Reimagining Education

“It will be bigger and better,” stated Hartford Schools Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez on her vision for “reimagining education” in Hartford schools.  Failing school districts across America, whether they be urban, rural, or suburban, are having their own visions as they struggle to make up for the lack of forward thinking, proactive leadership and now struggle to find answers for achievement.  In today’s vastly changed economic, political, geographical, and personal world, those answers are cloaked in various ways, but all with the label of promise.  At a Board of Education meeting on January 5th, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez began to lay out her vision of promise.

At the meeting, the Superintendent first lays out the reasons “why” a reimagining is necessary.  In the Superintendent’s reality, failed plans, failed policies, failed partnerships, and failed fiscal responsibility are referred to as pandemic-created challenges - never let a crisis go to waste.  The Superintendent introduced her “District Model of Excellence” (DME) in 2018 – a model designed, she said, after “massive” community engagement - her 5-year mission to boldly go where no Hartford Superintendent has gone before.  Then, like an attack by a Klingon starship, her 5-year enterprise was attacked by COVID, stalling the warp drive of her plan on its orbit to excellence.  The district was “forced to start again.”  If it weren’t for the COVID crisis, we could have expected an excellent school system this year.  That was the plan anyway.

The Superintendent’s vision for “reimagining education” is heavily influenced by the folks at Education Resource Strategies (ERS), a perennial contract-awarded non-profit partner of Hartford Schools, which has become the guiding hand of the Superintendent, influencing her use of “people, time, and money,” the base of ERS’s claim to fame.  Picking up on this, the Superintendent states that resources must be used in “fundamentally different ways.”  The Superintendent is exploring moving away from the “one classroom, one teacher” model to a “team based” model; ESR recommends replacing the “one-size-fits-all” model with a “collaborative” teaching approach.  The Superintendent is exploring the “shift toward different roles” for teachers; ERS recommends a “redesign” of the traditional teacher role.  As mentioned, ESR’s golden rule is “reorganizing how people, time, and money” resources are used; the Superintendent envisions a school with less rigorous scheduling, moving to more flexible use of students’ time.  The Superintendent speaks of more “individualized” learning; ERS says the team approach creates more “personalized learning.”  The Superintendent says that the State, the City, and community partners must “deepen or change their role;” ERS states that educators must “deepen” their role with students. 

On their website, ERS has a report of a reimagined model used by a school in Mesa, AZ. - where 5% of the students are Black, a model that “leverages teams of educators to provide deeper, personalized learning for students.”  This model employs the creation of “multi-age ‘houses’ of about 85 students each,” three grades housed together and led by an educator team of approximately 5 people.  At the Board meeting, the Superintendent presented a video of a reimagined school in Chicago – where 11% of the students are White, a model that leverages “blended learning,” creating a house of 60-65 students from grades 7 -12, led by an educator team of 5 people.  If you’re interested in more on what Hartford Schools may look like after reimagining, visit the ERS website, everything will come from there.

The Superintendent said that she has had beginning discussions with some folks on a reimagining plan, and as far as the theory goes, the local teacher’s union is onboard.  However, when the Superintendent, speaking about the reimaging, the one concrete aspect of the whole thing, is that across-the-board teacher raises, for teachers that are among the lowest paid teachers in the state, are off the table.  There is sure to be some rank-and-file objections to any plan that does not adequately compensate teachers who, along with students, are being talked about like they are plastic armies in a game of RISK.  The Board of Education must step up its game on this issue, this is not a time to be ill informed, rushed, bullied, or cajoled into keeping the public in the dark.  The Superintendent has already promised something “bigger and better,” but so did Coke.

You are a stakeholder, let’s begin the Superintendent’s “massive” community outreach plan.  Email me with your thoughts about “reimagining education” in Hartford Schools.  Better yet, email the Superintendent and members of the Board of Education…often.  And stay tuned for more coverage as the Superintendent “reimagines education” in Hartford.