Call Him Doctor Salvatore

By Laurie Borst

Reed Intermediate School’s Assistant Principal Anthony Salvatore received his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Hartford in May. Dr Salvatore adds the PhD to a long list of accomplishments.

Dr Salvatore began his career as a language arts teacher at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington. While there, he established a monthly student newsletter, coached boys’ and girls’ cross country and track and field teams, as well as serving on several committees.

After six years of teaching, he accepted a position as assistant resident director at Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon. Dr Salvatore supervised maintenance staff, food service, construction, and public relations. He developed outdoor education programs and developed and facilitated weekend and weekly retreats for youth and adult groups. Two years later, the position was phased out and he returned to Lewis Mills.

Dr Salvatore moved to Har-Bur Middle School in Burlington in 1991 as language arts coordinator. He supervised language arts staff, reading consultants, and library media specialists. He developed reading and writing workshops for grades 4–12 staff. But his love of teaching led him to take a position at Har-Bur as a language arts teacher for seventh and eighth grades.

The team Dr Salvatore taught with received the National Middle School Association and Prentice-Hall, Inc’s National Teaching Team Award. He was driven by the question, How do you reach that one kid? “I never did anything the same way twice,” he said, referring to his approach to classroom teaching.

While he was teaching at Har-Bur, he was also looking for a way to challenge himself, so he began working on his doctorate in 1997. “This helped me gain an understanding of why colleges have sabbaticals,” Dr Salvatore said, as he discussed the amount of time and effort involved in doing postgraduate work. He opted to enroll in the University of Hartford’s doctoral program because it was designed for full-time working people.

In 1999, he accepted the position of assistant principal at Newtown Middle School. He called the move an “evolution, rather than a leap” into administration. His prior experiences at the conference center and as a team leader helped him move into administration. Dr Salvatore enjoys helping other teachers be successful. “I widened the classroom,” he said.

Dr Salvatore has experience with staff development, and is trained in the BEST program and TESA program. The BEST program, Beginning Educators Support and Training, and the TESA program, Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement, are both aimed at helping new teachers be successful in the classroom.

“I saw the many sides of education. I could see the dynamics of the administration’s impact on the school and the students. The effect can be limiting or nurturing. It determines what opportunities are available for the students and the staff,” Dr Salvatore stated.

With all the demands on an assistant principal, he continued to work on his PhD. “It pushed me, challenged me into new areas I thought I’d never go,” Dr Salvatore stated. “I had to teach my adviser how to operate the statistics program I was using.”

Over the nine years Dr Salvatore spent working on his degree, many stops and starts occurred, as happens with many doctoral candidates. New jobs came up, family responsibilities demanded his attention, his first adviser left the university. But, like a trooper, he soldiered on.

“Go with the flow,” he said. “Somewhere down the line you’ll understand why.”

Dr Salvatore wrote his dissertation on bullying. He was familiar with the work of others in the field. Dan Olweus did studies in the 1960s and 70s in Norway and Sweden after a rash of student suicides raised concerns. At the time, the thinking was that groups bullied, or “mobbed,” vulnerable students. Dr Olweus found it was more likely one child impacting another or a group. Dr Salvatore’s work corroborated this.

Cherry Creek, Colo., schools developed a program called “Bully-proofing Your School” which stressed developing a caring community. They created a six-step program taught over a five-week period that showed significant impact on reducing bullying. This was in contrast to schools that tried “one shot” instruction where a one-time lesson was taught in the classroom, which showed little effectiveness.

Dr Salvatore’s work supported the idea that the longer the duration, the better the outcome. Involving students and parents, “the community,” also strengthened the impact. “It was reassuring to see this, the data support it. You know it on a gut level,” he said.

“Doctoral dissertations don’t change the world. They add a little bit to the literature that’s out there and lead others to do research,” he added. “Don’t do it unless you want to for your own personal growth or learning. Nothing else will get you through it.”