Two of the nation’s top education speakers will focus on the unique learning needs of at-risk students, delivering message to conference-goers that reinforces the convention theme “Success for Every Student.”

Erin Gruwell, a former classroom teacher who went on to launch the Freedom Writers Foundation, will kick-off convention by sharing her experience as a new teacher in a high-poverty high school in Southern California.

Dr. Ruby Payne will give the closing keynote, offering convention-goers pieces of her best-selling book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Payne is a former classroom teacher and administrator who has become one of the nation’s leading experts on the interplay between poverty and success.

Joining Gruwell and Payne to give the two-day convention’s third keynote will be well-known education consultant Dr. Ed Porthan, who will offer a motivational message about managing success in a school district.

Together the trio represents the most powerful line-up of speakers ever booked at the ASBSD and SASD Joint Convention, says John Pederson, executive director for School Administrators of South Dakota, the event’s co-sponsor.

Success For Every Student will be the theme of the 2008 ASBSD and SASD Joint Convention, scheduled for August 6-8 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.