Ed Reform at 17: Baehr

Baehr: superintendent in Wellesley at the time
"people hoped that ed reform would pass right by...that's for the city"
"had been working on a common curriculum for the town at the time"
when pressing people, asking what the weaknesses in the framework were
"profound impact on the standards in Lowell"
"if there hadn't been writing, there wouldn't have been writing in the curriculum"
"saw the financial impact, saw the impact that ed reform had on the separation of superintendent and the school committee"
(this is a good and, I think, underappreciated point; the relationship and authority structure fundamentally changed under the Ed Reform Act in 1993)
"I think we identified a lot of problems over time" with the 1993 law, including what happens with kids outside of school
new ed law...new authorities and responsibilities to turnaround the schools that are "most stuck"
IDed 35 schools..."the predictable larger cities"
she runs the numbers (you've seen these) 17,000 students; 9 out of 10 a student of color; 9 out of 10 living in poverty ...
trying to foster and strengthen innovation
requires proven providers for charters, and requires that they seek out underrepresented students
another area that it "needs to address, does not, but has been spoken about a lot"...translating curriculum into "powerful lessons"
"that big black box betwen standards, the learning that goes on, and assessment" has not had enough resources provided for, or work on
"major piece of work that Worcester is engaged with, that many districts are engaged with"
"the curriculum that is actually taught in classrooms is not entirely aligned with frameworks" especially in underserved students' classrooms
"issue of adequacy...major issue still on the table of the adequacy of funding"
funding issue does need to be addressed in terms of adequacy (to which one can only add, indeed!)