Just back from the nation's capitol speaking to lawmakers, Miami-Dade schools’ superintendent took South Florida legislators on a tour to highlight what's right with county schools.
During the Community Education Tour officials got a glimpse of improvement happening inside the classroom.
"This is now time to tell the story,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who lead a group of lawmakers, school administrators and other elected officials to five schools making progress.
The first stop is Miami Edison where Carvalho took time to interact with students.
"I was telling him were working on multiple meanings of our words, like the antonyms and synonyms of words,” said ninth grader Pierreline Larose.
The school was chosen because of it's history as a low performing school. School officials said that reputation is just that: history.
"This is the epicenter of where the battles being fought. This is a school that's made tremendous gains with great achievements and was on the chopping block last year of potentially being shut down,” Carvalho said.
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"That is until the district challenged the state to keep it open because Carvalho believed the school could perform. That's the message he's now sending nationwide. He's just back from speaking to Congress Wednesday encouraging lawmakers to reconsider how to measure success.
"I think No Child Left Behind is a law that was important but now needs to be changed to recognize the progress of schools like Edison or Central," the superintendent said.
"I think it's incredibly helpful to get to see directly where our funding is going,” said Senator Anitere Flores, who participated in the tour.
Miami-Dade and Broward schools anxiously await results of the prestigious Broad Award.
Both districts were among four school systems nationwide up for $550,000 in scholarships.
"I believe it's ours to lose. I'm incredibly proud win or lose of our teachers, our principals and community that has put Miami-Dade back on the map,” Carvalho said.
