The national three-day conference, titled Setting the Policy and Research Agenda, will focus on the Latino education achievement gap and ways to address the problem in the classroom as well as in legislatures and school boards. It is scheduled for October 26-28 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.

Speakers include Sylvia Mendez, longtime Latino civil rights leader; Alejandro Portes, professor of sociology at Princeton University and member of the National Academy of Science; Kris Gutierrez, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and director of the Center for the Study of Urban Literacies; and Luis Moll, professor at the University of Arizona and one of America’s best known researchers on the connection between culture, psychology and education, especially as it relates to the education of Latino children in the United States.

“CLASE and the College of Education are excited to bring together researchers, policy-makers, educators and other stakeholders to address issues concerning the educational achievement gap for immigrant students, English learners and other students placed at risk,” said Paul Matthews, assistant director and outreach coordinator for CLASE. “Given the growing Latino student population not only here in Georgia but nationally, this conference can play a key role in clarifying research-based best practices, as well as continued directions for policy and research.”

Registration for the three-day conference is $150 and available online at www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/2009/Oct/26/triennial.phtml.

More information on the conference can be found at www.coe.uga.edu/clase/conference/index.htm.