“Although he has spoken about the problems with too much testing...unfortunately his own policies have reinforced all those problems,” Guisbond said.

At a lunch later in the day, Canada received a standing ovation from the audience following his keynote address. He said his experiences at Harvard were transformative.

“The things that happened here changed my life,” Canada said. “There’s no chance that I would be doing the things that I do now if I had not launched my career at the Ed School.”

Referring to the lack of innovation in education policies, he said, "Education is one of the only professions I know where you don’t need patent attorneys...you can't give away a good idea. But we need folks…who will strike out and do some things that haven’t been done.”

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattclarida.

—Staff Writer Zara Zhang can be reached at zara.zhang@thecrimson.com.