.
• Emphasize what participants can do with the information and knowledge gained.

Writing Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes are important to help us understand the focus of your session. They also help participants determine which sessions to attend, based on specific needs. In order to develop an effective learning outcome:

• Clearly state and describe the actual skills participants will develop during the workshop, as well as the specific ways the skills can be applied to the participants' work.
• Make your learning outcomes tangible and concrete; they should be observable and assessable, if necessary.

Examples of effective learning outcomes:

• "Participants will learn how to teach analysis of narrative structure through a discussion of an author's intentions."
• "By learning about different assessment methods, participants will develop the skills needed to compare the effectiveness of formative and summative assessments. Participants will then design three formative assessment activities that they can use."
• "After hearing from the panel, participants will develop strategies for identifying faith-based and academic resources in the community, and for getting parents involved in the application process, in order to assist their students."

Other Considerations

To promote a specific product, discuss exhibit or sponsor opportunities, or if you have any questions, please email dreamdeferred@collegeboard.org.

Given time and space constraints, as well as our need to develop a balanced program, we may not be able to accept all exceptional proposals. If your proposal is not accepted for this year's conference, we encourage you to consider submitting a proposal for the 2013 conference.

The conference steering committee will review all proposals. You will be notified of its decision via email in December 2011.