8:30 AM -- 9:30 AM
Opening Plenary Session (session #235)
Join U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings as she outlines progress and challenges in preparing students to succeed in our global knowledge economy. Secretary Spellings will discuss how the accountability movement in education is helping students and schools to improve, as well as ways in which policymakers and administrators can build on this progress to produce a competitive workforce for the future.

PARTICIPANTS
	Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education, U. S. Department of Education, District of Columbia
	Phil Wilson, Secretary of State, Texas

9:45 AM -- 11:45 AM
Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Involving Students in Policymaking (session #241)
As more states and districts express an interest in engaging students in policymaking, this interactive session with students will examine why and how to infuse and sustain the youth voice in decision and policymaking processes. Student engagement policies and practices from states and districts will be explored in student-facilitated small group discussions, increasing participants’ knowledge and skills on engaging youth in policymaking. Participants will examine resources, benefits, challenges, landmines and strategies to authentically engage students in policymaking.

PARTICIPANTS
	Hank M. Bounds, Superintendent of Education, Mississippi State Department of Education, Mississippi; ECS Commissioner

9:45 AM -- 11:45 AM
The Postsecondary Challenge: Increasing Student Success, Ensuring Affordability and Maintaining Costs (session #242)
Many state policymakers have set ambitious goals to increase the production of college graduates and maintain college affordability during a time of limited state resources for colleges and universities. In addition, postsecondary institutions are stepping up their efforts to increase the percentage of students who graduate from their institutions. Unfortunately, these efforts are not always coordinated and in some cases, are working at cross-purposes. This session will explore the current challenges facing policymakers and postsecondary leaders as they attempt to increase the educational attainment of their citizens at a time of rising college costs and declining public resources.

PARTICIPANTS
	Matt Gianneschi, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of the Governor, State of Colorado, Colorado
	William E. Kirwan, Chancellor, University System of Maryland, Maryland
	Raymund A. Paredes, Commissioner of Higher Education, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas; ECS Commissioner
	Travis Reindl, Program Director, Jobs for the Future, Massachusetts

9:45 AM -- 11:45 AM
Needed: More and Better K-12 Math and Science Teachers – Are America’s Universities Responding? (session #244)
The efforts and successes of two high profile national initiatives aggressively targeting the issue of recruiting and preparing more and better math and science teachers into the K-12 teaching profession - The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) Science and Math Teacher Imperative (SMTI) - will be the focus of this session. The esteemed panelists will offer a national view point of these progressive initiatives rounded out by on-the-ground perspectives to inform the audience of the realities, challenges and successes of these transformation efforts.

PARTICIPANTS
	Elizabeth Lodal, Former Principal, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Virginia; ECS Commissioner
	Peter McPherson, President, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, District of Columbia
	Valerie Otero, Assistant Professor of Science Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado
	Mary Ann Rankin, Dean, College of Natural Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Texas
	John L. Winn, Program Director, National Math & Science Initiative, Texas

2:00 PM -- 4:00 PM
"You Want Fries with That? Improving High School Graduation Rates in the States” (session #258)
Across the nation, states and districts are struggling to improve high school completion rates, with varying results. This session provides perspective on what the research says about improving high school graduation rates, as well as state education agency and local perspectives on preventing students from dropping out.

PARTICIPANTS
	John Q. Easton, Executive Director, Consortium on Chicago School Research University of Chicago, Illinois
	Scott Hochberg, Representative, Texas
	Karen Soule, Superintendent, Somersworth SAU Office, New Hampshire
	Robert Wells, Project Director, New Hampshire Department of Education, New Hampshire

9:30 AM -- 10:00 AM
Learning What Works (session #341)
Vicki Phillips will share the Foundation's lessons learned from 8 years working to improve graduation rates and college readiness, and the implications for their strategy moving forward.

PARTICIPANTS
	Vicki L. Phillips, Director, Education Division, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Washington

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
Creating the 21st Century Community College: Aligning Policy and Practice to Increase Student Success and Meet Workforce Needs (session #348)
Fulfilling expectations to maintain access, ensure success and respond to regional workforce needs in a time of limited resources requires community colleges to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. This session will examine how community colleges can align their efforts to effectively balance their commitment to access, success and workforce preparation. Those in attendance will examine how policymakers, community college leaders and business leaders can work together to develop policy and implement strategies to achieve all three of these important goals.

PARTICIPANTS
	Julian L. Alssid, Executive Director, Workforce Strategy Center, New York
	Richard Kazis, Senior Vice President, Jobs For The Future, Massachusetts
	John B. Lee, President, JBL Associates, Inc., Maryland
	Paul W. Sechrist, President, Oklahoma City Community College, Oklahoma

12:30 PM -- 2:15 PM
Benchmarking Internationally: The Need Confronts the Reality (session #355)
Too few students are leaving the K-12 system ready for college and the global economy, yet the public appears to fear an overemphasis on test scores and a decrease in attention paid to the whole child. This session provides both the rationale and strategies states can take to benchmark to international standards while protecting the public’s traditional commitment to a comprehensive education. The session will raise and address the following questions: · How can we balance a tradition of local control with the need for international level expectations? · How can states keep from reinventing the wheel? · How can assessments be aligned to highest standards without great cost in dollars or in testing time? · What does it take to improve the balance of liberal education expectations with application of knowledge?

PARTICIPANTS
	Andreas Schleicher, Directorate for Education, Indicators and Analysis Division, OECD, France

2:30 PM -- 5:30 PM
In It to Win It – High-Leverage (Yet Often Overlooked) Elements of P-20 Reform (session #370)
While virtually every state has taken on the challenge of P-16 or P-20 reform — either through the creation of a P-20 council or through state policy efforts — relatively few states have adequately addressed the essential components of (1) comprehensive, aligned data systems; (2) the "P" in P-20; and (3) the involvement of professional schools (the 17-20 in P-20). This highly interactive session will provide information on what states need to address in each of these components to enhance the success of P-20 efforts.

PARTICIPANTS
	Kristie Kauerz, Early Childhood/P-3 Policy Director, Office of Lieutenant Governor Barbara O'Brien, Colorado
	Michael W. Kirst, Emeritus Professor for Education and Business Administration, Stanford University, California
	Sarah E. Redfield, Professor of Law, Education Law Institute, Franklin Pierce Law Center, Maine; member, ECS Steering Committee and ECS Commissioner