While education is essential for an individual to realize his or her true potential, ideally an equitable and effective education system also facilitates social mobility and leads to the development and increased prosperity of societies as a whole. Great strides have been made in providing enhanced access for children and young adults to education worldwide, but substantial gaps remain. The Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) are convening a seminar series to identify where these educational and social mobility gaps still exist, what effect they have, why they persist -- or increase sometimes, even in societies where the economy is growing - and what can be done to eliminate them. Arising from a planning meeting in 2010, this 2011 session will focus on education up to age 18, to be followed in 2012 by a session which will address the same key` issues in connection with post-secondary education and the transition to the workplace and lifelong learning.

Each of the seminar sessions will contribute to a Salzburg Strategy outlining the policy framework needed to address educational attainment gaps and social mobility while we establish a global advocacy group and forum "Optimizing Talent Worldwide". In addition, a series of papers, commissioned specially for the sessions, will be published as collections, in the light of our discussions at Salzburg.

As part of the development of the Salzburg Strategy, this year's session will bring together sixty established and emerging leaders in the field, educational researchers, policy makers, practitioners and advocates from around the world. It will highlight education up to age 18 by examining three areas of global significance educationally. Through the exchange of case studies showing best practice and innovation, each will address the needs of under-served populations in diverse regions of the world, North and South:

a. Education: establishing consensus on the principles of basic education needed to ensure social mobility.

b. Finance: understanding the cost and creating strategies for leveraging the investment necessary for relevant and high quality basic education, i.e., who should, and how should, we pay for it

c. Policy: producing policy strategies and processes for advancing educational achievement, quality, access and attainment, especially for the most disadvantaged populations, i.e., what policies will sustain social mobility

d. Transitions: we will examine the sequence of access, quality, and completion issues from the pre-school and early childhood level, through primary and secondary education, and beyond to the post-secondary level, including vocational education, community colleges and universities.

Other specific issues to be tackled under our main headings include: teacher training, gender-related discrimination, talent identification, and the need for effective harmonization of educational and labor market policies.

Participants will seek to identify where interventions are most needed and have the most potential for success in helping disadvantaged populations, not only to gain access to quality education, but also to complete their education.

ETS Policy Notes - 'Optimizing Talent: Closing Educational and Social Mobility Gaps Worldwide', derived from 2010 preparatory meeting at Salzburg Global Seminar:

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