Suzanne W. Peck, President of Peck Consulting, led this symposium of Educational Leaders.

MILE (Metropolitan Institute for Leadership in Education)
was funded by the State of Illinois to address the impacts of 'cultural
dissonance' such as disruptive student behavior, low expectations for
student achievement, poor or non-existent pre-school preparation, family
poverty, parent disaffiliation with the schools, and increasing numbers of
non-English speakers. These phenomena were identified as barriers to
success in the classroom, and are related to matters of inadequate funding,
race, class, and gender.