Supporting education issues, Organizations & needs in Florida

Join us for a bi-monthly discussion of important discussion of education issues facing students at all levels across the state of Florida.

National experts will join us as we explore learning loss which preceded COVID (as evidenced by declining NAEP scores) and factors that are exasperating learning loss during COVID.  While standardized tests were suspended in 2020 so the full impact is not yet understood, other indicators are beginning to quantify the challenges students and teachers have faced during the pandemic.  By understanding these factors, funders can be better prepared to respond even as the challenges continue to unfold. 

Click HERE for this month's complete agenda.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Mike Petrilli serves as the  President of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, executive editor of Education Next, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education Commission of the States. An award-winning writer, he is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma, editor of Education for Upward Mobility, and co-editor of How to Educate an American. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg View, and Slate, and appears frequently on television and radio. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, the Policy Innovators in Education Network, and, long, long ago, Young Education Professionals. He serves on the advisory boards of the Association of American Educators, MDRC, and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland.


Paul G. Perrault, Ph.D. is the Senior Vice President for Community Impact and Learning for Helios Education Foundation.  Dr. Perrault is charged with leading the development of the Foundation’s research and evaluation agenda and in managing Helios’ grants and project management team.   

Dr. Perrault comes to Helios with more than 15 years of research and evaluation experience.  Prior to joining Helios, he was a researcher at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, where he served as a lead investigator on Arizona’s Move On When Ready evaluation and as principal investigator on Yuma’s Ready Now Yuma evaluation.

Dr. Perrault received his Ph.D. in Educational Foundations and Policy with a specialization in research methodology at the University of Michigan along with two Masters Degrees, one in Educational Administration and another in Secondary Certification.  He also earned a JD at the University of Detroit Mercy and a BA in Journalism at Michigan State University.

Dr. Perrault’s currently serves as a Board Member for Touchstone Health Services and is co-chair of the Data Impact Group for Grantmakers for Education.  More recently he was selected as a fellow to Arizona’s prestigious Flinn-Brown Civic Leadership Academy and is an alum of Valley Leadership – Class 40.


The Education Funders Affinity Group (EAG) supports a culture of high expectations for all students, in and out of school, from early childhood through postsecondary education, leading to career success.

EAG meetings are free for all FPN members. Registration is required.