At the annual meeting of the National Governors Association last summer, Louis Gerstner, Chairman and CEO of IBM, invited the nation's governors to a meeting that IBM offered to host. The governors accepted the invitation, and thus the idea of the 1996 Education Summit was born.
The summit will take place March 26–27, 1996, at the IBM conference facility in Palisades, New York. It will be hosted by CEO Gerstner and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, chair of the National Governors Association. The published agenda promises a focus on improving the performance of all students through implementing state or local academic standards, developing assessments to measure critical knowledge and skills, and providing a knowledge base about ways technology can be used to help all students learn at high levels.
The stated goals of the summit are to build commitment among the participants for taking prompt actions to help states and communities build consensus on education issues; develop and implement rigorous academic standards, assessments, and accountability; and integrate technology into schooling to help students meet those standards.
The 1996 summit seeks to build on efforts by governors and business leaders to achieve the national education goals adopted after the 1989 Education Summit in Charlottesville, Va., attended by President Bush and 50 governors. At that summit, a broad vision of education goals for the nation was set forth. The goals were announced in February 1990, and the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) was formed that July to issue annual reports on the progress of both the nation and the states toward the goals.
Those goals were an important and necessary first step—but most of us recognize that simply setting goals is not enough. Many of us continue to feel frustrated by our inability to accelerate the reform movement. Many of us are also deeply concerned that education issues are becoming increasingly partisan. Some observers even suggest that the intensity of current partisan fighting is obscuring the urgency of the need to improve education performance. Today more than ever, we must create a bipartisan effort to focus on improving education at all levels.
A Broader Effort
A notable difference between the proposed summit and the Charlottesville conference is the involvement of the business community. Participation at the 1996 summit will be limited to 130 people, including all governors, one key business leader from each state (invited by the governors), and a limited number of others.
Ideally, for the summit to be successful, a broad spectrum of educational, political, and community leaders must be involved. As only a small number of people will attend, however, the summit cannot provide that kind of representation. Therefore, we should view the summit not as a defining event but as part of an ongoing process to focus state leaders on the need to promote school improvement. The summit is a prime opportunity to get education back on the radar screens of the governors' agendas—to fix their attention on education issues and children's needs.
Because the summit can be effective only if it is part of an ongoing, broader effort, stakeholders in many states have held meetings prior to the national event. These meetings raised the issues, began the discussion, and set the stage for whatever will happen at the summit. ASCD's overriding stake in the success of all efforts to improve education compelled us to play as strong a role as possible in this process. To do this, the Association informed its membership and affiliates about the issues slated for discussion and the implications of this gathering of the nation's governors and CEOs.
We encouraged all those who had the opportunity to share their concerns and their opinions with their state leadership. Further, ASCD disseminated information directly to the governors, state business leaders, education agency leaders, their support staffs, and other participants in the March summit.
The summit will, we hope, provide a unique opportunity for ASCD's leadership and members to team with state political, business, and education leaders in efforts to improve all students' achievement. Republican or Democrat, CEO or classroom teacher, we all share this goal, which will be realized only if we all work together.