ALBANY, N.Y. -- As New York continues its ongoing debate over education policy, the Board of Regents is turning to a new education commissioner: MaryEllen Elia, a former school supintendent, most recently in Florida. 

"We need to provide a lot of support for our teachers and our schools staffs to be able to support students in their success with their new standards," Elia said.

Elia is supportive of the controversial Common Core standards, even as thousands of students opted out of April's round of standardized tests in New York. Elia says the best way to avoid opt outs is to increase communication. 

"Raising standards is a good thing. Our economy, this world, has changed in the 21st century and we need to reflect what's necessary for students to be successful," Elia said.

Elia is a native of Lewiston, Niagara County, and a former social studies teacher at Sweethome High School in Amherst. She comes back to New York from Florida, a state where teachers unions are nowhere near as strong as they are here. Teachers unions continue to protest new evaluation criteria, but Elia says supports linking testing to teacher performance. 

"I am totally in favor of accountability. The state of Florida has an accountability system. We did have high-stakes testing in Florida. We were one of the first states to implement high-stakes tests." 

The regulations for those new evaluations are due to be in place by June 30. Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch says that deadline will be met, but she does not expect the debate to end there. 

"I would bet that part of the regulatory language that we will put forward by June 30 will include a process by which we will have an ongoing conversation across this state about how to improve evaluation," Tisch said.

Elia comes home to New York after she was fired by the Hillsborough County school board. She blamed the termination on a changing school board and differing views on education policy. 

"I'm moving forward now and I'm not really concentrating on the past," Elia said.

Elia replaces John King, who left last year to become an education adviser in the Obama administration.