Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said she and city officials are reviewing an audit from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that will show "huge needs around curricular alignment and alignment to the state standard."
Cassellius told Boston Public Radio on Friday the review, of which results have not yet been publicly released, calls for the district to adopt the state's common core standards. Boston Public Schools currently do not teach to the state requirements.
"What you're probably going to see in the review ... and just what I've been able to observe and been told over the past eight months, [are] things we need to work on around curriculum. You've heard me talk about MassCore, setting up expectations so we have common expectations around our high schools and secondary schools and that we're making sure our elementary and early education programs are preparing kids for the level of rigor that we're going to be putting up at the high schools," she said. "There are huge needs around curricular alignment and alignment to the state standard. We need — our teachers need deep support in professional development, in teaching to the standards and aligning them to the assessments kids are being taught."
Cassellius pointed to her strategic plan, which targets the district's most chronically underperforming schools, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's recent pledge of $100 million into the schools, as proof that the district is taking proactive steps to improve achievement across the district. When asked whether she's concerned about a possible state takeover, Cassellius did not respond directly, but said she welcomes some form of "partnership."
"The fact that I hit the ground running and started meeting with people and listening and building a strategic plan, and then the mayor's historic commitment of $100 million, should send a strong signal that the community's behind the plan that we've already developed and that it addresses those concerns in the review," she said. "I was a former state commissioner, and if I had a superintendent come to me and say, 'I have a strategic plan already, we have $100 million to back it, we've already started on the work,' I would want to partner and amplify that work if it was me."
Cassellius said she expected Commissioner Jeff Riley to release the report "fairly soon."
Cassellius also discussed the exam school test administrator controversy. The organization that has administered the exam for more than 20 years accused the district of misusing the test results in a way that makes it harder for underrepresented students to gain entry to the prestigious exam schools. School officials said the contract was ending, and issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for new vendors.
Cassellius told Boston Public Radio the reporting around the issue has been "inadequate."
"The truth is not that we were in a feud with them, that's for sure," she said. "They made an allegation that just was baseless and not true. In 2012, they asked for a study from Boston Public Schools, but that was for a correlation study to correlate their exam to the SAT and to GPA. In that communication — they didn't release all the emails of that communication — they did not suggest in any way that it would the impact the diversity of the candidate pool for admissions."
Cassellius said the organization asked for a validation study in July, which she declined because the district was already looking into issuing a request for proposals. Cassellius said her legal counsel advised her not to complete the validation study due to the timing around the request for new vendors.
