10:00 AM -- 6:30 PM
Registration Desk (session #100)

10:00 AM -- 2:00 PM
Media/Press Office (session #105)

12:00 PM -- 5:30 PM
Cyber Cafe (session #110)

1:00 PM -- 2:00 PM
Creating Pathways for Graduation and Beyond for At-Risk Nashville Students (session #125)
LEARN HOW THEY'RE DOING IT! Learn how Nashville Mayor Dean's Office is successfully partnering with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools - and other public and private partners - to get dropouts and those at risk of dropping to come back to school or stay in school. Learn how Nashville has succeeded in creating Big Picture and Diploma Plus high schools, along with Gateway to College schools, a middle school after-school program based on the Providence, Rhode Island model, and the unique Attendance Center that partners with local public agencies to reduce drop out numbers, truancy and attendance issues by arranging wraparound services for at-risk students.

4:00 PM -- 4:45 PM
Commissioners' Business Session (session #140)
ECS Commissioners are invited to join their colleagues and represent their state at the annual business meeting of the Commission.

PARTICIPANTS
	Barbara Clark, Assemblywoman, New York Assembly; ECS Vice Chair; Member, ECS Executive and Steering Committees; Board Member, NCLC; New York
	Richard Rhoda, Executive Director, Tennessee Higher Education Commission; ECS Treasurer; Member, ECS Executive and Steering Committees; Tennessee
	Roger Sampson, President, Education Commission of the States, Colorado

6:00 PM -- 7:30 PM
Welcome Reception & Awards Ceremony at the Hotel (session #160)
During the reception, Minnesota Governor and ECS Chair, 2008-10, Tim Pawlenty will present the 2009 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation and the 2009 ECS Corporate Award.

7:00 AM -- 5:30 PM
Registration Desk (session #200)

7:00 AM -- 5:30 PM
Media/Press Office (session #205)

7:00 AM -- 5:30 PM
Cyber Cafe (session #210)

7:30 AM -- 8:15 AM
Networking Breakfast Buffet (session #215)

8:15 AM -- 9:15 AM
From Policy to Reality - What Will Prepare our Students for Success? (session #220)
Dr. Richard F. Elmore is the Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership at Harvard University, co-director of the Connecticut Superintendents' Network, a member of the faculty on the Executive Leadership Program for Educators, and the Director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). Dr. Elmore's presentation will focus on the effects of federal, state, and local education policy on schools and classrooms and ultimately the workforce. His research has a direct impact and relationship on how the education system can and must be aligned to the global workforce.

PARTICIPANTS
	John Medina, Developmental Molecular Biologist, University of Washington School of Medicine; Director, Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, Seattle Pacific University, Washington

9:15 AM -- 9:30 AM
Break (session #221)

9:30 AM -- 10:15 AM
Innovation and Technology to Connect Education and Workforce (session #222)
This presentation highlights how some states are ensuring alignment between education and workforce while addressing dropout prevention, closing achievement gaps, increasing relevance and student engagement, documenting student skills and increasing college and work readiness.

10:15 AM -- 10:45 AM
Governors Panel (session #223)
Governors respond to challenges in meeting workforce needs including: retooling workers through increased access to training, validating skills and credentials; policies that attract and support globally competitive, state-led regional economies; leveraging and aligning federal programs to maximize impact and minimize duplication; and the role of K-12 in the states economy.

10:45 AM -- 11:00 AM
Break (session #224)

11:00 AM -- 12:00 PM
More with Dr. Richard Elmore (session #225)
Dr. Elmore will continue to address educational and workforce issues raised in his previous Plenary Session.

PARTICIPANTS
	Stuart Kahl, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Measured Progress, Inc., New Hampshire
	Shilpi Niyogi, Executive Vice President, National Services Strategy & New Business Development, Pearson Education, District of Columbia
	Stanley Rabinowitz, Director, Assessment and Standards Development Services, WestEd, California
	Kevin Sweeney, Executive Director of Psychometrics, The College Board, Pennsylvania

11:00 AM -- 12:00 PM
Multi-State Collaborations: Lessons Learned from Two New England Efforts (session #226)
This session will explore two efforts at multi-state collaboration: the development of the New England Comprehensive Assessment Program (NECAP) and the newly formed New England Secondary School Consortium. Through NECAP, three states developed common grade level expectations and common assessments in reading, mathematics, writing and science. The Consortium's goal is to ensure that by 2016 every public high school student in the four partner states will receive an education that prepares them for college, career, and civic responsibility in our increasingly interconnected global community. This session will highlight the benefits, challenges and lessons learned from these collaborative efforts.

