Post-Payzant prepping
DESPITE AN exceptional 10-year tenure as head of Boston's public schools, there can be no resting on past glory for Superintendent Thomas Payzant so long as the achievement gap persists between white and nonwhite students and thousands of youngsters still struggle to reach proficiency on statewide assessment tests.
Academic achievement has been consistent under Payzant, who will retire in June. Failure rates on the English portion of the 10th grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam fell from 57 percent in 1998 to 25 percent last year. But it is likely that 20 percent or more of the freshmen who arrive for the first day of school today in Boston will drop out within five years. Despite alternative schools and evening programs, it is simply too easy for students to walk away without intervention by a responsible school official. Payzant would do well in his final year to design and expand stay-in-school options appropriate to the age and profile of potential dropouts.
Too many teachers are leaving the system as well, according to a recent study by the Boston Plan for Excellence, a local education foundation. Roughly half of the district's new teachers can be expected to leave within three years, which is especially vexing given the likelihood of widespread retirements of older teachers. The system lacks a consistent mentorship program for new teachers, due largely to a failure of school and union officials to find the right framework and incentives. It's another area that demands careful attention from Payzant in his closing year.
The next school superintendent will be more effective if he or she does not have to spend months bogged down in contract negotiations with more than a dozen school-related unions. Foremost is the need to convince the leadership of the Boston Teachers Union that the expansion of autonomous pilot schools is key to a successful future. Acclimatizing to Boston will be tough enough for Payzant's successor without a labor tussle over so obvious a reform.
Many high school students should experience closer ties with teachers this year. Payzant has transformed several of the 21 mostly large high schools he inherited in 1995 into smaller academies, most with 400 students or fewer. Smaller size and greater teaching consistency, he believes, should help to close the lingering achievement gap between white and nonwhite students.
Payzant is not especially expressive, preferring to make his points through deeds. But he can be animated when countering the false image that educational prospects in the city are bleak. Many Boston residents will want to see more of that spirit applied to ridding the system of hurdles between students and success.