Four nationally recognized principals will take on major K-12 challenges—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 revealed four Featured Speakers for its 2027 School Leaders track. These presenters are nationally recognized principals and school administrators who tackle AI adoption, teacher retention, and school culture on a daily basis.
Findings from the Learning Policy Institute, the Wallace Foundation, and Frontiers in Education consistently point to the school principal as the most critical factor in solving K-12’s toughest problems, including teacher shortages, chronic absenteeism, declining student mental health, and classroom AI disruption. The numbers are striking: schools with well-prepared principals see 89% annual teacher retention, versus 78% under less-prepared leadership. When a strong principal departs, student achievement can suffer 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 winner, offers a practitioner’s viewpoint on AI in school leadership. She draws on 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 in the country to explore how agentic and adaptive AI are transforming learning. Abel leads one of the nation’s first K-12 schools to fully embed virtual reality into everyday instruction, combining research with real-world practice in Orlando.
Dr. Danny Steele, Speaker & Author, Leadership Learning and Culture, LLC, brings 31 years of experience across every level of school leadership and six books on school culture and leadership to his work on keeping schools and staff grounded when everything else is shifting, particularly during periods of 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: ensuring all students have meaningful access to edtech, AI, and computer science through human-centered learning experiences.
The FETC 2027 School Leaders track covers the full range of challenges principals and school leaders currently face—from AI adoption and teacher retention to culture and student outcomes. These Featured Speakers join a larger roster of school leadership experts delivering concurrent sessions, roundtables, and hands-on workshops throughout the conference.
FETC 2027 takes place January 26–29 in Orlando, FL. Registration is available at fetc.org, with group discounts for teams of three or more.
# # # #
About FETC
The Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) (https://www.fetc.org/) stands as the premier gathering and year-round professional learning network for education technology leaders, innovators, and educators dedicated to driving measurable results. Through in-depth seminars, collaborative roundtables, hands-on workshops, and carefully vetted sessions, FETC equips K-12 leaders and educators with proven strategies and tools ready for immediate use. The event’s expansive exhibit hall features more than 450 leading solution providers, while FETC’s partnerships with industry allies and state education technology associations amplify diverse viewpoints and fuel grassroots innovation.
Arc
Arc is a B2B events, data, and media platform backed by investment funds managed by EagleTree Capital. Founded to redefine business networking, Arc organizes over 120 events annually and operates key content platforms in HR technology, agriculture and food, financial services, investing, and education technology. Arc employs more than 300 talented colleagues across the U.S., U.K., Netherlands, and Singapore, creating new ways to connect communities wherever, whenever, or however people need to come together to grow their businesses. Its education brands include District Administration, University Business, District Administration Leadership Institute, Leadhership Network for Women, and the Future of Education Technology Conference.
Jodie E Buenning
Buenning Strategies
+1 804-986-6911
email us here
