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Non-profits sign new three-year agreement at Schloss Leopoldskron
Salzburg Global Seminar and Educational Testing Service (ETS) are delighted to announce an expansion of its existing partnership.
Michael T. Nettles, senior vice president of the Policy Evaluation and Research Center at ETS, put pen to paper on a three-year agreement at Schloss Leopoldskron, in Salzburg, Austria, on Thursday.
He was joined by Stephen L. Salyer, president and chief executive officer at Salzburg Global, Benjamin Glahn, vice president, development and operations at Salzburg Global, and Dominic Regester, the program director at Salzburg Global responsible for designing, developing, and implementing programs on education.
Catherine Millett, a senior research scientist at ETS’ Policy Evaluation and Research Center, Faye Hobson, the program associate for Salzburg Global’s Education for Tomorrow’s World multi-year series at Salzburg Global, and Andrew Ho, Salzburg Global’s US Development Director also attended the ceremony, which was held in the Max Reinhardt Study.
The two non-profits have collaborated for more than nine years. ETS, whose mission is to advance quality and equity in education for all people, has been a key partner in Education for Tomorrow’s World.
Since 2010, Salzburg Global and ETS have brought together hundreds of educators, policymakers, foundations, and civil society groups to develop new approaches to learning, skills, and inclusion and to generate strategic recommendations and practical proposals to recalibrate and reform current education systems.
ETS was one of several organizations who sponsored the most recent program in the Education for Tomorrow’s World multi-year series: Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action.
Glahn said, “ETS has been an extraordinary partner of Salzburg Global Seminar over the last nine years, and we are delighted to be extending our partnership and collaboration.
“Together with an expanding consortium of partners and supporters, ETS and Salzburg Global will continue to focus on working with educators, policymakers and practitioners from a wide range of organizations, sectors, and countries to develop policy proposals that create better educational outcomes and help schools and communities adapt to complex changes and support pluralistic societies.
“We are grateful for ETS’ support in these efforts and look forward to our second decade of partnership.”
Social and Emotional Learning: Time for Action is the 12th Salzburg Global program Nettles has attended. He has previously served as faculty, a visiting speaker, and program co-chair. He first visited Schloss Leopoldskron in October 1999 for a program entitled, Race and Ethnicity: Social Change through Public Awareness.
Commenting on the new agreement, Nettles said, “We are delighted to be continuing our collaboration with our colleagues of Salzburg Global Seminar to identify and address some of the most challenging education and assessment issues in the world."
Between 2010 and 2012, ETS joined forces with Salzburg Global on a series of programs on Optimizing Talent: Closing Educational and Social Mobility Gaps Worldwide. Both organizations worked together to identify where educational and social mobility gaps existed, what effect they were having, why they persisted, and what could be done to eliminate them. Recommendations from this series helped shape the World Congress on Access to Post-Secondary Education.
From 2013 to 2015, Salzburg Global and ETS focused on untapped talent, and how the science of learning and the social and affective processes underlying lifelong learning influence cognition, behavior, and educational outcomes.
In 2016, Salzburg Global and ETS brought together 40 education leaders and other stakeholders from around the world to explore the challenges and benefits of fostering social and emotional learning (SEL). Since then, Salzburg Global and ETS have convened a further five programs focusing on SEL as a key education reform topic that has the potential to equip all learners with the skills they need to succeed in education, work and life. The programs have brought together policymakers, researchers, thought leaders and practitioners to share research and best practice in formal and informal learning environments to advance this important field.
Getting Smart: Measuring and Evaluating Social and Emotional Skills saw policymakers, educators, innovators, and researchers benefitting from structured exchanges to identify the state of the evidence, policy challenges, and viable solutions for measuring and enhancing social and emotional learning skills.
Following this program, Fellows co-created the Salzburg Statement on Measuring and Evaluating Social and Emotional Skills, which called for further investment and work from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
In a call to action, Fellows agreed, “Social and emotional skills are crucial for the wellbeing and happiness of every child. They are relevant for educational outcomes, for employability prospects and for addressing the kinds of global challenges that the Sustainable Development Goals seek to address.”
On March 20, Salzburg Global Seminar will celebrate the International Day of Happiness by releasing the new Salzburg Statement on Social and Emotional Learning. This Statement is an outcome of last year’s program, Social and Emotional Learning: A Global Synthesis, as is the launch of a new global alliance designed to take this work forward.