CT Post: New commissioner pitches ways to help bridge education gap

New CT commissioner wants to jump ahead of MA on NAEP. Healthy NAEP competition.


New commissioner pitches ways to help bridge education gap
State schools chief has big plans
LINDA CONNER LAMBECK lclambeck@ctpost.com
Connecticut Post Online
Article Last Updated:04/30/2007 10:25:56 AM EDT

HARTFORD — Mark K. McQuillan, Connecticut's new commissioner of education, is unlikely to make many fans among the state's 577,000 public school children.
For one, McQuillan likes the idea of an exit test that would stand between every Connecticut high school student and a diploma.

For another, he wants a longer school day, particularly in urban districts where students have so much catching up to do.

But McQuillan, 58, wants students to know he cares about them and wants to makes some of the changes in the state's public schools that he oversaw across the border in Massachusetts, where he was deputy commissioner of education.

"I've been an advocator my whole life," said McQuillan. "To parents, I would say I can't do this work without them. I see parents as true assets."

McQuillan said the exit test — an idea that surfaces every year in the General Assembly, but has yet to win broad support — is a compelling notion.

Massachusetts has had such a test since 2003. Today, more than 90 percent of its students pass the test by high school graduation.

The longer school day is one idea the new commissioner suggests schools employ to help students make up readiness skills they lack when they begin their school careers.

He points to charter schools as an example.

"Charter schools that are most successful are running extremely traditional, very conventional programs," he said.

The difference is that charter schools extend the school day and year, recognizing that if students don't come to school with benefits of a middle-class upbringing, it has to be made up at school.

On the job since April 16, McQuillan came to Connecticut every Friday since he was appointed in January. He lives in an apartment in Hartford with the anticipation of buying a house once his wife finishes her academic year. She is an elementary principal in Massachusetts and will be looking for a similar position in Connecticut. The couple has three grown children.

McQuillan has yet to visit Bridgeport or Fairfield County, but says it's high on his to-do list.

"I've been trying to get there. I want to meet John [Ramos, the Bridgeport superintendent]. I've heard good things about him," McQuillan said.

Ramos said his first request of the new commissioner will be to help get more money for Bridgeport's schools.

McQuillan said he understands that Bridgeport will be allocated more education aid in the new state budget. With or without new resources, McQuillan said things in Bridgeport and other school districts with wide achievement gaps have to change.

His first weeks on the job have been spent trying to figure out how the Department of Education will reorganize to carry out the federal demand that it become more involved with school districts failing to keep up with No Child Left Behind mandates.

The law requires all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Schools that fail five years in a row to make adequate progress toward that goal face corrective action and state intervention. A number Bridgeport schools are on that path.

McQuillan said intervention doesn't necessarily mean "takeover," rather, the state stepping in to offer more leadership and support.

"Something has to change if it's not working locally," he said. "I think the idea that the state has some magic solution to the problem is a misnomer."

Bridgeport school officials just adopted a new strategic plan they say will help the district improve. All that's missing are the funds to implement the plan, they said. McQuillan said even in the absence of more money, things have to change.

"There are students whose lives are going to be impacted. Every year lost cannot be replaced," he said.

McQuillan said in Massachusetts, failing schools have not been turned around by using a single approach. But there is a common recipe that includes a strong curriculum, faculty, principal, parental involvement and an overall culture of expectations.

Also important, he said, is for school officials to know how to use the data they get from tests to improve instruction. "My job is to accelerate and push to move this along faster," he said.

So far, McQuillan sees the biggest difference between Massachusetts and Connecticut is that here, local control lies more in the hands of school boards than school superintendents. The opposite is true in Massachusetts.

The disparity between wealthy and impoverished communities is also greater in Connecticut.

"Yet there is phenomenal achievement here to draw upon," he said.

He would like nothing more for Connecticut to jump ahead of Massachusetts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a common yardstick for states that give different achievement tests.

"Absolutely. That's my goal," he said.

Linda Conner Lambeck, who covers regional education issues, can be reached at 330-6218.