Another chance to see our 1991 interview with ben bradlee who passed away this week. Chris the 20 15th cspan student camera competition is underway open to all middle and High School Students to create a documentary of the theme, the three branches and du, show how policies or law or action by the branches of the federal government has affected you or your community. There are 200 cash prizes or students and teachers. For a list of rules and how to get started, go to our website. A portion of this years women of color empowerment conference. You will hear from the National Superintendent of the year on immigration and education. Discussions on Net Neutrality and what is ahead for congress after the november election. As remarked by maggie anderson. And remarks by maggie anderson. Our first speaker has worked in the Technology Industry for more than 25 years. She has spent most for career at leading Market Research and fulfillment firms serve as a partner and cio with simmons Market Research for 16 years. Sold it she her partner to experience. She is currently coleading mobile Software Development teams in north america, costa rica, australia, and malaysia. Please welcome her. Thank you. 2 [applause] good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much for that introduction. I had to look around to see who she was talking about. The organizers for extending the invitation to me this morning. They queue for this opportunity. I want to say i am empowered already by looking at all of you this morning and you look fabulous and especially such a saturday. Fantastic. I do want to say i am a Fort Lauderdale native born right here and reared and attended the Public Schools. In thee any titans house, went to nobles. That was a many, many years ago. Ago i wasmany pounds on the drill team. [laughter] i will take you guys off of memory lane and then we would have to sing. For a few minutes this morning what i am going to do is discuss a topic around the internet that has been trolling and getting a lot of attention especially this past week. As you know, the internet has multiple layers of content that we all access every day. Media,ss videos, social pdf files. We access all of the information which is a wealth of information every single day. However, this axis is being threatened by opponents of Net Neutrality. What is Net Neutrality . Trout he is at its most basic fort gives everyone equal access to the power of the internet. Next to travel to Net Neutrality at its most basic give everyone equal access to the power of the internet. The phone company told you we you could call or what you could say on the phone . That would not go over too well, would it . What is happening on the internet, there is legislation , it can, if it goes through sensors the content and what you do on the internet. Compaq, at t, big Telecom Companies are the companies that want these rules to go through. As they stepl do back, the Cable Companies what they have been doing isnt that the lobbying the government to destroy Net Neutrality. Underlying printables that have made the internet so awesome principles that make the internet so awesome. One offer on the topic put it very well and said this is a power grab and the corporate behemoth that wants to lock down the internet and turn it much in the way cable tv is run. If you think about cable tv and you think by direct tv and the services, somehow the Hallmark Channel and some do not. The same can happen with the internet. They would decide which content you could see him and was content your business could push out and of course, that would be or mental. How does this really affected the business . Net neutrality for Small Businesses, startups and entrepreneurs that rely on the internet for businesses, they need the open, free space to create a market, to advertise their product and services and distribute to the customers. We need this open internet across to foster job growth, competition, and innovation. Net neutrality lowers the barriers of entry for theepreneurs and ensures web is a fair and level playing field. It is because of Net Neutrality that Small Business is and entrepreneurs have been able to thrive on the internet. Internet each day to reach out to their new customers and to showcase their goods, their applications, and services. There should be no company that interferes with this open marketplace. By Internet Service provider definition are the gatekeeper of the internet. As gatekeepers, they want to create profit. Neutrality, Companies Like google and companies that started up in a garage, that would not be possible. Those companies especially in the early stages, would not be able to afford the fees that these companies would charge for usage of the internet. So, what is being done about it . I do not know if you know, but on this past wednesday, september 10, several of the more popular websites like cases, and in some reddit, what they did is they a circle that is similar when you are trying to download the video and it is taking time. What they were trying to do is bring attention to what would happen if the internet word to be in a slow would to be in a slow line. Lane, you are trying to bring down a video, you could sit there and wait and wait for your content to come down. Of course, you would be frustrated and you would want to go to the fast lane will stop can would cost you so you get that content. That is one of the things we have to stay out in front of to ensure we are fighting those ks that want to hide hinder our ability to access the internet in a free space. Or its gotd that, to the attention of millions of that werebusinesses redirected to a website and