Superintendent Offers

A Vision For Change

By Martha Coville

As Newtown parents and educators advocate for the approval of the Newtown High School expansion project and district administrators work to ensure the school remains accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, new Superintendent Janet Robinson said that a concrete vision for the district becomes “imperative.”

The district’s “immediate needs,” she said, include finalizing a budget voters will approve on the first referendum, and “promoting” the high school expansion. These priorities, she said, make such a plan all the more necessary. “I would normally do it after strategic planning,” Dr Robinson said, “but it can’t wait.

“It appears to me that very good, thoughtful things are happening in our classrooms,” Dr Robinson told the Board of Education on Tuesday, March 4. She said that the “preliminary” Vision for Newtown Public Schools she presented to the board aims for the “refinement” of current district practices. It is driven by the district mission statement of “continuous improvement,” and does not propose “drastic” changes.

Dr Robinson’s Vision For Newtown Public Schools fleshes out the more general “All Students Can And Will Learn Well,” and “continuous improvement” mission statements.

Her vision is laid out in three “foundational” goals, which she wants to address over the course of the next two years. Dr Robinson’s goals reflect those of the State Department of Education’s proposed secondary education reforms, and are, for the greater part, achievable in this year’s tight budget season.

Dr Robinson said that her first priority is the improvement of “all aspects” of literacy. Increasing student access to technology, and properly integrating technology into the curriculum, is her second priority. Lastly, but not least importantly, Dr Robinson said she would like to develop a “collaborative culture” among teachers to improve student achievement.

‘The Cost Is Time’

In her proposed 2008-2009 budget, Dr Robinson suggested doubling the funding for curriculum and technology. Because the school budget is driven almost entirely by fixed costs such as contracted teachers’ salaries and the price of fuel oil, the $1,811,751 she earmarked for hardware upgrades and the purchasing of software licenses represented only three percent of the proposed budget.

On Monday, March 3, the Board of Finance proposed cutting the education budget by $900,000. “I felt like I hit a brick wall,” Dr Robinson said. Equity of access had been one important driver to her technology budget, she said, explaining that students in Sandy Hook and Hawley Schools benefit from technology superior to that at Head O’ Meadow and Middle Gate Schools. Another was ensuring that students graduate with specific computer skills, which the State Board of Education will probably require as they revise the high school curriculum.

“Most of the technology budget” will not survive the cuts made by the Board of Finance, Dr Robinson told The Bee. At the Board of Education meeting she said that “by hook or by crook, we’ll bring us into the 21st Century,” with regard to technology.

However, Dr Robinson said that her other goals of improving literacy and developing “collaborative teams in each building focused on student achievement” remain possible. “That we absolutely can do,” she said. “The cost is time.”

“On the Connecticut Mastery Test [CMTs],” Dr Robinson said, “Newtown students do exceeding well in math; this is exceedingly good. But our reading scores have not kept pace. I would like to see an increase in these scores.” She said that the CMT scores are “only one way” of measuring literacy, and that the district also practices ongoing internal assessment of student achievement.

“Every teacher, including an art teacher, a physical education teacher, is a writing teacher,” Dr Robinson said. Writing and literacy are essential to education because they teach students critical and analytical thinking. Dr Robinson said that the phrase “writing across the district” or “across the curriculum,” employed by board member Lillian Bittman, was exactly what she had in mind.

Dr Robinson and Assistant Superintendent Linda Gedja agreed that literacy instruction needs to focus on grades kindergarten through two, where students learn to read, and in the high school. Dr Robinson’s vision proposes that “the Newtown High School graduate should have the quality of education that equips them to be able to attain admission to their choice of postsecondary education.”

The best model for increasing students’ literacy, Dr Robinson said, is quite simple, and relatively cheap. She plans to rely on “in-class coaching” of teachers, either by other teachers, or else by consultants, to improve literacy.

Dr Robinson’s third goal of “developing collaborative teams in each building focused on student achievement” is an example of what she called an “enduring system.” The idea, she said, is to implement a program that does not depend on one particular leader for its success. Once the collaborative teams have been formed, they should be able to continue running autonomously.

What she proposes, she told the board, is to form groups of teachers in each building who can compare their instruction and learn from each other. “Collectively, we will do better for all our kids,” she said. In her last district, Ms Robinson said, teachers worked together in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), which have become “very popular in Connecticut.”

“All it is,” she said, “is kind of keeping a system” for teacher conversation and informal professional development. Ongoing conversation among teachers is obviously free. “The hardest thing,” said Dr Robinson, “is finding the time,” given how hard teachers work. She said, in her experience, however, staff “enjoyed that kind of professional conversation.”

“We have the resources,” Dr Robinson said, to increase literacy, and, through teacher collaboration, to educate high achieving students. “It’s just to elevate it to top priority.”