Education
BUILDING A HIGH-QUALITY & ACCOUNTABLE EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR TOMORROW’S WORKFORCE
As a proven business leader and the first Governor in 12 years whose own children graduated from Florida public schools, Alex Sink understands the vital link between a vibrant economy, high-paying jobs and a quality education system. Alex will implement a comprehensive education plan during her administration focused on child readiness for school, quality instruction, accountability that measures student performance, investment in our teachers and principals, and getting parents and communities more engaged in our schools. Florida needs a Governor who will lead on statewide education reform -- by inspiring more local innovation and supporting the spread of best practices to all school districts.
Quality Pre-K: Building a Strong Foundation
Pre-school readiness is the foundation for a child’s lifelong success. Research shows that birth to age five are the most important brain development years of a child’s life. Florida was one of the first states to make pre-Kindergarten available to all four-year-olds, but our investment in the program ranks us toward the bottom: the state averages less than $2,500 per child while the national average is more than $4,700.
Put a Bachelor-degreed Teacher in Every Pre-K Classroom. Alex Sink will work with pre-K providers, parents and educators on a reasonable timeline for transitioning pre-K programs to have a degreed teacher in every classroom. Pre-K students taught by a degreed teacher perform much better when tested for learning gains in printing, spelling and math than students in programs without credentialed instructors. Florida must reject the notion that pre-K is glorified baby-sitting: a quality program with a degreed teacher is proven to give children a measurable step up in learning ability and lifetime success.
Require a Consistent Curriculum for All Pre-K providers. Florida lacks a standard pre-K curriculum, meaning that a child’s learning experience can vary across the state. Alex Sink will support the implementation of statewide curriculum standards to help ensure that all children have the same learning opportunities across Florida.
Advance Partnerships with Businesses to Enhance Early Childhood Education. Alex Sink will seek business community support of pre-K education as an investment in their future workforce. Federal grants are available to states building public-private partnerships; North Carolina raised more than $257 million in private funding to improve early learning opportunities for children.
Keep Our Children from Failing and Dropping Out
From grade school to high school and beyond, Florida’s students are failing school at alarming rates. Florida spends more than $300 million a year just on children repeating pre-K through 3rd grade. Dropping out of school has serious financial consequences that follow a child into adulthood. The 2007 median income of people aged 18 through 65 without a high school diploma was about $24,000. Alex Sink believes dropout rates are unacceptable and that Florida’s families, businesses and communities deserve better.
Develop an Early Warning System to Deter Dropouts. Alex Sink will create a statewide data system to track students at risk of dropping out. Factors such as absenteeism, behavioral problems and failing grades in math and English as early as the sixth grade are strong predictors of a student's success or failure in high school. Students showing signs of falling behind will have improvement plans developed with parents or guardians.
Support Career and Technical Academies in High Schools. Alex Sink will support specialized high school diplomas for students with technical skills and certifications for careers. Potential drop-out students must be encouraged to stay in school through alternative learning opportunities that will lead them to jobs after graduation. Alex will work with Florida's school districts, colleges and the industries within their communities to identify the specific programs needed to gain employment and advance in their careers.
Pair Older Student Mentors with Younger At-risk Students. Alex Sink will pilot a peer mentoring program in middle and high schools to help troubled youth. Top-performing high school students, as peer mentors, can be positive role models for younger students.
Invest in Teacher Quality
The quality of teaching may well be the single biggest determinant of the quality of education. A teacher's skill, knowledge and effective use of resources determine what kind of education the child receives. Alex Sink believes we must turn out future teachers from Florida's higher educational institutions who are more prepared to teach, and then give talented teachers incentives to stay in Florida and keep advancing.
Improve Teacher Education Programs and Advance Research in Teaching Skills. Alex Sink will look across the nation and other countries to adapt innovative approaches for Florida's professional education programs. She will replicate in Florida cutting-edge research institutes dedicated to the study of teaching by using private-sector, philanthropic and federal funds.
Attract More Bright Minds to Stay and Teach in Florida. Alex Sink will propose a competitive pilot program offering partial or full state university loan forgiveness for high-performing Florida students who earn their bachelor's degree and commit to teaching in a Florida public school or pre-K program for at least 5 years.
Reform Teacher Compensation Around a Fair, Performance-based System. To attract and retain the best minds to the classroom, we must pay teachers like valued professionals. Higher salaries must come with increased expectations through a performance-based system that rewards excellence and recognizes additional demands placed on participating teachers. Alex Sink will support a fair compensation system built on local collaboration. She will require comprehensive accountability measures to ensure that teachers are fairly rated and that student performance outcomes are being achieved.
Provide Teachers with Career Advancement Opportunities in the Classroom. Alex Sink will work with educators to expand career ladders so teachers can earn additional compensation for taking on extra roles and responsibilities, for demonstrating mastery of certain professional standards or for earning advanced degrees.
Build Better School Leadership
As the "CEO" of a school, principals have critical influence over whether an education reform effort will succeed or fail at the school level. Consequently, Florida must do better at recruiting and retaining competent school leaders by providing the right training and resources. We cannot hold principals to the highest standards of performance without giving them adequate tools to succeed.
Expand Public-private Partnerships to Develop Leadership Skills for Principals. Alex Sink will work to broaden participation in current and expanded leadership programs for principals - particularly leaders from poorer-performing schools.
Encourage Certification Initiatives for Principals. Alex Sink will support rigorous assessment pilots for school leaders, beginning with certification for principals developed by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
Demand Quality Outcomes & Accountability Measures
Alex Sink believes that the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) must be reformed as part of a comprehensive effort to raise student achievement standards, expand how students and schools are assessed, and link both to clearly identified performance outcomes. What we want our students to learn should be considered when achievement standards and tests are being developed. We must ensure that the curriculum is in sync with standards and the right tests are being given to accurately measure student performance. Alex will return primary leadership authority for instructional and curriculum decisions to Florida's professional educators, who will be held accountable for results.