i will tell you, it was called battleforthenet. Com. It was used to flood the decisionmakers with phone calls and emails on this issue. It is one we have to stay in nt of because we can internet discrimination, a slow lane and fast lane. Content blocking and slowdowns. Of thisoppable momentum internet slowdown is a reflection of the public outcry that has been simmering since the fcc first announced his proposals to allow for a divided internet. If we think about it, it is more than about how fast your pages will mud down. History has shown that if a system can be used to censor and marginalized voices, it will be used to do just that. Traveled the business net truth Net Neutrality is the secret ingredient is where everyone has a voice. Has been said all websites are created equally and you shall reliable access for every single thing that the web has to offer. Whether you are clicking on links to your favorite news website or looking at cap video, what ever it is that you dont that you do, you should have the right to access freely. One of the Court Actions on this. And the United States, here in 2014 of this year, the u. S. Court of appeals sent a framework of Net Neutrality back to the u. S. Federal commissioner claiming that the commission had tverreached its authority a blocking content. In other words, the court was saying that in the framework that was to ensure that these on anrs treat all content equal and nondiscriminatory basis was beyond the authority of the fcc. With this ruling from an individual and business stand point, we now do not have any that protection in place will prevent of charges for access to specialized content on the internet. The good news is that for opposition of these changes and though public outcry have kept these actions at they for nearly 20 years. For nearly 20 years. This is not a new issue. There has been fighting on the issue. The Cable Companies and at t and all of those companies, as they grow and get bigger, it becomes more of a direct. We must continue to fight and retain our right to the internet as we know them today. Thank you so much for your time. [applause] thank you very much. That was very informative and we appreciate that. Our next speaker is superintendent of Broward County. Journey has been filled with hard work and perseverance. He was born in jamaica and moved to the u. S. As a young boy. He was the first member all caps family to attend college. And the college he attended what harvard. He was the founder of a management company. Upon leaving, he joined the Chicago Public schools where he served in various strategic roles including chief Information Officer and in october of 2011, he was the 20th as superintendent of the Broward County of the School System. He is leading an effort right schools to theet place where they need to be in terms of technology and the like. There is a bond referendum we are asking Broward County voters to support in november. We bring superintendent robert runcey. [applause] good morning, everyone. Thank you, bernadette. It is a real pleasure to be here. To be andlace southwest florida this morning. Members,r school board shes a great inspirational fighter for our children, social justice, Economic Opportunities for our community. [applause] the Broward County is fortunate to have her on the school board with her leadership. Year off to another great in the Broward County. Studentsbout 263,000 in the district and they continue to do very well. Our last graduating class and june, 16,000 students graduated and earned over 125 million in scholarships. There were number one in the ande of florida for awards distinctions and advanced placement. Number two in the country for africanamerican students who score past in advance placement and number two for hispanic students. Doing quite well there. [applause] we have some exciting new initiatives this year. Scholastic largest Chess Program in the nation. About 34,000 second and third graders as part of the math curriculum to enhance other analytical skills. Their analytical skills. We have the largest Debate Program in the entire country. At every single one of our high schools and roll it out to every middle school. Differenta lot of disciplines together, research, ability to write and figure out and analyze situations, present and defend your ideas, debate is it. It gives our students a bunch of great skills. Of our middle schools [applause] volleyball is a football for girls and boys. And football for girls and boys. Inhave the Largest ProgramComputer Science and over 1600 students in our high schools signed up for that this year. I have heard a lot since i have arrived about creating more options for our students and families. This year, we opened our first school and we k8 continue to turn around some of our struggling schools. Last year, we went through a process. Transformed a number of our schools. One of the hospitals that is first one of our schools. Its first 1a. In aoved from a d to an a single year. We are getting it done. Kara of what helps me get my job done and i am so luckily to have with me, the most dynamic and fabulous empowering woman i know, my wife, diane. Stand up, please. She is the rock of the family. And our three daughters. Ago, we becameks emptynesters as we send our youngest three daughters off to college. We areat princeton, fortunate for that. A second daughter at spellman. [applause] the third daughter is graduated. A proud moment for us as i reflect on that and my journey and count the blessings i have received from god and feel fortunate to be in front of you today. Workinspires me to do the that we do in Broward County is to give every single one of