The next three days will present a unique opportunity for each of us to become directly involved in what I believe to be the greatest challenge facing education today: ending the academic achievement gap. NYSUT, under the direction of Vice President Kathleen Donahue and Special Projects Director Debra Nelson, has created an opportunity for you to hear from, and interact with, the leading minds in education, all of whom are currently grappling with this very issue.

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It is our hope that together we will explore not only the achievement gap, but those factors we all understand have significant impact on student achievement: family income, health care, nutrition, and access to early childhood education, to name a few.

This symposium is a continuation of NYSUT's commitment, first made at Commissioner Richard Mills' and the Board of Regents' Summit on New York Education in 2005, to make closing the achievement gap an organizational priority.

It is our hope that by bringing together all the stakeholders committed to ending the gap, this symposium will lead to the next step: an action plan to move us toward solutions for ending the achievement gap.

This symposium is an opportunity to ask the hard questions and to be challenged on some of the basic premises we often take for granted.

In order to be successful, we must be prepared to be vulnerable - to take risks. To be successful, we must be guided, at least for the next three days, by Eleanor Roosevelt's famous quote: "Do something every day that scares you."

I look forward to a successful conference and to a constructive exchange of ideas.

Sincerely,

Richard C. Iannuzzi

President