Detroit School Brings Home Top National Renaissance(R) Conference Award
25 March 2004 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Detroit School Brings Home Top National Renaissance(R) Conference
Award MADISON, Wis., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Recognized for their
"outstanding student achievement," Harms Elementary School, located
in Detroit, Mich., was awarded the Dreamers Wakethe Nation Award at
the fifth annual National Renaissance Conference. The Dreamers Wake
the Nation Award is the top recognition handed out at the annual
event. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001108/RENAISSANCELOGO ) The
National Renaissance Conference, which was held March 16-19 in
Orlando, Fla., is hosted once a year by Renaissance Learning(R),
Inc., a leading provider of learning information systems and school
improvement programs for pre-K-12 schools. Accepting the award for
Harms Elementary was Principal Patricia Diaz, who has been with
Detroit Public Schools for thirty-one years. She has been the
Principal at Harms Elementary for the past six years and has
previously been honored as "Outstanding Principal." Unlike the
majority of Detroit schools put on the Michigan failing schools
list, Harms Elementary continues to improve in both reading and
math. "We're an 80 percent Hispanic school with limited English
proficient students," says Diaz, "and yet we have had
incrediblesuccess. We have become a school of readers." Diaz
attributes much of her school's success to the implementation of
both Reading and Math Renaissance, which include supplemental
programs like Accelerated Reader(R) and Accelerated Math(R). "We
just received our scores for math," says Diaz, "and I'm tickled to
death. It was the first year we used Accelerated Math schoolwide
and the scores for grades 2-5 were out of this world! Reading
Renaissance and Math Renaissance are invaluable tools in urban
schools like ours." This year's National Renaissance Conference was
attended by about 3,000 educators from across the country who
gathered to network with others dedicated to educating our nation's
children, receive professional development training, hear
motivational speakers, and view Renaissance Learning's newest
products and services. Taking center stage this year were
demonstrations of Renaissance Place(R), the Company's enterprise
wide suite of products which offers centralized data and web-based
consolidated school- and district-wide reporting, and English in a
Flash(TM), a revolutionary new research-based product to help
teachers address the needs of ELL (English language learners) and
ESL (English as a second language) students. The 2004National
Renaissance Conference was also highlighted by keynote
presentations by Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos cookies and
nationally recognized literacy advocate, Mary Pope Osborne, author
of the Magic Tree House children's series, and Jim Trelease,
motivational speaker and author of The Read-Aloud Handbook.
Attendees were treated to the opportunity to meet many famous
authors and attend several of the more than 100 professional
development workshops offered on a variety of subjects -- from the
latest teaching techniques and research to funding opportunities,
technology briefings, and detailed discussions of Renaissance
products. The 2005 National Renaissance Conference will be held
March 3-6 in San Antonio, Texas. Renaissance Learning(R),Inc., is a
leading provider of research-based learning information systems
software, school improvement programs, teacher training and
consulting. Adopted by over 65,000 schools, Renaissance information
technology products give students and teachers continuous
constructive feedback that helps motivate students, dramatically
accelerate learning, improve test scores, and help students master
all standards, while reducing teacher paperwork. Over 500,000
educators have received Renaissance training. Renaissance Learning
has six U.S. locations and subsidiaries in Australia, Canada,
India, and the United Kingdom.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001108/RENAISSANCELOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Renaissance Learning, Inc.
CONTACT: Jonas Berberich of Renaissance Learning, Inc., Toll free
office, +1-800-200-4848, Fax, +1-608-664-3888, Web site:
http://www.renlearn.com/
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