Dr. Robert Marzano will be a featured speaker at the NMSA conference in Indy.  To my knowledge, it will be his first appearance for NMSA and it will be a very welcome one. Dr. Marzano will be doing two sessions, one of which is called "The Art and Science of Teaching." 

In his other session, he will be presenting his latest research that involves "Engaging Students Through Technology."  We should have called it "Improving Student Achievement Using Technology."  It is difficult to summarize in-depth research in a sentence or two, but I have listened to Dr. Marzano discuss this research and I have read the preliminary report.  When properly utilizing a classroom adequately equipped with technology, teachers with minimal teaching experience can expect a 16 percentile gain in academic achievement.  A teacher with 10 or more years of teaching experience who has utilized the technology for 2 years or more and utilizes it for 75-80% of classroom instruction time can expect a 29 percentile gain in academic achievement!  Impressive stuff.

Please don't miss Dr. Marzano's sessions.  They alone will be worth the price of admission.

Personal note: the fact that Dr. Marzano's study utilized the Promethean ActivClassroom system is a double bonus as Promethean is a collaborative sponsor of NMSA and tremendous supporter of our 21st Century Classroom.