Mr. Paul Vallas, currently serving as the superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District recently said "poor school districts suffer from a racism of lower expectations. Communities sometimes develop a complacent attitude towards poorer children and begin to believe and accept that poor children can't learn."

Further, he stated that "sometimes you have to deconstruct before you can reconstruct.".

I would refer to what we have been engaged in over the past four years has been a "remodeling" of the Schenectady City School District necessitated by years, even decades, of declining test scores and graduation rates combined with problematic student attendance rates and an increase in poor student behavior. Combined with an increasing student population, growing numbers of children in poverty and a continued acceptance of the status quo relative to our approach to resolving these issues, we face many obstacles to continuous improvement.

As with most remodeling efforts, we began with our foundation and have been improving our district from the ground-up. We have seen the creation of early childhood education centers and the development of K-8 school options for families, while moving elementary schools into K-6 configurations. We have restructured our failing middle schools as required under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and for the first time have seen dramatic improvement in our state test scores in grades 3 through 8. Student discipline occurrences have steadily declined in our elementary and middle levels. We have focused our professional development program on research-based best practices in education and will continue to do so.

Mr. Vallas, who has a history of successful school district turn-arounds lists six "reforms that could be implemented by any school district that would virtually guarantee positive results":

1. Establish a comprehensive data driven curriculum that is aligned vertically in grades K-12.

2. Extend the school day and the school year.

3. Give parents school choices.

4. Allow some schools to choose their students creating an environment of high expectations for everyone.

5. Concentrate on a human resources strategy that ensures you have the best staff.

6. Modernize all classrooms.

If you study each of his recommendations, and compare them with our remodeling efforts, I believe you will see we are implementing all of them in some fashion except number 4. We have chosen not to allow any of our schools to choose their students.

As we continue the "remodeling" of our school system, our focus must always be on how our motivations, daily practices, decisions, and innovations will improve student achievement for all children.

There are two old sayings I believe go hand in hand. The first is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The second is "the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things and expect to get different results."

We cannot afford to leave any part of our school system broken. We must find new, more effective ways to meet the needs of our diverse student population. If students are not achieving using old systems, practices, strategies and techniques, then we must change and start using new systems, practices, strategies, and techniques that do work for children. Why? Because to continue doing the same things and expecting different results.....well, I think you get my point.

I have often heard people say "the kids have changed" and "if only the kids would" and "I have always done it this way". These sayings often are heard from the same people. If true, and the kids have changed, then doing it the way we've always done it probably won't work.

"Complacency is my enemy and failure is not an acceptable choice" are two quotes in my heart and my mind as an educator. Feel free to adopt them as your own.

I will not settle for less than what the children of Schenectady deserve. I will not practice what I refer to as "educational discrimination in the form of lower expectations for our children".

Urban blight, challenging social issues, gangs, youth violence, parenting issues, societal expectations, cultural differences, economic distress and many other issues face our children. We cannot add low educational expectations by our learning community to that list of challenges.

Indeed, education is the only lighthouse available to many of our students by which they can navigate.

We must become the lighthouse for our students. We must help them overcome their educational, personal, social and emotional challenges.

I tend not to respond to the hyperbole of political agendas, however I will leave you with one final Ely quote: "the lighthouse doesn't create the rocky shore, it keeps people from crashing on those rocks and being buried forever."

Eric Ely, Superintendent