Welcome to the California Education Dialogue

Welcome to the Online Dialogue on the California Master Plan for Education! 

For the next two weeks you will have an opportunity to discuss the draft Master Plan for California Education - pre-Kindergarten through postsecondary - with members of the Joint Legislative Committee developing the Master Plan, staff to the Joint Committee and the citizen Working Groups, many education experts who have been involved in the process and numerous participating stakeholders. 

The agenda page http://www.info-ren.org/network-democracy/camp/pa/agenda.shtml gives an overview of the topics that will be covered. There will be additions and possible changes in the next few days, so please check back. This page also links to personal statements from Dialogue participants. 

Today we will begin with personal introductions and a discussion of what you hope a Master Plan will mean for California education (pre-kindergarten through postsecondary).

Our moderators for today and the rest of the dialogue will be John Helie and John Ford. They will help keep the conversation on track, call for clarification and ask for additional perspectives as needed. Each day our discussion will involve a different group of panelists. They include nine members of the Joint Committee, members of the seven working groups and other people who are knowledgeable about the state's education system. We will also be joined by consultants to the Joint Committee and the seven Working Groups, who can provide information about recommendations in the Plan and the process by which it has been developed.

1. In your first posting to the group please tell us something about your prior experience with education, including at the state level. Let us know briefly why you have chosen to participate in this event and what you hope to accomplish in the process.

2. To see the full lists of topics for any day, panelists and background information, go to the Agenda page and click on the topic for the day. 

3. Review "About Dialogue" to learn more about how Online Dialogue works.

The draft Master Plan covers many topics and uses a somewhat specialized vocabulary. If you would like to know more about issues that come up in the online discussion, remember that our Briefing Book contains a large number of references and background materials. If you don't see what you're looking for, never hesitate to ask. Part of the enjoyment of a dialogue is when participants can share information with each other.

We would be happy to have additional participants, so please tell others about the dialogue. Additional students would be very welcome!

Thanks to all of you for participating.

Bob Carlitz
Executive Director
Information Renaissance

Laurie Maak
Dialogue Producer

Rosemary Gunn
Research and Evaluation