Lincoln's Log

Nine years ago, when I moved here from Boston for professional reasons, friends touted Greenwich because they said it had a good school system.

It certainly rang true with my expectations of the brand – that one of the wealthiest communities on earth should have an above-average school district.

Unfortunately, an above-average school district is exactly what Greenwich is. My fear now is that we’re on a slippery slope to becoming “average.”

Somewhere the last four years, the Board of Education lost its way, fumbling critical decisions whose ramifications will last for many years, like the rusting carcass of an abandoned car. The biggest fumble, of course, was the naming of Betty Sternberg, the state bureaucrat who was unable to engender any leadership qualities, to the post of school superintendent. Sternberg leaves us with a tattered system and schools on the wane in virtually every ranking across the state.

Click here for one ranking

If the schools had shown measurable progress in the basics – reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic – I might have overlooked the numerous other fiascos by Sternberg or the board – the botched transition of Hamilton School, dribbling away the opportunity to turn the historic Havermayer Building into a town performing arts center, the petty and vindictive public rebuke of a principal over a birthday cupcake incident (whether to allow in school them or not) and many others.

Under Sternberg, Greenwich High School and Central Middle School were cited by the state for not making adequate progress in the last school year. Central did not reach achievement targets in reading and math for economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. At GHS, students with disabilities did not reach achievement targets in reading and math, and Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students did not meet the target in math. They were among 408 public schools – 40 percent – cited by the state. Many of those schools are in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport.

Now comes a critical time – and opportunity – to replace four of the eight current BOE members. I shudder when the incumbent members cite their “experience” as they seek reappointment. Yikes! This is experience we don’t need. We don’t need any more pecuniary finance types. Let them run the BET. We need passionate, outspoken board members who are driven to make our schools the premier public education system in the nation and who will work with the new superintendent to develop a mutually respectful pact with our teachers to work in the best interest of our children – all of our children and not just the privileged few.

Click here for Greenwich Time article

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a fascinating front page article about Montgomery County Public Schools’ use of “real-time” data – test scores, grades – to identify problems and speed up interventions with lagging performers. Teachers armed with Palm Pilots get the data and immediately pounce on problem students.This innovation narrowed the achievement gap and enabled more students to take and succeed in rigorous AP classes, prompting U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to say that MCPS is a “model in using data to spur improvement.”

Click here for article

In five years, the percentage of African American fifth graders who scored “proficient” or better in reading tests increased from 58 percent to In 85 percent. The number for Hispanic students on reading tests improved from 53 percent to 85 percent.

Montgomery County is not alone. New York City recently announced similar results in math scores among minorities as reported in the New York Times.

Click here for article

Montgomery County is a massive school district – the nation’s 16th largest – with 139,000 students. (Connecticut’s largest, Hartford, has 23,000 students. Greenwich has about 9,000.) Nearly 23 percent of the students in MC are African Americans and 15.2 percent are Hispanic. Its visionary superintendent, Jerry Weast, took a bold step when he started in 1999 by forecasting a crisis with two divergent districts – one white and wealthy and one poor, black and latino. He called them green zones and red zones and proceeded to focus on the red zones. The improvement since has been dramatic and stunning.

The biggest lesson from this and the message to our next school board is that when you lift the bottom, you lift all boats. Sternberg came here with the promise to do that but it turned out to be the false bravado of a politician.

In addition to the broadly improved scores, four of MC’s high schools were recently cited by Newsweek Magazine as being in the Top 100 public high schools in the United States. Walt Whitman High School is legendary and ranks consistently high – among the so-called “exam” schools like Boston Latin and Yonkers High. Where’s GHS on the Newsweek list? No. 709.

At this stage I can’t imagine anyone on the current Greenwich BOE with the vision nor the drive to push us to be the best. Nor do I sense a commitment to achieve excellence. We get only apologias and equivocations – and hand-wringing about our “diversity problem.” We have factotums when we need leaders.

The Republican and Democratic town committees – in selecting candidates for the next school board – need to reach deep into their inner souls and select board members we can be proud of for many, many years to come. This is one of those crossroads of time for our schools. I can’t think of a more important issue for Greenwich.