CDF, ETS Creating Change at National Conference Aimed at Pursuing Justice for Children

PRINCETON, N.J., July 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the presidential race heats up, but too often ignores the crises facing the nation's young people, thousands of experts and advocates will gather next week for the first Children's Defense Fund national conference since 1993 — which will include an important Educational Testing Service symposium on the continuing hurdles that black boys ages 9-13 face in education, health and crime.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120110/DC33419LOGO)

The conference overall will focus on "Pursuing Justice for Children and the Poor with Urgency and Persistence – A Community and Youth Empowerment Conference." More than 3,000 advocates will meet starting July 22 to participate in CDF's cutting edge plenary sessions and workshops that will examine strategies to close off the major feeder systems fueling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline™ and mass incarceration — including poverty, racial disparities, zero-tolerance school discipline policies, and the achievement gap between the poor and more affluent.

In addition, Educational Testing Service will, in cooperation with the CDF, present its latest achievement gap symposium, "Middle School Matters: Improving the Life Course of Black Boys," during the conference. These sessions will be devoted to the challenges faced by the nation's 1.5 million Black boys ages 9–13. Sessions will highlight the special challenges they face, and look at the latest research and most effective practices in public schools – traditional and charter – that close the achievement gap and foster academic success.

What:  CDF's, "Pursuing Justice for Children and the Poor with Urgency and Persistence – A Community and Youth Empowerment Conference" and ETS's, "Middle School Matters: Improving the Life Course of Black Boys"

When:   July 22-25, 2012

Where:   Duke Energy Convention Center, 525 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202

Who:   Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund
           Michael Nettles, Senior Vice President of ETS's Policy Evaluation & Research Center
           Geoffrey Canada, Founder and CEO of Harlem's Children Zone
           Bryan Stevenson, Founder and CEO of Equal Justice Initiative
           Michelle Alexander, Legal Scholar and Author of The New Jim Crow
           Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
           Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
           Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
           Myrlie Evers-Williams, wife of slain Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers

Please join us for this one-of-a-kind conference connecting communities of child advocates, young leaders, faith leaders, policymakers, service providers and others to create real change for children at the state, local, and federal levels in 2012 and beyond.

For a conference overview, detailed agenda and to register please visit http://www.childrensdefense.org/national-conference/index.html.

About ETS

At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL^® and TOEIC^® tests, the GRE^® tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org

SOURCE Educational Testing Service