About
Sally Kohn during her 2019 Opening Keynote Address.
A Small Conference for Small Schools
NSSC is a small conference for leaders, educators, and consultants of small schools. Each year, 60-80 people from around the country convene in Philadelphia to experience renowned speakers and presenters, and share their unique experiences and perspectives that can only come from a small school.
What makes NSSC special is the open sharing of ideas, the collaborative problem solving, and the intimate size, which allows ample time for networking and relationship building, along with greater opportunities for conversations with keynotes and featured speakers. Different than other conferences, NSSC is designed as a cohort experience - the conference works best for those who participate in the whole thing, rather than dropping in here and there for certain workshops or speakers. The collective experience is where the magic happens.
What is small?
We ask people to define small for their own school. For some it’s about a comparison to the other schools in their local market. For others it’s about the number of different hats their administrators must wear.
If you find that when you’re in a workshop with staff from other schools you have to translate the topic at hand to the scale of your school, you’re probably a small school. If you’re filling out a survey and laugh a little while writing “1” in every response that asks “how many staff are in your ___ office,” you’re probably a small school. And last but certainly not least, if your Head of School is #2 on the list to shovel the sidewalks when the one maintenance person can’t make the drive on a snow day, you’re probably a small school. :)