The Council for Educational Change is the successor organization to the South Florida Annenberg Challenge. The Challenge was a tri-county (Miami, Broward and Palm Beach) commitment and effort to identify factors that increase student academic performance. This was the key focus insuring that if every child could get a quality education every child could succeed.

 

Three factors that continually surfaced in successful initiatives lead to the development our programs. The factors are the:

1. quality of leadership at the school site;

2. ability of teachers to effectively deliver instruction;

3. and the partnership of parents and business supporting the school community.

 

Over the course of 20 years the Council for Educational Change developed programs that: created business and community partnerships with schools; enhanced school leadership development and support; prepared and engaged educators; promoted parental engagement; and addressed critical Issues in education.  

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At the beginning,.. the Evaluation Findings of the six-year South Florida Annenberg Challenge concluded that in order to improve student performance in under achieving schools, the quality of leadership at the school site is essential.

 

"If principals are able to build a vision of excellence; establish a strong school culture; select, retain and support effective staff to carry out the vision; and engage parents and the business community, students will succeed."

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The Council for Educational Change created leadership programs based on the Annenberg research. This led to the development of the Council's signature Partnership to Advance School Success (PASS) and Executive PASS programs; and career-focused education initiative, Career Awareness Leadership Program designed to prepare students for the future.

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Over the years... with the support of private funders, corporations, foundations, and the Florida Department of Education, we were able to make a difference in the lives of over 1.5 million students throughout Florida. Council programs engaged hundreds of business executives to personally get involved in the business of education.  These partnerships impacted and benefitted over a 800 hundred schools throughout Florida . The Council’s premiere executive mentoring programs (PASS© and Executive PASS©) successfully established relationships between educational and business leaders. These programs created an awareness of the importance of working within our communities to give students a quality education.

 

The Council’s Career Awareness Leadership Forum, received recognition as an effective program to close the Jobs/Skills mismatch. More and more school leaders, career counselors, and most importantly students are became aware of job and career opportunities that exist in their communities. The Forums also aligned industries with school districts and schools.

 

We are very excited to share with you what we have been able to achieve and the programs that allowed us to successfully impact Florida's educational landscape. Unfortunately, the Council was one of the casualties of the Covid virus and had to close its doors in 2021. We leave a legacy of effective educational programs that effectively had an impact on school leadership that was at the core of advancing student academic achievement. On behalf of the hundreds of educators and thousands of students who are the beneficiaries of our efforts, we thank our partners and donors for their support of our mission.