Reykjavik, Iceland

Participating Systems

Aruba

California

Finland

Ireland

Ontario

Scotland

Vermont

Education International (EI)

Int. Confed. of Principals (ICP)

Thought leaders

Vicky Colbert

Pasi Sahlberg

Jeannie Oakes

Andy Hargreaves

Sir K. Robinson

Themes: Well-being, equity, inclusion

Other highlights: Formalized a joint statement

System and school visit focus: Creativity, assessment, accountability

The first summit was hosted in Iceland, at the Hilton Reykjavik Hotel, September 14 and 15, 2016. There was an additional opportunity to visit Icelandic educational and cultural institutions on September 13. The purpose of the summit was to:

• Co-create new narratives of high-quality education
• Define or redefine the vision for the Collaboratory
• Co-create a realistic strategy to achieve it
• Commit to achieving implementation and outcomes over at least 3 years

The inaugural summit focused on how the high-quality systems represented were preparing for the future demands on schools and teachers: defining a vision and strategy for the group and developing a three-year plan of action.

Educational systems from around the world attended the inaugural summit of ARC, an international initiative to examine and improve elementary and secondary education systems throughout the world.

Each system sent a minister and deputy minister, or equivalent, and a leader of one of the region’s professional associations, such as a teachers union or superintendents association.

The summit honored the 30th anniversary of the meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland. One of the founding ideas behind ARC is to tear down the walls between countries and regions, as well as between educational researchers and politicians, in order to pursue the most fundamental ideas of what it means to be educated in today’s world for the mutual benefit of all ARC-systems and future generations of students worldwide.