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Today, the Florida Department of Education unveiled a new website that is intended to help Florida families make critical education decisions by "enabling them to access school and district-level data and will better inform families about the state's college and career ready standards and the quality of learning taking place in their students' classrooms." The website is live at www.FloridaStudentsAchieve.org. You are able to narrow down your search by district and compare schools within the district. Search and compare schools here.  The Chamber of Commerce is working in partnership with the Doug Lockwood and the Winter Haven Public Education Partnership, numerous volunteers and interested citizens to take a look back at the report created 5 years ago by the Chamber's education task force that eventually became the basis of WHPEP. While PEP has implemented many initiatives, including the tutoring center in Florence Villa, advocacy that led to the the Cambridge Program at Winter Haven High School and the Career Connection program spearheaded by volunteer Nat West, there is still a lot of work to be done in Winter Haven schools. With a district as large as Polk County it takes persistence to see change, improvement and support. Part of that requires one to become familiar with the challenges facing our teachers and administrators as well as identifying benchmarks for school quality. We will be working closely with the district and School Board in the coming months to come up with solutions that will provide the best educational opportunities to the children of Winter Haven. More information will be distributed as the Chamber continues to be strong advocates for a improved education system. The rest of the Florida Department of Education Press release is below:
“We take great pride in the fact that Florida leads the nation in school choice and student performance,” Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said. “Through the Florida Students Achieve website, we provide a central location where parents and families can access the information they need to make the best education decisions for their students. It is my hope that all Floridians will take advantage of this tremendous resource.” One of the website’s primary functions is the school performance search tool, which ultimately enables parents to search by district, zip code, city or other geographic data view and then compare school and district data. “I am confident that this new tool will revolutionize the way students and parents learn about the schools in their area and throughout the state,” State Board of Education Chair Marva Johnson said. “I commend the department for responding to the needs of Florida’s families with this informative, intuitive and transparent website, and I look forward to its continuous development.” In addition to performance data, the site provides information relevant to current and future students of all ages and includes easy-to-find information about the Florida Standards, school and district performance results in core subjects, educator effectiveness and graduation and postsecondary statistics. Thanks in large part to its business-friendly climate, companies from around the nation have moved their headquarters to Florida; more than 1.1 million private sector jobs have been created; and the state’s unemployment rate has continually dropped. Another benefit to the Florida Students Achieve website is that it can be a helpful tool for anyone interested in moving to Florida. “Education is one of the key factors that business leaders consider when determining the best location for their company’s operations,” Tony Carvajal, Florida Chamber Foundation Executive Vice President said. “This innovative approach to sharing school performance data and the state’s progress in education is precisely what we need to continue attracting prospective businesses that will bring more jobs to Florida.”
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