ECS Urges State Leaders to Boost College Completion

Jul 21, 2011 by Heidi Normandin

The 2011 ECS National Forum on Education Policy – a premier education policy event for 46 years – was held in Denver on July 6-9. Over 380 policymakers and education leaders from around the country attended, including legislators and legislative staff, gubernatorial staff, chief state school officers, higher education officials, business and industry leaders, and practitioners. Nowhere else does such a broad group of education leaders from diverse perspectives gather to discuss the important education issues from Pre-K to postsecondary.

The 2011 National Forum put a spotlight on higher education issues, with a particular emphasis on remediation, college completion and workforce readiness. The ECS Boosting College Completion and Getting Past Go projects hosted a number of excellent concurrent sessions and roundtables. The concurrent sessions delved deeper into the topics of state investments in higher education, the role of certificates in a college completion and workforce strategy, and college completion.

The projects also hosted a breakfast for a small group of state legislators and a post-Forum workshop on remedial education. Given the importance of remedial education and college completion for many states, an impressive number of attendees – over 50 – stayed for this workshop which was entitled, “Leveraging State Investments in Remedial Education.”

Do you want to learn more about these topics? Visit the ECS National Forum website. Presentations and videos from all of the plenary sessions, the concurrent session on Ensuring a Return on your Higher Education Investment, and a portion of the post-Forum workshop will be posted in the week or two. Check back often to see what’s been added!