Mayor's Education Summit

The initiative involves three phases:

Phase #1: Education Summit (November 15-16, 2011)

The two-day summit November 15-16 in which 100 civic and community leaders, drawn from education, policy makers, business, labor, neighborhoods, service organizations, faith-based communities, and others, explored significant innovations, challenging ideas, and reforms from other jurisdictions.  They then developed a set of scenarios on possible directions for education reform in Anchorage that can be further discussed with citizens. 

Panel presentations were on:

• Creating a World-Class Education System (major systemic reform, international benchmarking, big-picture view of curriculum);
• Ensuring All Children Learn to the Best of their Ability (teacher preparation and evaluation); and
• Alternatives to Traditional Education (curriculum, technology and school choice/alternatives).

Phase #2: Community Conversations (February 2012)

A series of discussions with Anchorage citizens was held in February 2012 to discuss the reform ideas that come out of the November Summit.  During the discussions, citizens explored the  potential reforms and learned about what reforms they would be prepared to support. 

Phase #3: Capstone Summit (June 6-7, 2012)

Participants from the November 2011 Summit and representatives from the Community Conversations will convene to review citizen comments from the Community Conversations and finalize recommendations for several high-leverage reforms and action plans to move them forward.

While Anchorage fares above average in comparison to many other American schools, regretfully that achievement bar is not very high.  Because of Anchorage’s unique location, we are more directly involved with international trading partners than many other American cities.  The goal is to raise the achievement bar for Anchorage schools to a higher standard, such as those of Pacific Rim countries, so our graduates can be internationally competitive.