The following is a news release from former Governor Bev Perdue. For more information, contact Myra Best (myrabest@digitallearninginstitute.org)
SAN DIEGO — School leaders — principals and administrators — need to be trained to be more entrepreneurial and innovative if students are going to be prepared to meet the demands of a modern workplace and effectively participate in their communities and society, former N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue said during a main-stage panel at the ASU-GSV Summit on Education and Workforce Innovation.
“We’re beginning to see the occurrence across the country of entrepreneurs, innovators and the business sector in schools,” Perdue said. “Educators need to embrace these people, understand what they do and how to effectively work with them.”
Similarly, Perdue said, these technology innovators and entrepreneurs need to observe, listen and work with educators – particularly teachers – who best understand how to reach students to achieve the learning goals.
The panel was part of the 2016 Arizona State University/Global Silicon Valley Summit to elevate the dialogue around raising educational outcomes through scaled innovation.
“One of the challenges for us is to take on the education training institutions. If you train principals and administrators to be the same as they were last year then nothing changes.“
Perdue was featured on a main-stage panel: “Why is Education Not More Central to the America Political Discourse,” with Lanhee Chen, former Romney-Ryan education policy director who now is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and former Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty.
“The big problem with education is that we fail to bring teachers and parents into the conversation,” Perdue said.
She added that the poor compensation for teachers means many, who might be the best and brightest leading classrooms and inspiring students, avoid such career choices.
“Teachers need to be treated with the respect they deserve and paid like they matter — after all we entrust what matters most to us – our children and grandchildren to them,” Perdue said.
A video of the entire panel is available online at: http://livestream.com/asugsvsummit/events/5044342/videos/120124912
