On December 20  Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia and staff from the Alliance’s advocacy team held a panel discussion of what did and did not happen in 2011 in the way of education policy, and what to expect for 2012. The panelists also addressed questions submitted by webinar viewers from across the country.

On December 14, the Alliance for Excellent Education released new data projecting the economic benefits that would likely come to states if they were to ensure that even their most at-risk students achieved postsecondary success. Participants from the K–12 and higher education sectors shared examples of how this can be achieved, pushing past the traditional idea of alternative education programs and highlighting schools and programs designed to support dropouts and off-track students beyond high school completion and through to a postsecondary credential.

On Monday, December 12 the Alliance for Excellent Education held a webinar that highlighted its new issue brief, “Expanded Learning Opportunities: A More Comprehensive Approach to Preparing High School Students for College and a Career.” The webinar explored how expanding the learning opportunities for high school students can create a range of options for schools and districts as they seek to improve outcomes for students and address the unique barriers that many high school students face that prevent them from graduating ready for college and a career. Distinguished panelists discussed the research and policy context of when, where, how, and from whom students learn; shared insights from innovative initiatives that are implementing “anytime, anyplace” learning to meet the needs of high school students; and addressed questions submitted by webinar viewers from across the country.

On December 9 the Alliance for Excellent Education held a webinar examining the digital learning imperative that faces schools today. The webinar featured Candice Dodson, director of e-Learning at the Indiana Department of Education; Bob Farrace, senior director for communications and development at the National Association of Secondary School Principals; Gilbert Trevino, Superintendent of Floydada school district near Lubbock, Texas; Emily Sheketoff, associate executive director of the American Library Association; and Bob Wise, president of the Alliance and former governor of West Virginia. The panelists spoke about digital learning and how it can benefit students; they also answered questions submitted by viewers across the country.

On November 30 the Alliance for Excellent Education held a webinar examining NAEP results reading and math in brades four and eight. The webinar featured Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics; Dr. Cornelia Orr, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board; and Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia.

On November 29 the Alliance for Excellent Education held a webinar featuring two educational leaders—Yvette Jackson of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education and author of The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools; and Julie Evans, chief executive officer of Project Tomorrow—who described how to change the essential learning conditions within high schools and provided the pedagogical and technological tools to enable and empower students to achieve high intellectual performance. Alliance Senior Fellow Mariana Haynes moderated the discussion and fielded questions from webinar viewers across the country.

The recently released report On Track for Success: The Use of Early Warning Indicator and Intervention Systems to Build a Grad Nation is the most up-to-date and comprehensive view on the cutting-edge EWS. The report overviews the research, shares emerging best practices from the field, and provides policy recommendations. The Alliance for Excellent Education, Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, and the Data Quality Campaign held a webinar on November 9 to discus this topic. Guest speakers included Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education; John Bridgeland, chief executive officer of Civic Enterprises, Bob Balfanz, codirector of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University; and Lyndsay Pinkus, director of national and federal policy initiatives at the Data Quality Campaign.

On October 20, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed a bill to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), by a bipartisan vote of 15 to 7. The next step in the legislation process is for the Senate HELP Committee to hold a hearing on the legislation and then for the bill to go to the Senate floor. But when is the bill likely to go to the Senate floor and how likely is the bill to pass when it gets there? And how does the Senate bill compare with the House’s plan to reauthorize ESEA?Members of the Alliance’s federal advocacy team held a webinar on November 1 to answer these questions and more. They also reviewed significant changes to NCLB that were contained in the Senate bill and took questions from webinar participants.

Hear from representatives from the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Urban League. The panelists discussed the current political dynamics, details of the waiver package, and strategies of how communities of color and Native communities can work together and with their states to incorporate reform. Panelists also answered questions submitted by viewers.

Please join the Alliance for Excellent Education on Tuesday, October 18, 2011, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., ET, for a forward-looking discussion with state leaders on the opportunities and challenges that will be part of the implementation process of the common core state standards. Immediately following the briefing, please join the Alliance for a book party to celebrate the release of Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education (Harvard Education Press, 2011), the soon-to-be-released book by Alliance Senior Fellow Bob Rothman.