11:00 AM -- 12:00 PM
Building Stepping Stones into the Workforce (session #227)
States are developing many innovative strategies to more effectively move low-skilled, low-wage adults into the workforce by customizing academic programs to meet the unique needs of those who are non-traditional entrants into postsecondary education. This session will look at how some states are moving to stackable certificates that will allow students to take shorter and more achievable steps to prepare for postsecondary education so that they can more efficiently move into livable wage jobs.

PARTICIPANTS
	John Medina, Developmental Molecular Biologist, University of Washington School of Medicine; Director, Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, Seattle Pacific University, Washington

11:00 AM -- 12:00 PM
P-20 with No Money: Potential for System Alignment in Difficult Economic Times (session #228)
This session will discuss approaches states can use to make progress on implementing influential P-20 alignment efforts despite slim state budgets. The session will additionally identify high-leverage efforts to allow states to gain maximum "bang for their buck" in improving P-20 transitions, and how public/private partnerships can further P-20 efforts

PARTICIPANTS
	Clifford Adelman, Senior Associate, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, District of Columbia

11:00 AM -- 12:00 PM
How State Universities Can Take the Teacher Preparation Bull By the Horns (session #229)
Producing more high quality science and math teachers is not just important for middle and high schools, but is an essential component to ensuring a robust economy. This roundtable session will highlight the collaborative role that 114 state universities are playing in the preparation of strong math and science teachers and the promise of stronger state-university cooperation.

PARTICIPANTS
	Rob Eissler, Chair, House Public Education Committee, Texas House of Representatives; ECS Commissioner; Texas
	Alyson Klein, Staff Writer, Editorial Projects in Education, Ed Week, Maryland
	Jonathan Plucker, Director and Professor, Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, Indiana University, Indiana
	David Sokola, Chair, Senate Education Committee, Delaware Senate; Member, ECS Nominating and Steering Committees;Delaware

12:00 PM -- 12:15 PM
Break (session #230)

PARTICIPANTS
	Efrain Mercado, Jr., Director of Outreach, National Center for Educational Achievement, Texas
	Randy Zook, President & CEO, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, Arkansas

12:15 PM -- 1:30 PM
How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (session #231)
While computers and technology pervade every part of life today, today's schools look pretty much the same as yesterday's schools. Looking inside of schools reveals many opportunities for disruptive solutions, like computer-based learning, to take root. What inhibits these opportunities? What enables them?

PARTICIPANTS
	Lou Ann Evans, Member, National School Climate Network; Member, District Leaders Network,Pennsylvania
	Derek Peterson, International Child/Youth Advocate, Institute for Community and Adolescent Resilience, North Dakota

1:30 PM -- 1:45 PM
Break (session #232)

1:45 PM -- 2:45 PM
State Strategies for Enhancing Teacher Effectiveness (session #233)
Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) includes two basic strategies: 1) Recruiting and retaining top teacher, principal and central office talent, which are key to implement the powerful education improvement strategies needed for big, urban districts and 2) managing that talent around the most effective instructional practice --instruction that can produce large student learning gains. Hear about what's been learned from urban district case studies and how these lessons will form the basis of five action initiatives to be launched in 2009.

2:45 PM -- 3:00 PM
Break (session #234)

3:00 PM -- 4:00 PM
What Does it Take for State Policy to Enable Disruptive Innovation? (session #235)
This follow- up session with Clayton Christensen will provide the opportunity for deeper discussion related to disruptive innovation.

PARTICIPANTS
	Michael Flanagan, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michigan State Department of Education, Michigan
	Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota, 2008-10 ECS Chair
	James Roebuck, Co-Chair, House Education Committee, Pennsylvania House of Representatives; Member, ECS Steering Committee, Pennsylvania
	Florence Shapiro, Chair, Senate Education Committee, Texas Senate; ECS Commissioner; Texas

3:00 PM -- 4:00 PM
21st Century Skills: Flavor of the Month or Here to Stay? (session #236)
Seeking to ensure that students are prepared for changing educational and career demands, states are developing "21st century standards". This session will explore emerging state practices and lessons learned related to 21st century standards and assessments, and how these new tools might complement--rather than supplant--other efforts to help all students achieve high expectations.

3:00 PM -- 4:00 PM
Tapping Technology to Maximize Student Achievement (session #237)
While today's students commonly use technological tools in out-of-school time for learning, social networking and play, many schools are not maximizing technology's capacity to more effectively deliver content, increase student engagement and assess student mastery of knowledge and skills. This session will explore the unfulfilled potential of emerging technologies to increase efficiencies and enhance student achievement.

