I believe Ansonia’s students and teachers deserve a better school system. That belief is based on my decades of experience as a private high school teacher and school administrator.
That’s why I was somewhat surprised by the recent letter by Ansonia Board of Education member George Boath in which he defends City Hall’s record on education.
I’m sorry Mr. Boath. Our students deserve better than the status quo.
What is the status quo? To start with, Ansonia’s schools were evaluated by the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now in 2011.
That organization published rankings and “report cards” for Connecticut school districts. The results were not encouraging: Ansonia High School received an F; Ansonia Middle School received a C-; Prendergast received a C; and Mead received a B.
The ConnCan website makes it clear that its grades are based on a mix of overall student performance, performance across subgroups (broken down by demographics) and performance gains. The rating even takes achievement gaps into account (the average gap between the performance of low-income and non-low-income students).
Despite the substantive criteria outlined above, Mr. Boath dismissed ConnCan as an “unqualified source” that does “not use recognized industry standards as a criteria to measure the failure or success of a particular school district.”
Well, let’s turn to another source. The website www.schooldigger.com is a national database that contains detailed profiles on 136,000 schools in every U.S. state.
It also ranks school districts and schools in comparison to each other.
Schooldigger ranks the Ansonia 165 out of 173 other districts. It ranked Ansonia High 157 out of 194 other Connecticut high schools. Ansonia Middle School was ranked 202 out of 266 Connecticut middle schools.
I anticipate Mr. Boath to label www.schooldigger.com as yet another “unqualified” source.
So to conclude, let’s turn to what the Ansonia Board of Education has to say about the needs of our school system.
A press release from Ansonia Public Schools Department of Teaching and Learning reports that:
• Ansonia has the largest class size in some elementary grades and the high school when compared to similar districts.
• Ansonia has the fewest computers per student when compared to similar districts.
• Ansonia has the fewest library books per student when compared to similar districts.
• Ansonia teachers are paid the lowest salaries when compared to similar districts.
I’m sorry, Mr. Boath, but it is the Ansonia Board of Education you sit on, correct?
I believe that Mr. Boath’s letter has more to do with politics than support of Ansonia’s education system. It is very unfortunate that his staunch support for the present administration has cowed him into defending the performance of a school district in desperate need of help.
No one is blaming students, teachers or school administrators. To suggest otherwise is entirely disingenuous.
At the end of the day, it is the mayor’s responsibility to ensure that education gets the support it deserves. Our students and teachers deserve accountability in City Hall, not excuses.
The writer is a Republican candidate for the Ansonia Board of Education.
The Valley Indy accepts letters/guest columns of up to 500 words.
Ms. Kotalis, I have to disagree with many of the statements you make. As an educator yourself, you should know that the process of educating children is a dynamic process, influenced by many factors, some of which are controllable, many of which are not. Federal and state mandates, socioeconomic standing, parental involvement (or, really lack thereof) are matters generally outside control of school officials and absolutely outside the control of City Hall. The things that we, as responsible educators, can control like teacher/administrator accountability; enhanced student learning initiatives, expanding professional development (and many others) are being handled quite professionally and efficiently by the current administration.
When I ran eight years ago, my goal was to “RAISE THE BAR” for student achievement and for holding accountable the administrators and staff. The first order of business was rid our city of a tyrant superintendent and his hand-picked minions who almost ran our system into the hands of State oversight. From there, test scores increased, schools were re-aligned, a new District Improvement Plan was put into place and a new alliance was forged with City Hall to help control the things we could control.
I ran on a written platform that I disseminated in every Ward in the City. I kept the promises that I made and through the united efforts of the Board of Education, the staff and administrators, Ansonia became a better place to educate a child. That process continues each and every day. As I said, education is a dynamic and not a static phenomenon.
In one sense you are right: status quo isn’t good enough. When it comes to educating our children it cannot be; however to imply that nothing has changed makes me wonder about two things: (1) whether you have been paying attention, and (2) whether there is any substance to your rhetoric.
And to answer the question posited in your article directly: YES, I am a member of the Board of Education, and proudly so.
George W. Boath, Jr.