[Youth-list] New Commissioner of Education

[JMRab at aol.com]

     (http://www.courant.com/)    
____________________________________
 
_http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-edcommish0117.artjan17,0,1028157.story?coll=hc-headlines-home_ 
(http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-edcommish0117.artjan17,0,1028157.story?coll=hc-headlines-home)  


Educator Chosen To Head Agency 

Helped Lead Efforts To Fix Bay State  Schools 

By  ROBERT A. FRAHM
Courant Staff Writer

January 17 2007

A  Massachusetts educator who helped lead that state's effort to bolster  
sagging performance among low-income and minority students will be named  
Connecticut's next education commissioner today.

The State Board of  Education will name Mark K. McQuillan, a former deputy 
education  commissioner in Massachusetts and a key figure in developing plans 
for  improving schools under the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind  
Act.

McQuillan, who now heads a voluntary collaborative of 21  suburban and urban 
school districts in the Boston area, emerged as the  favorite among five 
finalists interviewed for Connecticut's top education  job, according to sources 
close to the job search.

McQuillan will  succeed interim Education Commissioner George Coleman, who 
has held the  job since Betty J. Sternberg resigned as commissioner last  summer.

McQuillan could not be reached for comment Tuesday but, in  his job 
application to the state, he said he favors ideas such as a longer  school day and 
school year, an expansion of preschool education and "a  full-scale effort to 
recruit highly qualified teachers."

"I believe  that Massachusetts and Connecticut are similar enough - in terms 
of size,  history, demographics, political culture and progressive approaches 
to  public education - to make my skills and experiences a good fit for what  
your state may need," he wrote in his application.

McQuillan also  outlined ideas for raising student achievement, including 
steps to attract  better teachers, particularly in shortage areas such as science 
and  mathematics.

"The complexity of scaling up statewide interventions  that will actually 
result in higher test scores is enormously challenging,  as we have seen in 
Massachusetts," he wrote in the application.  

"But by far my most important recommendation would be to begin the  long 
process of ensuring Connecticut's students a longer school day and  year. 
Providing the time needed to bring quality instruction to  disadvantaged students is 
of the essence, as virtually every analyst of  the achievement gap knows."

Both Massachusetts and Connecticut have  large performance gaps that find 
low-income and minority students lagging  behind middle-class and white children, 
but Massachusetts has had a better  record on recent national tests of 
reading and mathematics.

"This  is a state that has taken very seriously the challenge of raising  
achievement for all students," said Daria Hall, a policy analyst with The  
Education Trust, a national organization that monitors education  performance, 
including the achievement gap. "They have well-defined  standards ... and have 
identified schools that are struggling and  supported those schools."

As Connecticut's commissioner, McQuillan  will be hired at an annual salary 
of $170,000 and will take office as the  state legislature considers 
recommendations to bolster funding for public  schools and to expand preschool programs.

McQuillan was second in  command to Massachusetts Education Commissioner 
David P. Driscoll from  2002 to 2004. After beginning his career as a junior high 
school English  teacher in Newton, Mass., in 1971, McQuillan has held 
administrative jobs  in several Massachusetts school districts, working as an 
assistant school  superintendent in Beverly and as superintendent in both Andover and  
Lincoln.

Since 2004, he has headed the Edco Collaborative in  Boston, an agency that 
provides services to disabled students, low-income  children, potential 
dropouts and others.

McQuillan received a  bachelor's degree in comparative literature from the 
University of  California-Berkeley in 1970. He received a master's degree in 
1975 and a  doctorate in 1984 from the Harvard University Graduate School of  
Education. 

Contact Robert A. Frahm at rfrahm at courant.com.  
Copyright 2007, _Hartford Courant_ (http://www.courant.com/)    
____________________________________
      

Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D.
Governor's Senior Advisor on Early  Childhood
Co-Chair, CT Early Childhood Education Cabinet
Senior Youth  Consultant
United Way of CT & Office for Workforce  Competitiveness
Home office: 203-481-9940
Blackberry: 203-824-4766
Mail  to: 28 Juniper Point
Branford, CT 06405

"...I hope  you never fear those mountains in the distance, Never settle for 
the path of  least resistance..And when you get a chance to sit it out or 
dance, I hope you  dance..." Lee Ann Womack. I Hope You'll Dance
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