7:00 AM -- 2:30 PM
Registration Desk (session #300)

7:00 AM -- 2:30 PM
Media/Press Office (session #305)

7:00 AM -- 2:30 PM
Cyber Cafe (session #310)

7:30 AM -- 8:30 AM
Networking Breakfast Buffet (session #315)

8:30 AM -- 9:15 AM
On-Ramps to College: Building Paths to Success for All Students (session #320)
Mathematics has been a burial ground for the aspirations of myriad students seeking upward mobility through higher education. What are the strategies states and large urban districts are using to create mathematics pathways that work for students who only a decade ago would not have taken high school algebra and geometry? We'll examine new course offerings and how they are scaled as well as promising approaches to modernizing high school and freshman college mathematics.

PARTICIPANTS
	Mark Nieker, President, The Pearson Foundation, New York

9:15 AM -- 10:00 AM
Coming to Our Senses: Education and the American Future (session #321)
In November 2008, the College Board released a report, Coming to Our Senses: Education and the American Future, that looked at the challenges facing students as they move through the educational pipeline. Chaired by William "Brit" Kirwan, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, the study identified the ambitious goal that at least 55% of Americans hold a postsecondary credential by 2025. The report examines the socio-economic, demographic and public policy trends affecting college access and success, and gives a number of recommendations that might guide the nation's response.

PARTICIPANTS
	David T. Conley, CEO, Educational Policy Improvement Center, Oregon

10:00 AM -- 10:15 AM
Break (session #325)

PARTICIPANTS
	David T. Conley, CEO, Educational Policy Improvement Center, Oregon

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
What's Around the Bend for High School Reform (session #330)
Many states have focused efforts on improving high schools--often by raising high school graduation requirements and revising state assessments. This session will identify "what's next" for high school reform: a new "college-ready" definition to better prepare students for postsecondary expectations, high-school assessments to more accurately predict college success (and help students acquire missing knowledge and skills before college), and well-honed dropout prevention measures to more effectively identify at-risk students while saving money.

PARTICIPANTS
	Tony Bennett, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Indiana Department of Education, Indiana
	Holly Franks Boffy, 2010 Louisiana State Teacher of the Year, Paul Breaux Middle School, Louisiana
	Jonathan Plucker, Director and Professor, Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, Indiana University, Indiana
	Paul Reville, Secretary of Education, Executive Office of Education, Massachusetts
	Philip Schmidt, Associate Provost, Western Governors University, Utah

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
Education, the Economy and Workforce Development (session #331)
Attendees will discuss how to best determine whether their states have "workforce issues" or "workplace issues." You will talk about means of assessing workforce needs and certifying student skills, how to get students up the economic ladder as quickly as possible, and how to potentially reallocate resources.

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
Developmental Education as a Critical State Strategy to Increase College Success (session #332)
As states seek to improve college attainment rates among their residents, many are struggling with how to successfully educate students who come to postsecondary education lacking the academic skills necessary to be successful. This workshop will explore how policies and practice can make developmental education a critical component of state strategies to increase the percent of their residents with a postsecondary credential. The workshop will provide information on how states can become involved in Getting Past Go a national initiative of the Education Commission of the States, funded by the Lumina Foundation on Education, on increasing the college success of students who require developmental education.

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
Assessing 21st Century Skills (session #333)
Businesses recognize the need for workers with skills like critical thinking, teamwork, integrity and personal responsibility. Education systems can deliver programming to address those skills but the challenge is assessing them. How can we ensure students master 21 Century Skills and how can we assess them? How can state standards and learning objectives better identify those skills? How can we build the political will to ensure that youth are civically, ethically and morally prepared to lead their generation?

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
Teaching Quality and Leadership (session #334)
Members of the ECS Teaching Quality Strategy Team will discuss their recent work to identify TQ policies and strategies and work and need to be brought to scale. These recognized experts represent not only the field of education and research, but also the corporate and business worlds and science and technology. This workshop promises to be thought-provoking and will provide policy and strategy recommendations for future direction for the wide-scale improvement in teaching quality across our states.

10:15 AM -- 12:15 PM
Creating a Policy Agenda for Linking Early Learning and the Early Grades (session #335)
This session will introduce a recently developed ECS Early Learning tool - a Comprehensive Policy Framework for Building Continuity and Alignment across Early Learning and the Early Grades. This new framework provides an overview of extant state policies that can be used to increase continuity across learning systems. This interaction session will provide an overview of the Framework and facilitate participants' efforts to identify potential policy opportunities for their states.

PARTICIPANTS
	Barbara Clark, Assemblywoman, New York Assembly; ECS Vice Chair; Member, ECS Executive and Steering Committees; Board Member, NCLC; New York
	Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education, Stanford University, California

12:15 PM -- 12:30 PM
Break (session #340)

12:30 PM -- 2:00 PM
Conant Award Luncheon-College Access and Success: Can We Do More? (session #350)
To date, most of the action on improving postsecondary student success has focused on high schools. But colleges themselves turn out to be important actors in the drama of shrinking opportunity in this country. In this address, Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, will share lessons from colleges that are unusually effective in getting students through with a degree, and discuss what that means for other higher education institutions and for policymakers interested in spurring better results for all groups of students.

2:15 PM -- 3:00 PM
National Forum Planning Committee Meeting Debrief (session #355)

2:15 PM -- 4:30 PM
American Reinvestment and Recovery Act's Impact on States (session #360)
This half day workshop will provide state policymakers with the knowledge and tools that they need to maximize the ARRA's impact on their education system. The first half of the program will provide information on what we know about how the States have been using ARRA funds so far - the second half will look at what policies states could adopt in the coming months to give them the best chance at winning "Race to the Top" funds. Part I: What do we know about ARRA so far? (2:15 - 3:00) Part II: What Can States Do to "Race to the Top" (3:15 - 4:30)