Giving Utah's students the education they need to either get a job or go to college was the topic of discussion at the Utah Education Policy Forum Monday.

Teachers, school board members, legislators, researchers and others hashed out all sorts of policy issues that face public and higher education during the all-day meeting downtown. The previously hot topic of school choice was discussed, as well as education finance and accountability, recruiting and retaining quality teachers, and preparing students for post-secondary education.

"It gives us an opportunity to build a stronger collective around education policy issues in order to improve teaching and learning in our state," said Andrea K. Rorrer, director of the University of Utah's Utah Education Policy Center.

Perhaps the highlight of the event was a keynote address by Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who spoke of reforming education in America. She called educators the country's "heroes," and "the preface of all other professions."

"To truly take advantage of the commitment of our educators, we have to transform the system," she told the group at the 23rd Floor Event Center at the Wells Fargo Building. Keeping up with the demands of the 21st-century economy, she said, requires more knowledge than 20th-century schools can put out.

"Our students will have jobs that haven't been invented yet," Darling-Hammond said, emphasizing the challenges and pressures current teachers face in educating future generations. Those include a greater need for knowledge-based learning, higher standards for education, more diverse students and greater expectations for success.

Darling-Hammond encourages teachers to use active learning techniques, engaging students in as many ambitious, hands-on learning experiences as possible. Continual assessment, using a "support-and-renew psychology instead of the current test-and-punish system," is essential to making sure students are learning, she said.

"This is our future," she said. "Education is going to make or break us."

Research shows Utah falls near last in the nation in per-pupil spending, with teaching jobs becoming increasingly available because of low pay and few incentives. Darling-Hammond said in order for the nation to compete with others, it has to make an investment in education.

That investment was discussed on all levels, including getting students into higher education, which Rich Kendell, Utah's commissioner of higher education, emphasized Monday. Participation rates, he said, "are moving in the wrong direction."

Working partnerships such as the K-16 Alliance, which was formed to make public education and higher education more cohesive in Utah, are ways to fix what Kendell calls a "fractured community." Providing education as early as possible and at the lowest possible cost are also important, he said.