Presiding: Richard Colvin, Education Sector

It’s hard enough to get high school dropouts to return to school. But how do you get them into college? And even more important, get them to complete college? The American Council on Education’s Nicole Chestang discusses a major overhaul of the General Educational Development program run by the GED Testing Service. Laurel Dukehart, president of the Gateway to College National Network, describes her organization’s work to get dropouts successfully through college. And Diego James Navarro explains how his Academy for College Excellence is getting underprepared students in and out of college.

Evaluating a College Education: What Are Students Learning? – Pontalba Room

Presiding: Kevin Corcoran, Lumina Foundation for Education

The new book Academically Adrift contends that college students aren’t learning much, at least in their first two years. One of the authors, Richard Arum, describes his conclusions and makes recommendations on how to solve the problem. Charles Blaich of the Center for Inquiry at Wabash College discusses his research on how to tell what students are learning. Joe May, president of the Louisiana Technical and Community College System and a member of the National Accountability Committee for Community Colleges, will explain efforts by his college and others to provide students and parents with data on how much students learn.

What does it take to make teaching a profession people want to enter? How can reporters put the current union strife in states like Wisconsin and Ohio in the context of ongoing discussions about teacher quality and evaluation?

NPR's Claudio Sanchez leads a lively discussion on these topics and more between American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel.

Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here and co-producer of the new documentary The Interrupters, talks about the crippling effects of violence on young people's capacity to learn. 

Incoming Education Writers Association President Stephanie Banchero introduces Kotlowitz at the EWA's annual luncheon honoring the winners of the 2010 National Awards for Education Reporting.

This is the first in a series of podcasts chronicling the sessions at EWA's 64th Annual National Seminar.

In the five and a half years since Hurricane Katrina, the education landscape in New Orleans has changed dramatically. Can some of the lessons learned by school officials and education advocates apply to districts nationwide? Our panel, led by Sarah Carr of the Times-Picayune, includes:

• Shannon Jones, executive director of Tulane University’s Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives
• Aesha Rasheed, New Orleans Parent Organizing Network Director
• Margaret Raymond, director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University
• Paul Vallas, superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District