Ron Clark, "America's Educator" and Best-Selling Author, to Speak at Walden University Academic Residency

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ron Clark, known to many as "America's Educator," will speak to more than 500 students at Walden University's academic residency on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Clark, Disney's American Teacher of the Year in 2000, is nationally recognized for his original approach to teaching.

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Clark pioneered innovative projects in rural North Carolina, where he worked with impoverished minority students. After watching a television news story on low test scores and a lack of teachers in inner-city New York, he moved to Harlem, where he worked with a group of low-achieving students and involved them in local projects, and soon they were scoring higher on tests than their peers in gifted classes in his district. In 2007, he founded the Ron Clark Academy, an inner-city school serving students from across metro Atlanta. The privately funded institution boasts innovative teaching methods and curricula and promotes academic rigor, passion, creativity and increased student engagement in the classroom. 

Clark was the subject of a television movie and is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child and The End of Molasses Classes: Getting Our Kids Unstuck-101 Extraordinary Solutions for Parents and Teachers, as well as The Excellent 11: Qualities Teachers and Parents Use to Motivate, Inspire, and Educate Children.

Clark is regularly featured on network and cable television and was named Oprah Winfrey's first "Phenomenal Man." His programs garnered attention across the U.S. and led to a White House invitation to be honored by President Bill Clinton.

Academic residencies at Walden, an accredited online university, support students' academic and professional goals by connecting them with individual faculty mentors, student support staff and hundreds of peers. During academic residencies, students from select doctoral and master's degree programs have the opportunity to conceptualize and develop research that contributes to positive social change.

Walden's plenary sessions are an integral part of the residencies and are led by speakers from around the world who share an array of experiences and viewpoints with the hope of inspiring debate and lively conversation. These sessions are intended to provide Walden students and faculty and staff members with the opportunity to hear perspectives on a variety of topics that are meaningful and relevant to their lives as scholars and practitioners.

For more information about Walden University, visit www.WaldenU.edu.

About Walden University
For more than 40 years, Walden University has supported working professionals in achieving their academic goals and making a greater impact in their professions and their communities. Today, more than 50,000 students from all 50 states and more than 145 countries are pursuing their bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees online at Walden. The university provides students with an engaging educational experience that connects them with expert faculty and peers around the world. Walden is the flagship online university in the Laureate International Universities network-a global network of more than 72 campus-based and online universities in 30 countries.

Walden offers more than 75 degree programs with more than 385 specializations and concentrations. Areas of study include health sciences, counseling, human services, management, psychology, education, public health, nursing, public administration and information technology. For more information, visit www.WaldenU.edu. Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association, www.ncahlc.org.

SOURCE Walden University