Pryor Visits Trumbull Lighthouse

State Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor made a short visit to Trumbull on Thursday, to tour one of the town's lighthouse education assets – the Trumbull Early Education Center (TECEC) – and to talk reform.

He addressed some two dozen educators, administrators and Board of Education members, toured the school, then met with the educators. State Board of Education member Terry Jones of Shelton, First Selectman Tim Herbst and State Representative Tony Hwang (R-134) also heard the commissioner and joined the tour.

Trumbull School Superintendent Ralph Iassogna introduced Pryor. “He is exceptional, not only for the kids, but also for Connecticut.” He noted that Pryor is new to his position, but not to Connecticut. He is a graduate of Yale University, Yale Law School, Yale's Teacher Preparation Program, and was a policy advisor to New Haven's mayor.

Iassogna said “reform is a process and we are in the eighth inning of a nine inning game,” and added that the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents stands with the commissioner and his reforms.

Pryor told the group “education reform has been a long time coming.” He said the “General Assembly is poised to do something with real vigor... (and that) it's been a long time since we've had a real investment in education.”

He concluded “the best thing we can do is witness your good works,” and so the tour began.

TECEC has an enrollment of 250 pre-kindergarteners. The school's teachers, paraprofessionals and its physical and occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, a psychologist and social workers provide early intervention for young children with learning, physical, social and emotional needs. TECEC also has “peer” students, children who possess age appropriate skills and act as models for their classmates.

The school is also home to a 50 student, five town federally funded Head Start program.

The school rooms are open, cheerful and full of color. On this bright, almost spring, day the rooms were awash with sunlight. Materials are right at hand. The children worked one on one with teachers, in groups and played with such toys as a doll house.

While many of the educators observed the classroom, a few, including the commissioner and First Selectman Herbst knelt down to eye level to chat with some of the children and watched others busy with their teachers.

The Commissioner Listened to Our Teachers

Following the tour Pryor held an educators only meeting Dr. Matthew Wheeler, Coordinator of Preschool and TECEC Principal, described as “mostly Q&A.”

Wheeler said the commissioner told the teachers his number one priority is access to quality pre-kindergarten programs. If we are to close the achievement gap Pryor said it is essential that every child be academically, socially and emotionally ready to enter kindergarten.

To that end, he seeks to create spots for 500 children in quality preschool programs across the state.

Reform was the topic of Q&A. Pryor is following up Governor Malloy's sweeping education reform bill, and his calling “2012 The Year for Education Reform,” by visiting schools across the state to listen to teachers express their ideas and concerns.

Connecticut has the largest achievement gap in the nation – the difference in standardized test results between white and non-white students and between upper and lower income students.

Among the objectives of the reform process is strengthening our schools, closing the achievement gap and raising the quality of teachers across the state.

Pryor talked about a growing commitment to more quantitative student assessment measures, a more rigorous certification process and a rating system to help parents become more informed about the quality of their schools.

One of the tools discussed was RTI Studio, a program is being piloted now in the middle schools. It is a data base that records assessments for a student's entire time in Trumbull. It will measure student achievement more broadly than today's CMT and CAPT scores. More importantly, will more readily identify students needing intervention (remedial help).

Millie Vasquez, a Middlebrook School first grade teacher who participated in the meeting summarized it saying “the commissioner has been impressed with Connecticut's educators and education... We certainly appreciated the opportunity to meet with him... We touched upon several reform proposals... Commissioner Pryor listened thoughtfully and will weave our thoughts, ideas and concerns into his plans.”

Much of the discussion focused on teacher-centric issues such as preparation, tenure and innovative classroom techniques.

Among the classroom initiatives discussed was one created by Katie Laird, a math teacher at Trumbull High School on “employing technology to help support our students.”

Laird created a short YouTube tutorial to teach an essential Algebra I skill. Her video is modeled on lessons by Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/), a growing and highly regarded library of instructional videos students can access at home to facilitate their classroom learning.

She created it by recording her voice while writing notes on a tablet to demonstrate an example. Laird has replicated classroom instruction in a digital format familiar to all teenagers and one they can watch on their own until they learn the subject matter.

Laird's hope is that “students will view them at home to help support their learning.”

She also noted that THS other teachers are doing the same, and are even encouraging students to create videos for peer tutoring.

Representative Hwang said the commissioner's visit “shows the esteem in which he holds our system.” He thanked him for “taking the time to meet with the teachers and listen to their accomplishments and concerns.” 

Hwang reinforced the emphasis on early childhood education, noting particularly how TECEC strengthens Trumbull's education system. 

He also noted that tenure, which has become a lightening rod in the reform debate, is a “challenging issue,” that we need to put the proper evaluation system in place. Hwang believes administrators should also be subject to accountability.

Those interested in learning more about TECEC should visit: www.trumbullps.org/tecec/.