5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #1: The Economic Impact of High School Graduation (session #250)
All of us recognize that graduating from high school with the skills necessary to be successful in postsecondary education, work and life is critical. Join this roundtable to learn more about groundbreaking research that quantifies the economic impact that occurs when we fail to graduate students from high school. There is a direct link between improved educational outcomes and economic returns that include the growth in jobs, home ownership, levels of spending and investment, and car sales that will result from cutting the high school dropout rate in half.

PARTICIPANTS
	Kathy Payne, Senior Director for Education Leadership, State Farm Companies® Corporate Headquarters, Illinois
	Bob Wise, Former Governor, West Virginia, President, Alliance for Excellent Education, District of Columbia

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #2: Moving Research to Action for Early Education in Oregon (session #251)
Staff from the Children’s Institute will share information and resources from their work with policymakers, government agencies and funders to support cost-effective public and private investments in early childhood programs in the state. The Institute has been instrumental in expanding Oregon’s unique Head Start prekindergarten program and establishing first-time state funding for Early Head Start. In addition, the Institute has produced a number of reports that help guide state efforts to develop programs and policies to support young children and their families.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #3: Community Education and the Future of Learning (session #252)
This roundtable will discuss: promise neighborhoods, full-service community schools, 21st century community learning centers, after school programs, early childhood education and community engagement in learning.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #4: Expanded-Time Schools (session #253)
Hear how federal administration, state, district and school leaders are encouraging and implementing innovative new school schedules to add learning and enrichment time for students and more time for teachers to plan, meet and individualize instruction.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Strengthening Educator Quality in Arkansas through Transparency and Partnership (session #254)
Members of the Arkansas Partnership for Teacher Quality will share preliminary information from its research on the preparation, placement, retention, and student achievement of Arkansas teachers and the implications for public schools and educator preparation institutions.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #6: The RTTT Consortium Assessments: New Advances and New Challenges (session #255)
The $350 million federal RTTT Assessment Program has resulted in two proposals for new Comprehensive Assessment Systems for the assessment of students in grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school: the SMARTER Balanced Consortium and the PARCC Consortium. This session will explore the innovative design features that are common across the consortia, and how these will affect the testing experience of students. The session will also explore how these new designs propose to provide more timely, useful, and accurate information to all stakeholders, and the technical challenges to be overcome to support these new innovations.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #7: Business Credible, High School Feasible (session #256)
WestEd, ECS and Strategic Partnership are working together to develop an assessment tool that will measure the skills that industry values embedded in rigorous academic content applications. This roundtable will discuss the current status of this work.

PARTICIPANTS
	Stanley Rabinowitz, Director, Assessment and Standards Development Services, WestEd, California

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Partnerships between Private Sector Career Colleges and Community Colleges to Advance Workforce & Career (session #257)
Many community colleges are facing severe capacity constraints and funding challenges. Private sector career colleges have been growing and investing in additional capacity. This roundtable will look into the possibility of creating fruitful partnerships between these types of institutions and what each organization can learn from the other to improve the education and training they provide.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #9: Reaching Rural Schools (session #258)
Recognizing the importance of college and career readiness for all students, how can we ensure that students and educators in rural communities have access to the resources they need to achieve this goal? This roundtable discussion will focus on particular issues facing rural schools and explore creative steps to increase educational opportunities for rural students. AT&T will bring together rural education experts to examine new possibilities for creating partnerships and networks to reach rural schools.

5:00 PM -- 6:00 PM
Roundtable #10: Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better (session #259)
A team of researchers from EdSource and Stanford University recently released the largest empirical study ever conducted of middle grades practices and their association with higher student academic outcomes. This roundtable will summarize the study’s findings, and their implications for district and school practice, as well as state and federal policy.

PARTICIPANTS
	Michael Kirst, Emeritus Professor for Education and Business Administration, Stanford University, California
	Trish Williams, Executive Director, EdSource, California