Three-Day Education Summit Underway In Clearwater

John O'Connor / StateImpact Florida

Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho introduces himself at Gov. Rick Scott's education summit.

Florida educators have kicked off a three-day education summit in Clearwater to discuss standards, testing, the state school grading formula and teacher evaluations.

Gov. Rick Scott invited more than three dozen people to the summit, including parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, representatives from unions and other professional groups, lawmakers, business leaders and others.

So far, participants have introduced themselves and laid out their policy beliefs by way of praising strengths of Florida’s accountability system. Department of Education staff is briefing attendees on the four summit topics.

Interim education commissioner Pam Stewart said the state has a “moral, ethical and legal obligation” to make sure tests actually measure Florida’s education standards. Stewart also said the formulas for school grades and teacher evaluations should be easy to understand.

Teacher evaluations should be “fair, transparent and needs to identify strengths and ways that teachers can improve their craft,” Stewart said.

You can watch the summit at The Florida Channel. Tomorrow, the summit will take up standards in the morning and testing in the afternoon. Wednesday, the summit will discuss the school grading formula in the morning and teacher evaluations in the afternoon.