Education reform top Silber priority

During his time at Boston University, President emeritus John Silber not only presided over thousands of college and graduate students pursuing a higher education, but he was also a staunch advocate for elementary and secondary education reforms.

The largest example of his interest in the issue was BU’s collaboration with the troubled Chelsea public school district in 1989, a Silber-brainchild partnership that continues today. And after Silber lost his bid for governor to former U.S. Attorney William Weld in 1990, Weld appointed Silber chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1996, a position he held until March 1999.

While Silber drew criticism over the years from some educators for his controversial teaching theories and support of standardized testing while on the board, many have praised him for his commitment to improving education in the state at all levels.

According to BU spokesman Colin Riley, Silber’s interest in reforming education in Massachusetts stemmed from ‘the busing crisis and subsequent decline in quality of education.’ The busing issue, which occurred in the 1970s, was a failed attempt to integrate Boston schools.

‘Silber made an offer to the City of Boston in helping to reform its schools,’ Riley said. ‘The offer was not accepted.’

CHELSEA PARTNERSHIP

Silber also pitched the management idea to the city of Boston but was not welcomed by the city’s public school system. Seeing the then-president’s offer, Chelsea school officials approached him and asked for his help reforming their public school system.

Silber and then-School of Management Dean George McGurn did a management study that recommended BU gain administrative authority over the school system.

The recommendation was sent to the state legislature, which allowed BU to take over the day-to-day operations of the Chelsea school system. BU formed a management team to ease the transition of authority in Chelsea schools.

‘The management team is an extension of the Office of the President,’ said former Chelsea Superintendent Douglas Sears, dean of the School of Education and current head of the Management Team. ‘But the president can’t run it day to day, so we hired a management team.’

‘Our number one job is to hire a superintendent, back him or her and let them do their job,’ as well as provide ‘advice and support’ to Chelsea district officials, Sears said. ‘We’re like a brain trust.’

BU’s presence in the district was originally highly controversial. Parents and the teachers in the district complained that BU was taking over the district’s operations and not doing it for the right reasons.

But Riley said the change in management was not a ‘takeover,’ the term many Massachusetts residents used to refer to BU’s moves to acquire authority over the Chelsea schools.

According to a report to the Massachusetts legislature issued in June 2002, the Chelsea School Committee extended the contract between BU and Chelsea schools until June 2008.

In a 1989 interview with The Boston Herald, Silber made clear that the move was not only a risk for the City of Chelsea, but for BU as well.

‘If education in Chelsea does not improve markedly under the university’s administration, it would mean that we are incompetent as educators,’ he told the Herald.

According to Chelsea Superintendent Irene Cornish, Silber has proven his competency.

‘I applaud Dr. Silber’s courage in taking on the partnership and the running of the schools in Chelsea, and I also applaud his commitment to the City of Chelsea and the children in the school system,’ Cornish said.

‘I think what the university and Dr. Silber have done for the children of the city is unparalleled,’ she said. ‘It’s a commitment beyond what any other university has done for the city all over.’

Sears said he agrees. Silber is ‘the guy on this side that got it [the partnership] going,’ he said.

‘Silber’s role is to be a guide and to define what the direction of the district is,’ Sears said. ‘He is one of the best thinkers on how to teach,’ Sears said. ‘People tend to not listen to him as well as they should because they think he’s bombastic.’

But other Chelsea educators are more skeptical of the partnership and Silber’s efforts.

‘[Silber] didn’t take a personal interest in the city and the children,’ said Ferna O’Connor, head of the Chelsea Teachers’ Union. ‘I think that he picked the incorrect professors to lead professional development who didn’t really know what they were doing.’

O’Connor said there were too many superintendents stepping up and stepping down, all of whom brought their own ideas to the system.

‘Too many ideas were tried at the same time,’ O’Connor said. ‘Each superintendent knew how Johnny could read and should read.’

EARLY CHILDHOOD

EDUCATION

Still, Cornish said she believes the partnership yielded improvements, many of which were initiated by Silber.

Of all of Silber’s accomplishments at Chelsea, ‘he’s most proud of the Early Learning Center,’ Cornish said. ‘That will probably be his biggest and most tangible tribute to him.’

According to the Chelsea school system website, the Early Learning Center is a school for 1,000 three- to six-year-old children. It offers services such as counseling and speech pathology, and teaches students to read. According to Cornish, the center is part of Silber’s educational vision, one that emphasizes learning at the elementary or pre-elementary school level.

‘He has always stressed the importance, long before other people started saying it, of early childhood education,’ Cornish said. ‘And that has been a major emphasis here on this district. And now more and more people are recognizing this too.’

According to Cornish, the system has seen improvements since BU has started managing it.

Despite the smaller improvements made by older students, ‘there are positives to point to,’ Cornish said.

‘We have SAT scores going up, advanced placement classes where none has existed before,’ she said. ‘We see beautiful brand new schools.’

STANDARDS AND TESTING

While he maintained his position as chancellor of BU, Silber also served as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education, where, according to board spokeswoman Heidi Guarino, he played a pivotal role in reforming the Massachusetts educational system.

‘He was there from the very beginning of educational reform in raising standards,’ Guarino said.

Guarino said some of the educational reforms made under his leadership include the creation of the MCAS exam as it is today and the standardization of statewide curricula.

Silber said in an interview with The Daily Free Press Oct. 18 that he did not originally support the MCAS, though he was a strong proponent of testing in general. But his ideas for education and his general support for testing are exactly what Guarino credited Silber for.

‘He was there through the drafting of education reform and hammering out the details of the MCAS exams and the curriculum frameworks,’ she said. ‘Standards were raised by the development of the curriculum frameworks, which spell out exactly what students need to learn every grade.’

The MCAS exams were based on these frameworks, so students are only tested on what they have been taught. Sears said he supports the MCAS exams which were standardized while Silber was chairman of the Board of Education as an accurate assessment of students’ knowledge.