New York State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills will be the featured speaker at a Nov. 15 luncheon in Westchester County designed to encourage business leaders to get involved in advocacy for public-school reform.
The seminar is part of The Business Council’s “Engage New York” seminar series. It is being co sponsored by the Business Council of Westchester. The event is scheduled to take place at noon at the Rye Town Hilton in Rye Brook, Westchester County. Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Commissioner Mills is expected to discuss the business community’s role in education policy.
The Business Council’s Engage New York series was launched in September 2003 with the goal of uniting New York’s business community in an ongoing effort to sustain public-school education reform in New York. Its goal is to give business leaders information that can help them influence the debate on education reform around a common standards-based improvement agenda, said Margarito Mayo, The Council’s director of quality, education, and training.
“New York State is a leader in standards-based education, but we’re now facing the hardest part of the challenge: staying on course as schools struggle to meet new requirements,” Mayo said. “Businesses can and should help New York meet this challenge—by keeping the focus on student achievement, meeting standards, and measuring success with an objective, statewide system.”
Through the Engage New York series, the Council is emphasizing five priority goals for education reform, Mayo said. These goals are:
- Sustaining New York’s commitment to higher standards.
- Increasing the emphasis of schools on math, science, and
technology.
- Encouraging schools to improve, and finding ways to recognize
them when they do.
- Enhancing teacher quality.
- Ensuring that school districts, schools, administrators, and principals are held accountable for the performance of schools.