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

12:00 PM -- 1:30 PM
"A Nation Still At Risk -- What Now?" (session #250)
Twenty-five years after "A Nation At Risk" warned about the "rising tide of mediocrity" in U.S. public schools, the landmark federal report echoes in today's education reform climate. The report resulted in state actions that pushed standards and assessments and a series of ambitious federal initiatives such as Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind. With a new president set to be elected in November, 2008, we need to ask the question, "Where do we go from here?" Will a new president take to heart the challenge posed by the report and learn the lessons of his predecessors when setting education policy under his or her administration? A stellar panel of experts, including some involved with the original report, will discuss ways the nation can take decisive action now to boost student achievement and competitiveness in a global marketplace.

PARTICIPANTS
	Christopher T. Cross, Chairman, Cross and Joftus, LLC, Maryland
	Milton Goldberg, Milt Goldberg Consulting, Virginia
	Frederick M. Hess, Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, District of Columbia
	Arthur Levine, President, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, New Jersey
	Al Quie, Former Governor, Minnesota
	Roy Romer, Chair, Strong American Schools, District of Columbia
	Kathleen Sebelius, Governor, Kansas; member, ECS Steering Committee, ECS Commissioner, ECS Chairman and ECS Executive Committee

7:30 AM -- 9:30 AM
James Bryant Conant Award Breakfast (session #340)
Minnesota Governor and 2008-10 ECS Chair Tim Pawlenty will present the 2008 James Bryant Conant Award to Ron Wolk, chairman of Big Picture Company and former founding editor of Education Week. Named in memory of ECS' co-founder, the award is given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to American education. Screening of the James Bryant Conant: The Man and the Award, courtesy of Pearson. Buffet Breakfast will be served from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.

PARTICIPANTS
	Ron Wolk, Chairman, Big Picture Company Editorial Projects in Education, Rhode Island

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

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