"I'm very pleased that educators have really come together with policy makers to take the initial ideas that we introduced and to refine them."
Stefan Pryor
Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor attended his final State Board of Education meeting Wednesday. He announced earlier this year he’d leave the post, and will depart in January. A process is underway to select an interim commissioner.
WNPR’s Diane Orson spoke recently with Stefan Pryor at his office in Hartford. She began by asking what he considered to be the most important educational accomplishments of his term with the Malloy administration.
Stefan Pryor: Almost all of the major programs that the Malloy administration set out to pass through the General Assembly and to implement are, in fact, passed, and [are] being implemented. Beyond that, they’ve been resourced. There have been dollars put in front of them, [and] dollars put behind them.
The array includes more early childhood slots, and there’s a new Office of Early Childhood. We’ve put more dollars into the districts that need it the most, the Alliance Districts; these are high poverty, lower-performing districts that really need the help.
And then there are a set of reforms that are going on, from teacher evaluation and professional support through to the turnaround of lower performing schools, and the creation of new, effective schools. It's a lot, but what’s so exciting about it is it's all happening.
Diane Orson: Lots of teachers I’ve spoken with -- teachers and administrators -- have expressed concerns over the top-down approach to the way things have been handled, [and] also a concern about a feeling of disrespect. Can you address that?
When we set out to do this work, we were taking on the status quo. The intent was not to say anything negative about the fantastic teachers and administrators who are doing wonderful work every day. I see it. I visit a lot of schools across our state. It was never the intent to say that that was bad or negative.
It is the case, though, that other states are striving for more. We’re in a global economy, where other countries are aiming to eclipse the United States. We’ve got to ever do better.
So I’m very pleased that educators have really come together with policymakers to take the initial ideas that we introduced and to refine them, to shape the evaluation process for educators, to design the methods of school turnaround on a school-by-school basis. So we have taken pains to insure that there have been these processes where educators and other stakeholders can be involved in shaping these policies.
Let’s talk about charter schools. You probably know better than almost anyone that charter schools were created as a way to allow smart, creative people to innovate within the public school system. But there’s clearly also concern that charter schools are moving out beyond their original mission to privatization of a portion of public education. Can you address those concerns?
I think that very often there’s more anxiety around what’s happening with charter schools and magnet schools and other innovative models, than there is understanding.
Charter schools are public schools. Their role is to really be innovative, but also, let's not forget but they also directly serve some of the formerly most under-served students in the state.
Now my view is they’re part of the solution -- emphasis on part. We need to insure that we’re constantly investing in the way of funding and in the way of energy [for] the total public system, the traditional system, Board of Education-run traditional public schools, as we continue to support these innovations.
Are kids being tested too much?
"[Kids] definitely are being tested too much, and I'm worried about that."
Stefan Pryor
They definitely are being tested too much, and I’m worried about that. The place that I think is the most packed with testing, and unnecessarily so, is the junior year of high school.
In Connecticut, eleventh graders have to take the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, often AP tests, several of them in some cases. Increasingly, young people en route to college are also taking the ACT. And then finally, the 10th grade test that they used to take in Connecticut is no longer, and we’ve implemented the Smarter Balanced Assessment which nationally is administered in the 11th grade. So its packed the year with too much.
So you know what we’ve done? Governor Malloy and I have directly reached out to Secretary Duncan at the federal level. We’ve asked that we be able to drop one of those tests. And one way that we’re thinking, it hasn’t been decided, but one idea would be to drop the Smarter Balanced in the 11th grade and allow the SAT itself to serve as the statewide test for these purposes in the 11th grade.
What would be your advice to the next commissioner?
I think its very important that each commissioner implement priorities of his or her own. I would say also, please be sure to look seriously, but in a way that’s valid, about the improvements and the reforms that are underway.
Our educators across the state are working so hard. They’ve overcome so much. There has been an enormous burden of all these reforms happening at once, at the school level and the classroom level. I would say, please be sure to avoid disruption as much as possible, and back to my first point, do be sure to set your own priorities and innovate within that context.
