Each day of SXSWedu brings a special presentation from top thought leaders in the field. Find the most up-to-date information on keynotes for 2012 below.
Click on the keynote speaker's name or photo to learn more about them.
LeVar Burton
4:30 pm Tuesday, March 6
Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D
Watch the video of LeVar Burton's keynote presentation at SXSWedu 2012 here!
LeVar Burton has been capturing the attention of fans and industry peers alike for the past three decades. Whether acting, directing, producing or writing, Burton has experienced success not only in television and film, but also in the online and social-networking space. He is currently one of the top 100 most followed people in the world on Twitter, with more than 1.6 million followers.
Burton’s very first professional audition led to one of his most famous roles as Kunta Kinte, the lead in the acclaimed miniseries Roots. The phenomenal success of Roots launched his career as an actor, and more importantly, earned his performance as Kunta Kinte, lasting status as a worldwide icon representing the indomitability of the human spirit. What followed were starring roles in a string of television movies and feature films. One of Burton’s most famous television roles is Geordi La Forge on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Burton most recently signed on for TNT’s Perception, a new drama series premiering Summer 2012 and starring Emmy-winning actor Eric McCormack.
An advocate for literacy and learning engagement, Burton has been promoting education for decades, serving as host and executive producer for twenty-five seasons on the PBS children’s television series Reading Rainbow. The series garnered a total of 13 Emmy Awards, five NAACP Awards and other numerous nominations. Burton continues to be most proud of Reading Rainbow’s ability to “use the medium of television to help create generations of Americans who are passionate readers.”
Burton has also played a pivotal role behind the camera, serving as a film and television director. He has directed television as diverse as all four Star Trek series, Charmed, Las Vegas and more. His first dramatic television movie, The Tiger Woods Story, for Showtime, received three Emmy nominations. His Disney Channel film Smart House remains one of the most popular original movies in the channel's history. His first full length feature film, Blizzard, received numerous accolades including Best of Fest at the 2006 Chicago International Children's Film Festival and had joined the pantheon of classic Holiday movies. Continuing Burton’s penchant for exploring the human condition through his work, his project Reach For Me was an independent feature, starring Oscar nominated actors Alfre Woodard and Seymour Cassel, that told an intimate humorous love story set in the uncommon environs of hospice.
In 2010, Burton launched the production company Burton/Wolfe Entertainment (BWE) with his business partner and Reach For Me Producer, Mark Wolfe. Burton/Wolfe Entertainment is a production company dedicated to creating high-quality and original content that resonates across multiple entertainment platforms. The company has lined up numerous strategic partnerships with networks, distribution companies and internet portals.
Photo by Michael Chevas.
Marjorie Scardino
Chief Executive, Pearson
4:30 pm Wednesday, March 7
Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D
Watch the video of Marjorie Scardino's keynote presentation at SXSWedu 2012 here!
Marjorie Scardino, is chief executive of Pearson, the international education and media business made up of Pearson Education, Penguin and the Financial Times Group.
Until January 1997, she was chief executive of The Economist Group (of which Pearson owns 50%), and, prior to 1985, she was a partner in a Savannah, Georgia law firm. With her husband, Albert Scardino, Marjorie founded and published the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, The Georgia Gazette. They have three children.
Marjorie is a non-executive director of Nokia Corporation and a member of a number of charitable and advisory boards including The MacArthur Foundation, The Carter Center, Oxfam and The Victoria & Albert Museum. In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II named Marjorie a Dame of the British Empire, and in 2010 she was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Arne Duncan
U.S. Secretary of Education
11:30 am Thursday, March 8
Austin Convention Center, Ballroom D
Watch the video of Arne Duncan's keynote presentation at SXSWedu 2012 here!
Arne Duncan was nominated to be secretary of education by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20, 2009.
In his confirmation hearings, Duncan called education "the most pressing issue facing America," adding that "preparing young people for success in life is not just a moral obligation of society" but also an "economic imperative." "Education is also the civil rights issue of our generation," he said, "the only sure path out of poverty and the only way to achieve a more equal and just society." Duncan expressed his commitment to work under the leadership of President Obama and with all those involved in education "to enhance education in America, to lift our children and families out of poverty, to help our students learn to contribute to the civility of our great American democracy, and to strengthen our economy by producing a workforce that can make us as competitive as possible."
Prior to his appointment as secretary of education, Duncan served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, a position to which he was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley, from June 2001 through December 2008, becoming the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country.
As CEO, Duncan's mandate was to raise education standards and performance, improve teacher and principal quality, and increase learning options. In seven and a half years, he united education reformers, teachers, principals and business stakeholders behind an aggressive education reform agenda that included opening over 100 new schools, expanding after-school and summer learning programs, closing down underperforming schools, increasing early childhood and college access, dramatically boosting the caliber of teachers, and building public-private partnerships around a variety of education initiatives.
Among his most significant accomplishments during his tenure as CEO, an all-time high of 66.7 percent of the district's elementary school students met or exceeded state reading standards, and their math scores also reached a record high, with 70.6 percent meeting or exceeding the state's standards. At high schools, Chicago Public School students posted gains on the ACT at three times the rate of national gains and nearly twice that of the state's. Also, the number of CPS high school students taking Advanced Placement courses tripled and the number of students passing AP classes more than doubled. Duncan has increased graduation rates and boosted the total number of college scholarships secured by CPS students to $157 million.
A study released in June 2008 by the Illinois Education Research Council lauded the Chicago Public Schools for its efforts to bring top teaching talent into the city's classrooms, where the number of teachers applying for positions almost tripled since 2003, from about 8,600 to more than 21,000, or about 10 applicants per teaching position. The number of teachers achieving National Board Certification—the highest education credential available to teachers—increased from 11 in 1999 to 1,191 in 2008, making Chicago the fastest-growing urban district in this area of achievement.
Prior to joining the Chicago Public Schools, Duncan ran the non-profit education foundation Ariel Education Initiative (1992-1998), which helped fund a college education for a class of inner-city children under the I Have A Dream program. He was part of a team that later started a new public elementary school built around a financial literacy curriculum, the Ariel Community Academy, which today ranks among the top elementary schools in Chicago.
Duncan formerly served on the boards of the Ariel Education Initiative, Chicago Cares, the Children's Center, the Golden Apple Foundation, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Jobs for America's Graduates, Junior Achievement, the Dean's Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management, the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Foundation, Renaissance Schools Fund, Scholarship Chicago and the South Side YMCA. He also served on the Board of Overseers for Harvard College and the Visiting Committees for Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration.
In 2008, he was honored by the Civic Federation of Chicago and the Anti-Defamation League. In 2007, he received the Niagara Foundation's Education Award, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship Enterprising Educator Award and the University High School Distinguished Alumni Award. He also received honorary degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Lake Forest College and National-Louis University. In 2006, the City Club of Chicago named him Citizen of the Year. He was a member of the Aspen Institute's Henry Crown Fellowship Program, class of 2002, and a fellow in the Leadership Greater Chicago's class of 1995.
From 1987 to 1991, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia, where he also worked with children who were wards of the state.
Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in sociology. He was co-captain of Harvard's basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American. He credits basketball with his team-oriented and highly disciplined work ethic.
His late father was a professor at the University of Chicago and his mother has run a South Side tutoring program for inner-city children since 1961. As a student in Chicago, Duncan spent afternoons in his mother's tutoring program and also worked there during a year off from college. He credits this experience with shaping his understanding of the challenges of urban education.
Duncan is married to Karen Duncan and they have two children, daughter Claire and son Ryan who attend a public elementary school in Arlington, Va.
Photo by U.S. Department of Education.
