Governor's Historic Education Accountability Summit Kicks Off
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Governor's Historic Education Accountability Summit Kicks Off
~ Three-day meeting brings together dozens of education leaders to discuss best ideas of improving Florida's education success ~Clearwater, Fla. - Governor Rick Scott thanked participants kicking off an historic three-day Education Accountability Summit that will provide important discussion on the best ways to continue Florida's national leadership in education success.
"The future of Florida's success depends on a public education system that prepares every student for success in college, a career and in life," said Governor Scott. "I want to thank all of the attendees for sharing their time and passion in focusing on our shared goal of providing Floridians with a quality education system that supports students, teachers and parents."
The Summit's agenda, a previous release with a list of attendees, copies of presentations and a live webcast are all available at www.fldoe.org.
The four topics that summit members will discuss are:
- State Standards. Continuing to raise the bar on education standards, by including an emphasis on critical and analytical thinking, to drive continued improvement by Florida students;
- State Standard Assessments. Ensuring the assessment that replaces the FCAT will accurately measure the more challenging standards that will be taught to our students, provides meaningful performance information to our students, is cost effective, results are timely provided and we do not unnecessarily become intertwined with the federal government.
- School Grades. Improving our education accountability system to further ensure transparency and fairness while providing meaningful and useful information to our parents and educators about how our students and schools are performing; and
- Teacher Evaluations. Understanding how our teachers are evaluated, ensuring transparency throughout the process and using a fair system to identify, recognize and reward our highly performing teachers.
Today was the first day of a three-day session. Florida Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart welcomed dozens of attendees invited by Governor Scott, Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford along with the help of statewide education leaders and officials. Attendees represent a wide range of Floridians including parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, the Legislature and business groups.
"Hearing so many great ideas from so many people committed to a common goal of helping students succeed is a wonderful start to this summit," said Commissioner Stewart. "I look forward to listening to all Floridians dedicated to ensuring a bright future for each student."
Today, Florida Department of Education experts presented overviews of the four topic areas before participants met in smaller groups to share visions of how Florida's education system should continue to evolve. The next two days will provide a forum for more specific ideas to be discussed.
All Floridians can submit ideas and comments to and will be shared with attendees.