ORLANDO, Fla. — As part of Sunday’s mainstage keynote welcoming attendees to Orlando, ISTE+ASCD CEO Richard Culatta along with Board President Jeremy Owoh revealed that the organization, formed with the merger of ISTE and ASCD in 2023, will be moving forward with a new name, the International Society for Transforming Education.
“We believe that this name most effectively captures what both legacy organizations were always about,” Culatta said. “Our new name shifts the focus from how we do it to why we do it, and shows how serious we are about transforming learning together.”
During his talk, Culatta talked about what it means to transform something. “It’s more than just doing something good. It’s changing the way we think and act,” he said.
Culatta shared the story of Roger Bannister, who in 1954 became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. Following Bannister’s record-breaking run, it only took 46 days for the next person to accomplish the same goal and less than a year for the next person after that, Culatta said.
“It’s a story about somebody showing others that an actual physical barrier was really just a perceived one, and once someone could show that the barrier was perceived, thousands of others could come behind and do the thing that for so long was impossible. That’s transformation,” he said.
“It’s showing that the status quo isn’t immutable so that others aren’t held back by the same barriers.”
Culatta pointed to some of the things needing transforming – or the sub-four-minute miles – in education, like “giving students choice and ownership over their learning, having every student feel like they belong every moment they’re in school, having all assessments feel relevant and authentic….”
“Education needs a group of bold transformers, people who know that limitations can’t stand in the way of creating amazing learning experiences. Our goal is to help you be those transformers.”
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