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Education summit focuses on improvement
Reporter-News photo by Nellie Doneva Local educators gathered for the Abilene Regional P-16 Fall Summit at the Abilene Country Club to discuss education issues.
More Education Many might look at school as divided into distinct stages -- elementary, middle school, high school and possibly a form of higher education.
But the Abilene region's P-16 Council -- which held its first summit Monday -- views education from prekindergarten through finishing college as one smooth process.
More than 200 area education, business and civic leaders attended the summit, hosted by State Rep. Susan King, R-Abilene.
"This is a good first effort as far as a conference," said King. "We talk about how important (education) is, but when you can get these people together for a dialogue, it really gives validity to the conversation."
Randy Pool, chair of the regional P-16 board of directors, said Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott's presence at the summit showed the importance of the work within the council.
"This region has 50,000 (students) in it. Dallas ISD has 175,000. I think all these issues are important enough for the commissioner to come here and speak to a group in West Texas," Pool said.
The state Legislature officially formed the P-16 Council in 2003, but the Abilene council didn't start its work until November. Pool said the goal of the regional council is to find the best ways for students from pre-K to college receive the best education possible.
"We need to shift the way we keep thinking about the same old problems," Pool said.
Pool said one of the council's roles is to take the best teacher practices from around the state and nation, and apply them to problems within the region.
"Say there's a third-grade math issue," Pool said. "We need to work out instances where students have success in third-grade math and bring that so we're not constantly trying to reinvent everything."
Pool presented data from the region on graduation rates and TAKS success rates.
Other presenters spoke on college readiness standards, workforce readiness and its economic impact, understanding poverty and the initiatives of the P-16.
"I think a lot of educators didn't know what their real purpose was," said King. "Many times with a law, you put something in the framework but it isn't enacted or cemented or really functioning actively and it may not be for a whole year. If we don't really seek influence, it's just another council."
Posted by dlperkabi on October 7, 2008 at 11:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm curious as to how many teachers were in attendance. Is it too logical to assume that the people in the trenches every day should be asked for input and solutions instead of relying on "leaders" who rarely (if ever) set foot in a classroom or a school? These business, education, and civic leaders ought to be required to "observe" in the classrooms, hallways, teacher lounges, cafeterias, etc. for a minimum of 60 hours before they start making any recommendations as to how to improve education. TEA Commissioner Scott's background is not in education, but in law.
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