Media Credit: Jackie Gilles Teachers gather at the Renaissance Hotel for meetings and seminars on Tuesday afternoon. The conference provides a forum for K-12 teachers to discuss and develop educational policy.

The nation's secondary education leaders addressed a variety of issues on the opening day of the 2008 National Forum on Education Policy from the state level to the classroom level.

The conference, which started Monday in Austin and continued through today at the Renaissance Hotel near the Arboretum, is hosted annually by the Texas Education Commission of the States, a 50-state organization designed to help states exchange information and ideas about K-12 education policy.

A key issue for this year's conference is the upcoming presidential election.

"We're here because there's a crisis in education, which has been building up for the past 40 years," said Holly Zardus of the Strong American Schools in '08 campaign. "My organization is working to put pressure on the presidential candidates to make sure education is a top priority in this election."

Its members include teachers, school administrators, legislators and businessmen. More than 400 secondary educators from around the country registered for this year's forum, which features expert speakers on several subjects, including U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

Education finance reform and student leadership programs are two issues at the forefront of this year's conference. While most leaders in education today agree that the U.S. has fallen behind other countries, they often disagree on the solutions.

Forum attendees from the administrative side of secondary education emphasized standardization at the opening events of the conference on Tuesday. Mitch Johnson, of Celero Partners Corporation, compiles data to track student progress and increase teacher accountability. Others at the conference stressed an increase in quality training and resources for teachers.

"We need to pay more attention to English-as-a-second-language students," said Margarita Calderon of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Research and Reform in Education. "There are a lot of students not being helped and not graduating because when they fall behind in reading comprehension and vocabulary in middle school, they can't catch up in more difficult classes in high school. Teachers can really make a difference, but teacher training needs to be revamped, especially for middle schools."

Arlene Lee, of the Hawaii State Teacher's Association, acknowledged that progress has been made in recent years.

"Many states are moving towards bigger, state-run school systems because some districts are more affluent than others," Lee said. "But with a statewide system, funds can be distributed in not an equal but an equitable way, depending on each district's needs."

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