State Leaders to Examine Urgent Education Issues at SREB Annual Meeting in Florida, June 24-26

Scheduled speakers include SREB President Dave Spence, Council of Chief State School Officers Executive Director Gene Wilhoit, State University System of Florida Chancellor Mark Rosenberg, and SREB Senior Vice Presidents Gene Bottoms and Lynn Cornett. Delaware Secretary of Education Valerie A. Woodruff, the SREB Board Vice Chair, will preside at the three-day meeting.

Some highlights of the meeting will include:

• A session and the release of a report on trends in statewide high school exams, showing how students are performing and how many states are moving toward end-of-course exams, which can more closely measure students' academic skills and college and career readiness.
• A session and the release of a draft report on improving K-12 school leadership, including more learning-focused statewide school leadership standards, the redesign of principal preparation programs, and more. SREB will officially release a major report detailing state progress on improving school leadership soon after the meeting.
• The release of the 50th anniversary edition of the SREB Fact Book on Higher Education, which examines trends in higher education, including impressive gains in the percentages of black students graduating from college, a call for increased attention to college affordability, and a call for states to help more students finish college — especially those from traditionally undereducated populations.
• A session on the need for states to better-prepare high school graduates to continue their learning through college and career studies, including the impact of states’ college transfer policies and the need for states to adopt statewide college-readiness standards that can help students make smoother transitions from high school into college. SREB will release a report on states' college-transfer policies at the meeting.
• A session on progress in most SREB states in developing virtual schools to help students take the high school courses they need online, even if they are not available locally.
• A discussion of how states can work to improve career/technical education as technologies and the economy evolve.

For more information about SREB’s Annual Meeting, or to learn more about this conference or the issues addressed at the meeting, contact SREB Communications.

SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.