Press release

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 support many of the administration's initiatives and changes including flexible grouping by subject (e.g., allowing different placement in math than reading), elimination of any rigid and/or permanent tracking that may exist (i.e., not keeping a child in a group for years based on 4th grade testing), frequent re-evaluation for movement, extensive professional development for teachers, accountability at all levels, and a rich curriculum.

However, we believe that there should also be:

• Multiple, flexible ability-based groups per subject in district schools - NOT just one or two groups - particularly in core skill subjects.
• And far greater emphasis placed on understanding and replicating best practices from within our own system.

On these last two points, unfortunately, the administration has seemed more interested in pursuing radical approaches based on misleading “research” with a shaky foundation and questionable applicability to Stamford, rather than doing the hard and effective, but less glamorous, work of replicating best practices that have been successful in our own school system. The former makes for better press. The latter makes for better schools.

We believe the move to having only two groups in sixth grade was misguided, that the expansion of this approach would be a grave mistake for the children of Stamford and our property values, and that the trajectory of reducing ability groups needs to be reversed.  We further believe that the Board of Education’s role should not be that of a rubber stamp for the superintendent – that the superintendent must report to the Board and not the other way around.

To that end, 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 the following candidates:

• Democrat Polly Rauh
• Republican Jerry Pia
• Republican Lorraine Olson

While we deeply respect the commitment and effort of anyone who seeks public office, we do not support candidates Naomi Chapman-Taylor or Fred Pierre-Louis.  They both have publicly subscribed to a position of complete heterogeneous grouping in the school system that goes far beyond even the administration’s current approach.  We are concerned with their relative lack of experience in general, and the lack of nuance with which they see this issue in particular.

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