The
theme of the conference was “Managing Change in Schools” and it brought
together about 50 managers of public and private schools in Catalonia. Roser
Salavert is a former superintendent of public schools in Community District 3,
New York City, where she was responsible for the change in school management.
She achieved this by developing leadership among managers and teaching staff
through the use of innovative practices.

During
the conference, Salavert stressed the concept of the school as “a living
organization where the human elements are the most important”. She also talked
in depth about the need to “achieve basic competencies as a minimum in the
majority of schools that operate in low-conflict environments”. She outlined
the importance of collaboration among the teaching staff and the need for
teachers to have a high degree of academic rigour and high expectations in
terms of students’ results.

The
conference provided an opportunity to reflect upon change in the school
environment and made it very clear that the objective of every change must be
to improve all areas of student learning, not just academic results.

On
the whole, the practical nature of the sessions sparked enthusiasm among those
attending, as did the fact that the speaker was able to transfer her experience
from the American environment to Catalonia, with the objectives consistently focused
on student learning.