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Back to school: Promoting attainment and achievement in K-12 education

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Education has become an economic imperative for American workers. On September 27th The Hamilton Project at Brookings hosted a forum to discuss new approaches to promoting attainment and achievement in K-12 education. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivered featured remarks, highlighting recent progress on education reform, the difficult work still ahead, and the need for innovation to help advance reform efforts.

The Hamilton Project released a series of economic facts about K-12 education in addition to three new discussion papers by outside authors— “Staying in School: A Proposal to Raise High School Graduation Rates,” “Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools,” and “Harnessing Technology to Improve K-12 Education.” Harvard University Professor Roland Fryer, a recent MacArthur Foundation Genius Award Winner; Terry Grier, Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District; Dennis Van Roekel, President of the National Education Association; and Democracy Prep Schools Founder and Superintendent Seth Andrew were among the panelists to discuss the new proposals.

Agenda

Welcome and Introductions

Robert E. Rubin
Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary

Staying in School: A Proposal to Raise High School Graduation Rates

Author: Phil Oreopoulos
Associate Professor of Economics, University of Toronto

Discussant: Terry Grier
Superintendent, Houston Independent School District

Discussant: Elena Silva
Senior Associate, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Discussant: Dennis Van Roekel
President, National Education Association

Moderator: Michael Greenstone
Senior Fellow and Director, The Hamilton Project
The Brookings Institution

Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools

Author: Roland Fryer
Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Faculty Liason, EdLabs

Discussant: Seth Andrew
Superintendent and Founder, Democracy Prep Public Schools

Discussant: Terry Grier
Superintendent, Houston Independent School District

Discussant: Richard Rothstein
Research Associate, Economic Policy Institute; Senior Fellow, Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, University of California (Berkeley) School of Law

Moderator: Roger C. Altman
Chairman, New Visions for Public Schools
Founder and Chairman, Evercore Partners

Harnessing Technology to Improve K-12 Education

Author: Aaron Chatterji
Associate Professor, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Author: Benjamin Jones
Associate Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Discussant: Karen Cator
Director of the Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Discussant: William Tucker
Deputy Director, Policy Development, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Discussant: Dennis Van Roekel
President, National Education Association

Discussant: Eric Westendorf
Founder and CEO, LearnZillion

Moderator: Michael Greenstone
Senior Fellow and Director, The Hamilton Project
The Brookings Institution

Featured Remarks

The Hon. Arne Duncan
Secretary, U.S. Department of Education