Education reform in the United States is currently being influenced by multiple institutions, including government agencies and legislatures, national organizations and national consortia, school districts and stakeholders, lawyers and courts, and private foundations. Indeed, many of these institutions are impacting education reform in a manner that is quite disproportionate to their contributions of dollars. The purpose of the proposed roundtable is to ask representatives from five of these institutions to discuss their objectives, strategies, and initiatives in spurring education reform and to grade the success of their efforts thus far. Examples of major education reform initiatives include: • The U.S. Department of Education’s: Race to the Top, and NCLB waivers, and the Teacher Incentive Fund (providing support for performance based compensation for educators) • The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State Schools Officers (CCSSO) and their support, backed by federal funding for the Common Core and national test consortia • States, such as Colorado with its revamped teacher tenure rules • The Gates Foundations substantial financial support to intensive partnership sites such as Hillsborough County, to implement ambitious human capital systems involving multiple measurement of educator • lawsuits on behalf of students by the ACLU and Ted Olson, the former Solicitor General, to sue for students’ right to be taught by an effective teacher The moderator will invite the national experts discuss specific initiatives developed and launched by their institutions and how they pushed their initiatives to the forefront of reform.