Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, June 2, 2005

For more information, contact:
Karen Moore or Nanette Schimpf, PR counsel
Florida Sterling Council
(850) 224-0174 or (850) 528-2639

GOVERNOR BUSH AND LT. GOVERNOR JENNINGS ANNOUNCE 2005 STERLING
QUALITY ACHIEVEMENT RECIPIENTS

~Florida Sterling Council to Honor Two Organizations~

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (June 2, 2005) - Governor Jeb Bush, Lt. Governor Toni Jennings, and the Florida Sterling Council announced today two organizations will be recognized for their role model processes and receive the 2005 Sterling Quality Achievement Award. Ramblewood Elementary School and Silver Lakes Elementary School will be honored at the Governor's Sterling Award Banquet at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes on June 3.

"The Sterling Quality Achievement is to recognize mature practices that enable an organization to achieve superior results," said Governor Bush. "These two organizations embody the excellence associations throughout our great state demonstrate."

The Sterling Quality Achievement recognition is given to organizations for approaches, methods, strategies, or processes that represent role model practices other organizations could learn from. Each winner underwent a series of in-depth assessments and evaluations by Sterling examiners that analyzed productivity and organizational performance.

Ramblewood Elementary School, Coral Springs
Ramblewood Elementary School uses Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA), a strong teaming process that encourages the use of a robust, data-driven review methodology. The end result of using the PDSA was that in Exceptional Student Education (ESE), test scores rose 14 percent and the school achieved Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2004, a requirement in the national "No Child Left Behind" legislation.

Silver Lakes Elementary School, Miramar
Silver Lakes Elementary School is recognized for its Reading and Math "Pullout" Program. After reviewing the student sub-group breakdown of the FCAT results in Reading and Math, teams discovered that the Exceptional Student Education and other student sub-groups were not going to be in compliance with No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements. Students in these sub-groups who were near or below the required levels were targeted for the reading "Pullout" core and math "Pullout" core programs developed uniquely and exclusively for the purpose of meeting FCAT performance requirements. Students set their performance goals and participated in an additional 30 minutes per day in math and reading instruction. In the reading "Pullout Program," 81% of participating pullout students in third, fourth and fifth grade passed the reading FCAT with a level two or
higher. In addition, 80% of participating third, fourth and fifth grade students met the minimum FCAT performance requirements in math, also a level two.

Established in 1992, the Florida Sterling Council is a public/private not-for-profit organization supported by the Executive Office of the Governor. Sterling's Annual Conference is exclusively designed to teach participants how to achieve performance excellence and increase productivity. More than 1,000 executives and professionals gather at this event for a one-stop source for education, information, and inspiration. The Conference concludes with the recognition of best practices, the Team Showcase Champion, and presentation of the Governor's Sterling Awards. For more information on the Florida Sterling Council, contact Dione Geiger at (850) 922-5316. For other information visit the website at www.floridasterling.com.

For more information on the Florida Sterling Council, contact
Dione Geiger at (850) 922-5316.

For other information, visit the website at www.floridasterling.com.