Annual Conference a Huge Success
On November 16-18, PEN gathered LEF executive directors, staff, Board members, and a number of community partners in a substantive annual meeting that served as a three-day learning community and a forum to stimulate new thinking on the issues affecting public education.

Held in San Francisco, the event honored and celebrated 25 years of local education funds in the area where they began. It examined the legacy of LEFs, the focus of their work, and the impact that their work has had on public education.

Listen to an audio montage of PEN members, national education leaders, and partners expressing thanks for PEN's contributions to education reform and public engagement. Click here.

Below are some initial highlights. Please continue to check back for more.

The Impact of Public Opinion
Celinda Lake, President of Lake Research Partners, spoke about "The Impact of Public Opinion" on public education. She expressed that public opinion is a powerful determiner of how certain institutions are valued. While we may often hear that public schools are not as good as they should be, it is also true that in most school districts the users of the local school are less likely to find the school lacking. She examined how we understand public opinion and what drives our "knowing," and who crafts opinion into "fact." This session examined trends in public opinion on education and related issues, and the political and social ramifications of these trends.
Click here to see the PowerPoint presentation.

Global Challenges & International Assessments
Andreas Schleicher, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, spoke about "Global Challenges & International Assessments." He explained that in the global economy, it is the world's best education systems, not simply improvement by local or national standards that are the yardstick to success. Drawing on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), his plenary address compared quality and equity in schooling outcomes across the world's major economies, and identified policy lessons to be learned from top performers and rapid improvers.