Raising Student Achievement: A Role For Municipal Leaders

A Forum — October 7, 2002

Co-sponsored by the Institute for Youth, Education and Families, National League of Cities (NLC)

Audrey Hutchinson, Program Director, Education and After School Initiatives, Institute for Youth, Education and Families at the National League of Cities described NLC’s national initiatives designed to deepen and enhance the involvement of mayors, city council members, and other municipal leaders in public education and afterschool programs. These initiatives are Municipal Leadership in Education and Municipal Leadership for Expanded Learning Opportunities that entail intensive, 30-month technical assistance to 14 cities.

Cities were chosen to participate in the NLC initiatives based on strong commitment from the Mayor, school leaders, and other local elected officials; a demonstrated capacity to support and sustain a leadership role; and commitment of the leadership team to collaborate on shared goals and to implement a plan of action. Among other services, city teams receive on-site analysis of their challenges and opportunities and are given the opportunity to participate in cross-site meetings to share with and learn from other leaders. Initiative cities are addressing diverse issues including the persistent achievement gap across racial and economic lines, the need for middle school reforms, inadequate school funding, teacher quality and retention, and lack of public confidence in schools. Lessons learned from the initiatives include the shared responsibility needed to have good schools, the recognition that cities can support schools without controlling them, the need for public will to support school improvement, and the need to use school data for continuous improvement.

New Haven, Connecticut is one of the cities involved in NLC’s educational improvement initiative. The Honorable John DeStefano, Jr., Mayor of New Haven spoke about his role in educational reform as a municipal leader.

DeStefano has a rare opportunity for partnership between the city and the school system in that he appoints the school board and is a full voting member. He is one of the few mayors to attend and participate actively in school board meetings and he enrolled his sons in the public schools. He is also fortunate that the school district has the same border as the city. Some of the other cities in the NLC network have school districts and cities whose boundaries are not the same, complicating the city’s role.

The Mayor first presented some of the challenges his city faces. New Haven has areas of extreme wealth and extreme poverty and has a history of exclusionary zoning policies that have led to segregation by income and race/ethnicity in the public schools. While there is no one majority minority group, the public schools enroll 85% children of color. Standardized test scores in New Haven are high based on national averages, but are the second lowest in Connecticut. New Haven public schools offer a range of choices to students including high schools enrolling anywhere from 50 to 1,300 students.

DeStefano believes strongly in early learning, based on research on brain development before children turn three years old. A caring, nurturing environment is best for children’s early brain development, yet he concedes that not all children grow up in such an environment. He feels that the No Child Left Behind Act assumes too much about what children have learned prior to school and does not account for the learning they may or may not get at home. Difficult home circumstances can pose barriers to academic achievement. Children may also have a variety of learning styles. To address these issues, DeStefano suggests that assessments not be based solely on standardized tests compared to national norms, but also measure progress made by individual students.

DeStefano concluded his remarks by stating that educational problems are not only school problems, they involve the larger community and the social circumstances of the citizens. Municipal leaders can play a role in educational reform by helping improve all aspects of the quality of life. Mayors can take a particularly strong role behind a bully pulpit and as a meaningful guide, helping shape public opinion regarding public schools. Part of this role is the responsibility to set clear goals for schools and academic achievement and to articulate these to the public. Mayors can also take actions that help the school district do its job. One example is a partnership between New Haven and four colleges with teacher education programs that is helping to improve teacher recruitment and raise skill levels.

Dr. Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director, National School Boards Association, spoke about the role of another group of municipal leaders—school board members. According to Bryant, the actual number of school board members across the nation has decreased dramatically as school districts consolidate. However, there are still approximately 50,000 school board members in the nation. Serving on school boards allows for true civic participation and offers a rare opportunity, not shared by most Americans including members of Congress, to find out what is really going on in schools. Among the challenges she enumerated are (1) far too many children still falling through the cracks; too many troubled schools; and troubled school populations. On the other hand, while the focus is usually on the students at the bottom, Bryant cautions that gifted and talented students and other top performers should not be forgotten, yet are often the first victims of budget cuts.

Bryant agrees with Mayor DeStefano in the importance of setting clear goals, but cautions that school board members must see if the budget matches the goals. Many of the issues school boards deal with are related to funding. Examples include decisions about private fundraising to support schools and efforts to have “the money follow the child” to different schools as in Seattle’s “weighted system” where more money follows disadvantaged families than affluent families, acknowledging that services for less advantaged children are likely to cost considerably more money. Special education funding is a big expense of local educational budgets, often as much as 40%.

While small town schools can be the center of a community, Bryant is concerned that families and communities have lost some connection with schools. In some cases, there is a need to redefine “involvement” to meet modern times. The “suburban old line PTA model is not working everywhere.” Schools should acknowledge parents’ busy work schedules and realize not everyone is available to volunteer. More credit should be given for work parents do at home such as ensuring regular meals, homework completion and adequate sleep. There is also great potential in on-line communication. Both families and communities can play strong roles in educational reform. Bryant gave an example of legislation passed in San Francisco to place a wellness center in all schools, based on parent advocacy efforts and the Mayor’s support.

In the question and answer period, Bryant was asked if she favors elected or appointed school boards. She replied that quality is what matters first and that she could not defend a poorly performing board regardless of how they were chosen.

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