our children the same opportunity i had, the same opportunity as my daughters have host. To get a great education. It should not matter what your peers do for a living it should not matter what your parents do for a living or what zip code you live in. Greation is the equalizer. Every student should have the ability for success. Every student should have the ability to dream about being a doctor, lawyer, engineer, grade teacher, successful Business Owner, or state legislature. Legislator. , butust play video games be able to create them. This . What is the key 12 to all of this . Teachers. , women and control the destiny of this country. I look at some of the great things women have done and our our schools to really transform lives and i think about my situation. One close to home is my oldest daughter, she decided to join teach for america. She was working at new orleans high school. She was working at miami gardens. Was their teaching biology and they had a pretty low pass rate for the final exam. Themsingle year she moved to about 83 pass rate. [applause] a lot of it boils down to, you havee first that to foster relationships with kids. We talk about reading and writing and those are the basics , but we do Something Special beyond that. We helped to develop that human beings and Human Potential and it starts with her was shipped to have with the individual in their school. With the starts relationship you have with the individual and their school. We want our students to learn to critical thinkers and we have to invest in our teachers. Possible for the United States to compete in a Global Economy if we continue to recruit our teachers from the lower ranks of high school graduates, train them poorly, and pay them far less than our highly respected professions like lawyers and doctors and accountants. Holding teachers accountable for their performance of students is not fair and quite frankly, it is kind of foolish. We cannot test our way into excellence. We need policies to compensate, and, educate, develop retain our teachers as we do with other professions and provide them with professional working conditions. We started with changing our accountability system. The Current System in florida has many challenges and i will highlight some of them. First, student results on standardized testing make up 50 of a teachers evaluation and personnel decisions. Most states are half that number. I asked, why . The answer i get is, well, when they were putting this in place, florida look at other states and they were at 25 so they wanted to be tough and make it 50 . Most states are half so we can start by reducing to 25 which will put it in line with most of the country. Secondly, we need to have a more diverse set of measures in order to get a true picture of student teacher performance. Abouttability needs to be helping students and teachers to get better rather than punitive. We need an Evaluation System that can incorporate several te nets you. Need to take into account student achievement and administrative observation. I am a strong believer of peer evaluation. Monitor can actually and help and support and evaluate their colleagues. Finally, if you ever wanted to know what happens in the classroom, asked students. Student surveys especially in high school and middle school should be part of the equation. The consequences of very singular and myopic focus has resulted in a significant narrowing of curriculum for our students down to a handful of subjects, resulting in low Teacher Morale and dwindling applications to our schools of education. Some of the recent forecasts we have in broward, we are anticipating a large wave of retirement over the next 510 years. If you couple this with the fact that 50 of teachers leave the profession within five years, you have a perfect storm of disaster growing out there. Where are the next set of qualified teachers going to come from . Our low income and minority students will be hardest hit, so we cannot allow this to happen. What is the alternative . I will offer five ideas. Instead of placing our bets on teacher evaluations and who needs to be dismissed, lets identify the need of teacher and focus on their development. There is no alternative pipeline of Great Teachers out there. Our strategy has got to be, how do we focus on making our current teachers, average teachers in some cases, much better . Ability touild their engage students so they are excited about learning . We have to create master teachers for highly motivated to and other teachers to improve the level of confidence and competence. Third, instead of testing on preston is every year, our students should take highstakes test only at main gates in their career. Fifth grade when they leave elementary, eighthgrade and 12th grade. I believe these tests should be of Higher Quality than what we a widew and should cover range of the kind of skills that are in demand in the marketplace. We could supplement to this by introducing other test in off years but really sample of students. This is what they do in other countries like finland, which consistently ranks at the top of the world. The millions of dollars saved from doing all of this testing, you could invest in teachers salaries. [applause] and you make the profession more attractive and you bring a lot of different people to it. The important thing is you have to crate incentives for strong teachers and principals to work and low performance. They need to step up and provide funding and resources and not like they do now with the. Andates in broward, we have 31 of those schools on the list and these are schools that scored lowest interbreeding and the state. Interbre