First time here: start here

• Our position on middle school reform
• Research backing it up
• The latest - news, information and reactions, below.

Coming Up: listen, learn, and speak up!

• January 26 - 7pm. Board of Education (at Government Center), regular meeting, with public comment period - come speak up!

• Can't attend in person? Write a letter or email to the Board of Education members making your voice heard. Email list>

Why speak up now? Read>

The latest: news, information and reactions

1/21/10 Dr. Starr abruptly cuts off Q&A and discussion at the Middle School Reform Forum at Rogers, leading to screaming from the audience about his deceptive practices and tactics. See details>

1/15/10 Gary Klein corrects the record on Dr. Starr's misleading op ed: "Dr. Starr continually asserts that anyone who disagrees with a few of the specifics of his plan is somehow 'against reform' or wants to thwart children from succeeding. This is a troubling rhetorical device." See the real story>

1/14/10 Party school vs. Brookings and Harvard... Wendy Lecker letter response. More>

1/8/10 Who are these people? A recent letter to the editor asks this question. We are happy to get the publicity! For those who did not follow the last election cycle, here is some background. More>

12/2/09 Georgiana White, former department head in the Stamford schools, spoke to current staff and 28 former colleagues, and she published their unanimous viewpoint (see her op ed). This is a must read.

• See responses to Advocate editorial "Don't backtrack on school reform"
• See responses to Martin Levine's op ed (in which he criticizes past practices - but wait, wasn't he on the board for 9 years? - and lists a number of points we all agree with, asserts we disagree, and then reaches non sequitur conclusions).
• See the latest for more

Gov Rell cut $426,000 that was allocated to Stamford via the Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) funding program. Stamford has been significantly under funded to begin with. Please see the details, and protest these cuts.

CLEAN SWEEP!!!

Congratulations to Jerry Pia, Polly Rauh and Lorraine Olson!
And thanks to every member of Stamford Residents for Excellence in Education for your efforts, great emails, articles, letters, etc. Our three endorsed candidates have all won! And your work on their behalf was absolutely essential to the victory. In fact, the article in the Advocate about the election specifically highlights our endorsement and this issue!

We have made our presence felt and now our voices WILL be heard!

We have helped place three fantastic members onto the BOE, and made a MAJOR STATEMENT in the process.

Message to Parents: Don't give up! But do continue to speak up...
If we have learned anything from the misguided implementation of the two-group system, it is that if concerned parents sit by quietly for too long, CRAZY things can happen. We will now have members on the BOE who are ready to listen to us. But our voice and our vigilance in support of excellence in the school system will be essential on an ongoing basis. This was just the "end of the beginning." Stay tuned...

Message to Dr. Starr: The community has spoken loudly and clearly. We are with you and support you for many changes you are making. But we are NOT with you for heterogeneous grouping. Every child should be challenged.
See position. There is tremendous support for the majority of the changes you've made. However, the community has weighed in unambiguously on your decisions and direction regarding grouping. We hope to have a system where all children are challenged and grow to their full potential.

This just in: from Elise L. Lev, Ed.D.
Prof. Lev refutes Eric Cooper's 10/29/09 piece in the Advocate titled "Children belong in intellectually diverse classrooms," explaining that "Mr. Cooper distorts the research findings and undermines the serious discussion that needs to take place." Full response

SIGN ON: Share your voice about the election and what it means. And add your name as a supporter!
We'll also keep you informed of developments in the future.

> Sign on here .

The Cause: we support flexible ability grouping
We want all children at every level in the Stamford schools to thrive. We believe all children should be challenged in appropriately grouped classes, moving at the pace and depth that is right for them. We believe that having multiple, flexible ability-based groups in some subjects is an essential component of this, and that the trend toward full heterogeneous grouping in the district schools should be reversed. See full position and why now is the time to take action

The Candidates: we endorse Rauh, Pia and Olson
We have reviewed the positions and experience of the five Board of Education candidates.  Based on their collective experience within the school system and their positions on the topic of grouping, we endorse Polly Rauh (D), Jerry Pia (R) and Lorraine Olson (R). See endorsement

Hundreds of endorsement signatures and hundreds more on this issue from this Spring here too

The Call to Action: change begins November 3!
With local elections just around the corner, and the Board of Education set for a major change in composition, this will be a critical turning point for the debate about the future of grouping in the Stamford schools.  This election will either turn the tide toward restoring ability grouping or embolden those who want to see it eliminated completely to push even further. See why act now

Even if your children are not directly affected yet, they will be. The trend is to eliminate all grouping and two of the candidates this year advocate just that!

A victory for the endorsed candidates will help turn the tide and send a strong message about where the community stands on this issue, which has become the #1 issue this election (see below).

The Research: ability grouping is good for everyone
The "research" presented to the Middle School Reform Committee and to the School Board by the administration painted a picture that moving towards heterogeneous grouping is a "no‐lose" proposition: that it helps lower performers with no cost to higher performers. This seemed so at odds with our own experiences on grouping from within the school system that a group of concerned parents set out to review the research on the subject directly - we found that, in fact, the research presented was one-sided, misleading, and inapplicable to Stamford. See the full story: the REAL research

The #1 issue this election! Add your voice to the debate!
Many feel that the administration turned a deaf ear to our concerns this Spring and that the invitation-only, administration-controlled Middle School Advisory Committee is compiling a one-sided "evaluation" of heterogeneous grouping. In response, we have turned this into the #1 issue this campaign cycle. The Advocate reports it is the one issue "that shows signs of differentiating the five candidates," and the moderator of a recent candidate forum reports that well over half of the questions submitted to him were on this topic. Sign the endorsement and register your comments and experiences on the subject

More information:

• View long list of signatures to and thoughtful comments on our endorsement
• Hundreds of signatures and many thoughtful comments were posted about the middle school reform efforts this spring. Read comments from Spring petition and here too.
• Stamford Public Schools' website on Middle School Reform
• Some students could suffer - Letter to the Advocate by Nicole Zussman 5/5/09
• Cause for hope and concern - Op Ed by Gary Klein, 3/5/09
• Jill Chuckas, MSW letter - 5/20/09 a teacher's perspective
• Response to inaccuracies in letter to the editor 10/14/09
• Christine Papadakis letter in defense of grouping - published in Advocate 10/18/09
• Letter on flexible ability grouping from Maria Belmonte, Janine Darling, Amy Essenfeld and Stacey Minskoff 10/22/09
• Keep student grouping letter from Valerie Byrnes 10/23/09
• Endorsement letter from Bob Rondano Jr.

Contact us with questions or comments or if you would like to become more involved at: admin AT StamfordREE.org

Paid for by Stamford Residents for Excellence in Education, Nicole Zussman, Treasurer.