3:00 PM -- 4:00 PM
A New Model to Improve Math Instruction & Student Learning in the Early Years (session #238)
There are three critical areas of study that appear to make a difference in teacher practice, and ultimately, student learning: subject-specific content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and the use of evidence of learning to meet immediate learning needs. Educational Testing Service and Tennessee State University have involved a consortium of Tennessee HBCUs in a professional development project in order to address and integrate the content from all three areas to form a powerful professional development experience. Funded by the State of Tennessee, the project involves a unique partnership between colleges and elementary schools who work together to identify, develop and implement best practices in mathematics. The process of establishing the project, necessary components and preliminary results of the effort will be presented along with a "view from within" by participating school principals.

3:00 PM -- 5:00 PM
Making Opportunities Affordable in an Era of Constrained Resources (session #239)
Tennessee ranks 44th nationally in the percentage of its working-age adults with an associate's degree or higher and has significant gaps in participation by geographic area and student socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and age. Furthermore, degree productivity has consistently lagged as state support per student has waxed and waned across economic cycles. Increased degree attainment became the cornerstone of Tennessee's participation in Making Opportunity Affordable (MOA), a multi-state, multi-year initiative funded by Lumina Foundation for Education to increase the degree productivity of state higher education systems. A recent policy audit highlighted several areas in which postsecondary policies lack alignment with the productivity agenda of MOA. Dennis Jones, who led the policy audit, will facilitate a conversation involving representatives of various stakeholders to examine how campuses, localities, the business community, and state policymakers frame the problem and view their role in contributing to solutions.

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #1:Funding Schools in Hard Times (session #240)
Funding education in good times in not easy, but funding education in today's economy takes the challenge to a whole new level. Join this roundtable to hear about and discuss innovative ways that policymakers from around the country are funding education programs.

PARTICIPANTS
	Jamie Merisotis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lumina Foundation for Education, Indiana
	Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota, 2008-10 ECS Chair

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #2: Extending Time & Learning (session #241)
A school redesign model developed in Massachusetts that expands school time by at least 300 hours and engages students more fully in learning is showing great promise. This roundtable discussion will focus on lessons learned from the Massachusetts model and how other states can use ARRA funds and other resources to launch expanded time initiatives.

PARTICIPANTS
	Clifford Adelman, Senior Associate, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, District of Columbia
	Michael Kirst, Emeritus Professor for Education and Business Administration, Stanford University, California

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
New England Secondary School Consortium: Collaboration for College Readiness (session #242)
This collaboration among Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, funded by the Nellie Mae Foundation, will provide high school students with opportunities for high-quality, real-world learning through numerous avenues. Come to this session to learn more about this innovative cross-state effort.

PARTICIPANTS
	Jim Geringer, former Governor, Wyoming and Director, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Wyoming

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #4: Insights on Academic Rigor (session #243)
At this roundtable, participants will have the opportunity to review and discuss new course enrollment and perception data from 10 federally funded State Scholar Initiative states and school districts.

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #5:International Benchmarking (session #244)
ECS has developed an International Benchmarking Toolkit designed to provide strategies, policies, information and other resources to policymakers to allow them to move toward benchmarking state standards to high quality international standards. Participants will discuss how the toolkit can be best used and what is happening in states with regard to benchmarking to international standards.

PARTICIPANTS
	Debra M. Lyons, Director, Governor's Office of Workforce Development, Georgia

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #6:Critical Policy Levers for Community Colleges (session #245)
During this roundtable, participants will discuss innovative state policies in community college finance, access, transfer and articulation, etc. that are enabling community colleges to serve the increasingly diverse populations enrolling in their institutions.

PARTICIPANTS
	Jim Geringer, former Governor, Wyoming and Director, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Wyoming

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #7:Workforce Development & WorkKeys (session #246)
This roundtable will focus on workforce development policies in the states, specifically how ACT's WorkKeys assessments and their National Career Readiness Certificates can be used to help students transition into the work place.

PARTICIPANTS
	Richard Hezel, President & CEO, Hezel Associates, LLC, New York
	Demaree Michelau, Director of Policy Analysis, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Colorado
	Russell Poulin, Associate Program Director, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications WICHE, Colorado

4:15 PM -- 5:15 PM
Roundtable #8:21st Century Skills, 21st Century Content (session #247)
Is learning straight content enough? With such limited time to teach, do educators really need to teach students to "think critically?" Come discuss the issue and share your views on what it really means to prepare students for the 21st Century.

PARTICIPANTS
	Clifford Adelman, Senior Associate, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, District of Columbia
	Michael Kirst, Emeritus Professor for Education and Business Administration, Stanford University, California

6:00 PM
Attendees to walk over to Off-Site Reception (session #280)

6:30 PM -- 8:00 PM
Off-Site Reception (session #290)

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)