Superintendent Dance to be honored at Presidential Inaugural Ball

January 20, 2017

Dance to receive prestigious national award for improving teaching and learning via technology

TOWSON, MD — Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. S. Dallas Dance will receive one of five awards presented by the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET) at its presidential inaugural ball.

More than 400 guests are expected at the ball, to be held on Friday, Jan. 20, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Guests will represent school districts, education associations, Capitol Hill and Federal Communications Commission staff, and corporations.

Dance will be one of four Community Builder Award winners along with:

  • The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, justice (retired), United States Supreme Court, and chairperson, iCivics
  • The Honorable Jessica Rosenworcel, former commissioner, Federal Communications Commission
  • Vince Bertram, executive director, Project Lead the Way

The NCTET Founders Award will be presented to David Byer, senior group manager, Worldwide Education Advocacy, Apple Inc.

“We cannot be more thrilled to honor these five incredible men and women for their efforts to leverage the latest technologies to support the success of all learners,” said Ann Flynn, NCTET Board Chair and Director of Education Technology at the National School Boards Association. “Their efforts have made a lasting impact on teaching and learning.”

“Those being honored,” Superintendent Dance said, “all are faithful to the unwavering belief that technology must be leveraged to give every single student access to their world and their future.”

In describing what led him to shape his agenda for BCPS, Superintendent Dance said, “Right from the beginning, from many voices, I heard a clear consensus. Our families and staff spoke about tangible differences – differences in hardware, software, and connectivity that some schools had and others lacked. Behind these concerns, right below the surface, was a less tangible goal: Better opportunity. The kind of opportunity that our country was founded upon.”

Dr. Dance is being recognized for his leadership of the school system’s S.T.A.T. (Students and Teachers Accessing Tomorrow) and Passport initiatives as well as his national leadership on the effective use of technology in education. S.T.A.T., a comprehensive and fundamental shift in teaching and learning, uses technology, as well as other strategies, to personalize learning, and Passport begins world language instruction at Grade 4 to prepare students to graduate fluent in a second language.

Since 2001, NCTET has honored individuals from the public and private sectors for their outstanding contributions to the organization’s mission of effectively integrating technology into teaching and learning. Prior honorees included the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), George Lucas (Lucasfilms and Edutopia), Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and John Gage (director of the science office, Sun Microsystems).

NCTET is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization of education stakeholders that promotes and supports the effective use of technology to improve education and training in America by acting as a convener, catalyst and resource for relevant and timely information. Based in Washington, DC, and founded in 1993, NCTET organizes policy briefings and issue forums, produces white papers, recognizes exemplary leadership in education and technology, and creates networking opportunities.