By Molly and Richard Jesse
We preface this by noting that the Essex-Westford School District (EWSD) is engaged in the search for a new superintendent. While we address here what we want for EWSD, this is what Vermonters should also want for their own school districts.
The most important job of the superintendent of our Essex-Westford School District is making sure that our students are learning and achieving at high levels. The good, true, and beautiful things that students learn should fill them with wonder, ground them in truth, shape their affections, and equip them for purpose.
For their future success in life, it is crucial that our students love to learn, think clearly, listen carefully, reason and write persuasively, and speak precisely. The top priority for the superintendent then requires that he or she focus the district on student academic achievement by setting specific measurable goals and focusing district resources on meeting those goals.
Just how feasible is it for EWSD to prioritize/improve students’ academic achievement? The Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) in Orange County, California, provides one successful example.1 The district established two district-wide goals that could be measured at the school, classroom and student level.
The goals were both reasonable and ambitious. These goals were that any student who had been in the district for five years would be proficient in reading and math, and that any English language learner would advance by one level each year on the statewide English proficiency test.
To eliminate effects from student mobility, schools and teachers would only be held accountable for students who stayed in the district for five years or more. With 35% of our EWSD students “below proficient “ in English Language Arts, 45% “below proficient” in Mathematics, and 40% “below proficient” in Science,2 this approach by GGUSD is a model that could be adapted by EWSD for the benefit of our students.
- From “What makes a great superintendent?”, GreatSchools.org, July 27, 2023, (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/what-makes-a-great-superintendent). ↩︎
- From assessment data, Vermont Agency of Education, school year 2022-2023. ↩︎