Convocation Speech

2000-2001

In this day and age when “school bashing” is the national pass time rather than baseball, my promise to you is that I will remind all people “What Is Right About Public Education”. Test score paranoia has taken our state by storm it seams. It is sad when our own State House Speaker, Tomas Finnerman, calls beginning teachers “idiots” because of poor teacher test results. Its worse when our own past Commissioner of Education calls career teachers “illiterate”. Even worse, when our own Governor slams our profession by calling for career teachers to take math tests because they are seen as the “root of failure”.

However, I will remind our public that ETS, the National Education Testing Service, performed a national study and found that TEACHERS scored equal to college educated lawyers, physicians, engineers, accountants and the like.

Test score paranoia is rampant among most communities. The truth be told, test score paranoia relates more to real estate and politics than to education. Now days “test scores, test scores, test scores” replaces the once familiar mantra “location, location, location”. Many realtors now provide test scores and school profiles when showing a residence to a prospective buyer.

In Eastlongmeadow Schools, our staff makes the difference. Ron Edmunds who fathered the Effective Schools research proved that all students can learn. Whether you are a teacher, secretary, bus driver, paraprofessional, cafeteria worker, or custodian you have proved that any and all students who come through our front doors of the school will be successful. This is the story for realtors.

Beating the Test-Score drum makes noise- not change. To our staff I say “don’t fret the MCAS scores. Consider them, use them as tools, dissect them, and redirect with them. The oldest saying is “don’t put the cart before the horse”. In East Longmeadow we will “ Not Put The Score Before The Course”.

And, to all our friends in the public sector who say “schools should be run more like businesses” I remind you this- One out of every three new business go belly up. This is not the model we will follow. John Marlowe said it best when he stated that “business is faster than education- but not necessarily more efficient. In business, “speed to market” rules. Large businesses throw money at problems until the problem is solved or the project fails”. In schools, we’d love to throw large money at just one problem- heck- we’d settle for even the loose change!!!

Finally, let us always remember this- American public education is the biggest experiment in the history of mankind. America is the only free nation that believes in educating all of its populace without prejudice of race, nationality, religion, or gender. Students make up approximately 28% of the total population of our nation- but they make up 100% of our nation’s future. East Longmeadow believes in the future of our nation. Even on its worst day- it is better than any other country in the world.

Tomorrow morning when you greet our students for the first day of school- look into their eyes and remember our future- and believe.

Thank you. God Bless America, and lets have a great year.