Four acclaimed principals will address critical challenges in K-12 education — including AI integration, staff retention, and persistent absenteeism — during FETC 2027.
WEST PALM BEACH, FL, UNITED STATES, July 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) has unveiled four Featured Speakers for its 2027 School Leaders track, a lineup comprising nationally recognized principals and school administrators who navigate AI adoption, teacher retention, and school culture-building on a daily basis.
Consistent findings from the Learning Policy Institute, the Wallace Foundation, and Frontiers in Education point to the school principal as the single most influential factor in tackling K-12’s most urgent problems — from educator shortages and chronic absenteeism to worsening student mental health and AI-driven classroom disruption. The numbers are compelling: schools under well-prepared principals retain teachers at an 89% annual clip, versus 78% under less-prepared leadership. When a strong principal departs, student achievement can suffer declines that persist for as long as five years.
The FETC 2027 School Leaders Featured Speakers are:
Ashley Moore (Principal Mo), Principal of The Empowerment Academy and a 2024 Maryland Association of Elementary School Principals Connected School Leader Award recipient, offers a practitioner’s lens on AI in school leadership, leveraging 18 years of experience in teaching, special education, and administration at her PreK-8 school in Baltimore.
Dr. Kim Abel, Head of School at Optima Academy Online, ranks among the first educators nationwide to explore how agentic and adaptive AI are transforming learning. Abel leads one of the country’s first K-12 schools to fully embed virtual reality into daily instruction, merging research with real-world practice in Orlando.
Dr. Danny Steele, Speaker & Author, Leadership Learning and Culture, LLC, draws on 31 years across every level of school leadership and six books on school culture and leadership to examine what keeps schools and staff grounded when everything else is shifting — especially amid rapid change.
Dr. Sonal Patel, CEO of Educate2Elevate, holds a doctorate in Leadership for Educational Justice and will tackle one of K-12’s most urgent equity issues: guaranteeing that every student gains meaningful access to edtech, AI, and computer science through human-centered learning experiences.
The FETC 2027 School Leaders track covers the full spectrum of what principals and school leaders currently confront — from AI adoption and teacher retention to culture and student outcomes. These Featured Speakers join a wider roster of school leadership experts delivering concurrent sessions, roundtables, and hands-on workshops across the conference.
FETC 2027 takes place January 26–29 in Orlando, FL. Registration is open at fetc.org, with group discounts available for teams of three or more.
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About FETC
The Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) (https://www.fetc.org/) is the premier gathering and year-round professional learning network for education technology leaders, innovators, and educators dedicated to achieving measurable results. Through deep-dive seminars, collaborative roundtables, hands-on workshops, and rigorously vetted sessions, FETC equips K-12 leaders and educators with proven strategies and tools for immediate implementation. The event’s expansive exhibit hall showcases more than 450 leading solution providers, while FETC’s collaborations with industry partners and state education technology associations amplify diverse perspectives and foster grassroots innovation.
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Jodie E Buenning
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