Move Florida Toward Common Performance Standards. Alex Sink will lead Florida in this nationwide effort to define what every American student should learn to be competitive in today's global economy. She will ensure that the unique needs of Florida's schools are addressed and that reform efforts start at the local level - not Tallahassee. Alex will end the era of "top-down" reform, of micromanagement and unfunded mandates. She will review state-mandated policies to cut costs, eliminate duplication and repeal ineffective requirements on schools.
Grade Schools Based on Many Measures of Improvement. Alex Sink believes the state DOE should be a catalyst for statewide school improvement - a clearinghouse for worldwide best practices -- rather than punishing low-performing schools. Alex will lead efforts to grade schools on student progress throughout the year, not on one "high stakes" test score. She will create a peer-selected, statewide advisory group of school board members, principals, teachers, parents, business and community leaders to revamp school assessment, including charter schools, and expand measures for determining school success.
Provide more oversight, transparency and analysis of testing and test scores. Alex Sink supports a proposal by school superintendents to create a statewide "technical oversight committee" to make recommendations for improving test development. Alex supports providing detailed test results to parents, teachers and principals to help pinpoint learning problems so children can improve.
More Engaged Parents, Guardians & Communities
Schools alone cannot be expected to help a child navigate all the emotions, temptations and choices of growing up that often confront children outside the classroom but certainly can impact each student's performance in school. The entire community must respond in ways that help ensure each child has the same opportunity to succeed in school.
Expand Family Involvement & the Role of Schools. Alex Sink will support successful models of school/parent programs to get families more involved in their schools. She will pilot community collaborations to transform schools into after-hours neighborhood activity centers, delivering consolidated and more cost-effective services such as after-school programs, parenting classes, adult GED, financial literacy, job skills and wellness programs.
Promoting Healthier Students. Alex Sink will launch a statewide "Florida Fit" campaign to promote healthier student lifestyles, revamp school menus/snacks and improve school fitness programs. Alex's "Governor's Garden" initiative will expand efforts to grow and use fresh fruits and vegetables for school meals and learning activities.
Build a 21st Century Curriculum
Our students need the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy that's fast-paced, high-tech, and specialized. This means a well-rounded curriculum that includes science, technology, engineering, math, economics, civics and the arts. Alex supports these efforts and, as Governor, would take "STEM" to the next level by ensuring that a strong arts curriculum is included as part of a more expansive "STEAM" initiative. A recent Florida DOE study found that students whose learning included arts courses demonstrated better overall academic performance and lower dropout rates. National studies have shown similar results.
Improve and Expand STEAM Initiatives. Alex Sink will make STEAM a focal point of education in Florida by including it in the college preparatory curriculum for high schools and by incorporating STEAM in afterschool and summer programs. She also will support requiring all high school students to complete a course in financial literacy in order to graduate.
Improve Technology Opportunities in the Classroom. Alex Sink will support evaluating traditional textbook expenses against cost savings potentially achieved by using "e-textbooks" available over the Internet. She also will support efforts - where appropriate and demonstrated to be effective -- to incorporate relevant technologies into lessons, and expand these opportunities for more Florida schools, including through video-teleconferencing.
Support Expansion of Accelerated Learning Programs in High Schools. Florida's schools have excelled in this area; Alex Sink will build on this success with more emphasis on advanced programs, green technology and other technical curriculums.
Accessible, Affordable, Responsive Colleges & Universities
Alex Sink recognizes the value that Florida's higher education system brings in serving the diverse and varied needs of Florida's postsecondary students. She will work to increase the number of students completing workforce training or post-secondary education, whether a technical certificate, a two- or four-year degree program or a graduate degree. She will focus on improving access to higher education, increasing affordability and ensuring that the programs are in place to prepare our students for the high-skilled workplace of tomorrow.
Improve Higher Education Accessibility. Alex Sink will bring together a task force of representatives of our K-12 system, state/community colleges and state universities to provide recommendations for improving access to higher education in Florida. We must create educational opportunities for more students and eliminate roadblocks to their success.
Increase the Proportion of Needs-based Student Aid. Florida is one of only a dozen states that spends more on merit-based scholarships than needs-based aid - comprising only 20% of the state's overall student financial aid. Alex Sink will work to strike a fairer balance with merit-based scholarships, which comprise about 60% of the state's student financial aid.
Ensure Accountability. Alex Sink will hold higher education public institutions to performance standards such as ensuring that students graduate timely and supporting initiatives designed to help college students who are the first in their family to earn a higher education degree.
Reprioritize Education Funding
When Florida voters approved a state lottery in 1986, supporters promised it would be used to supplement existing state dollars dedicated to education. In reality, lottery funds have actually replaced General Revenue dollars. Prior to 1986, education received almost 61% of GR; since then, it has received only 53%. The proportion devoted to public schools dropped between 1988 and 2005 from about 70% to only 40%.
Keep the Lottery Promise. As Florida's economy recovers, Alex Sink will work to reverse the shrinking proportion of Florida's GR investment in education funding. She also will seek to use lottery funding to enhance educational programs as originally intended.
A Common-Sense Approach to Class Size Reduction. Alex Sink supports the proposed adjustment to Florida's class size requirement as a common-sense approach that keeps schools from having to build expensive new classrooms for a handful of additional students. That money is better used to boost student, teacher and school performance. Alex will work to address class size concerns without compromising other reform efforts to improve education
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