Newtowner Named Acting

Education Commissioner

HARTFORD — Deputy Education Commissioner George A. Coleman of Sandy Hook has been named Acting Commissioner of Education, effective January 6, by vote of the Connecticut State Board of Education. State Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan, who completed his term of office at the close of business January 5, did not seek reappointment. Mr Coleman will serve as the Department of Education’s chief executive officer until a new commissioner is appointed.

Mr Coleman, who has served as deputy commissioner, associate commissioner of the Division of Teaching and Learning Programs and Services, and chief of the Bureaus of Early Childhood Education and of Curriculum and Instruction, joined the department in 1987. He began his career as a classroom teacher at St Mark’s School of Learning, Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1972.

He served as interim Commissioner of Education from August 2006 to April 2007.

Mr Coleman has served on many professional and community boards and councils, including the state and local United Way, NAACP, the Connecticut State Birth-to-Three Council, Connecticut Commission on Children, Junior Achievement, and The Hord Foundation, based in Danbury.

“I expect to carry on the work of the State Board of Education with emphasis on school reform and improvement, early childhood education, and closing the achievement gap,” said Mr Coleman in a release.

Mr Coleman earned a bachelor of science degree in history from Tuskegee Institute. He also earned graduate degrees in both early childhood education and curriculum and instruction from Teacher’s College at Columbia University.

He has taught courses in early childhood education and history at Tufts University, Western Connecticut State University, and the University of New Haven.

He has authored a number of publications including, A Guide to Program Development for Kindergarten, Parts I and II; The Teacher’s Ongoing Role in Creating a Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Program: A Self-Study Process for Teachers of Children Ages 5–8; A Guide to Curriculum Development: Health and Safety; and The Preschool Difference and Opening the Kindergarten Door.

Mr Coleman and his wife, Carrie, reside in Sandy Hook . They are the parents of one daughter, Olga Coleman Williams, and have four grandsons.