Gov. Eliot Spitzer's historic education-reform plan aims to hold New York's schools more accountable than ever before. But is the state's educational-accountability system equipped to meet this challenge?

That question will be the focus of a major public-policy forum Thursday, March 8 at the State Capitol in Albany. Co-sponsored by the Empire Center for New York State Policy and the Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability, the conference will examine whether the state can effectively track over time the progress of students, educators and administrators. The event will also focus on how quickly a new accountability system can be implemented; the role of the federal No Child Left Behind Act; and whether the state's testing program should be redesigned.

The half-day forum, to be held from 9:15 a.m. to noon in the Senate Minority Conference Room (Room 315), will feature distinguished state and national education experts. John C. Reid, Spitzer's assistant secretary for education, will offer welcoming remarks.

Speakers will include Paul E. Peterson, director of the education reform program at Harvard University's Kennedy School and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, and FERA President Thomas W. Carroll, who will present a report recommending changes in the state's accountability system. A panel discussion will then examine Spitzer's "New Paradigm" for accountability. Taking part will be Carl Hayden, chancellor emeritus of the state Board of Regents; Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers; Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association; Thomas L. Rogers, executive director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, and Sol Stern, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and contributing editor of City Journal who's written extensively on New York City education issues.

The Empire Center is a project of the Manhattan Institute, one of the nation's leading non-partisan, non-profit think tanks.

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