Governor Visits Braintree's East Middle School, Where MCAS Success Abounds

As Kristin Walsh, a 6th grade math teacher at , paced in front of the classroom writing complicated addition, subtraction and multiplication problems on a whiteboard, one student in the far row struggled to keep up.

Two assistants floated around the room, helping the kids, some with autism or other disabilities. They played math BINGO, answering the problems to fill in boxes. But that one student, cramped in his small desk, wearing a suit and looking to the young girl behind him for answers, continued to defy the expectations of another student, a boy who had cracked wise earlier.

"Who's going to win?" Walsh had asked the classroom, filled along the edges with people lugging notebooks and cameras.

"Me. Me. Me," the students shouted.

"Deval Patrick," the boy said, smiling across the room at the Governor of Massachusetts.

"I hate to say I think you guys are a little quicker than the governor here," Walsh said. "Maybe you should hang out in our classroom more."

Patrick came to East on Tuesday morning to celebrate the school's achievement as a "Commendation School," one of 127 in the state. It had, like and elementary schools, narrowed its proficiency gap on this year's MCAS tests, with students overall scoring above the state average.

The governor sat in on two math classrooms and a science lesson, joined by a crowd of reporters, Mayor Joseph Sullivan, Superintendent Dr. Peter Kurzberg, and several other school, town and state officials.

Patrick, addressing a question about a possible waiver of the 2014 proficiency requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act – an option put forward by President Barack Obama that is aimed at eliminating what many consider an unrealistic expectation – said that Massachusetts, led by districts like Braintree, tops the nation in student achievement.

Those results, he said, have come because expectations are high in the state, indicating Patrick would not support lowering standards, but also saying that the yearly requirement of progress toward proficiency of all students by 2014 is "by most accounts a flawed system."

East Principal John Sheehan said that working within the guidelines in place now, his teachers, staff and students have done exceptionally well.

"It's a steady progression toward the goal," he said. "It's nice to be recognized for the work the students and teachers have put in every day."

Superintendent Dr. Peter Kurzberg also called it a "tribute to the hard work of the students and staff" and said the MCAS results and the governor's visit reflect well on the entire Braintree school system.

On Tuesday, Patrick saw the kind of educational tools that have made a difference in Braintree and throughout the state, like the BINGO game and electronic devices slung around some teachers' necks, attached wirelessly to speakers to help them reach every student in the classroom. But the number one reason why students perform well, he said, are the educators themselves.

When the governor was in middle school years ago on the south side of Chicago, he said classrooms often had 40 students, police officers were stationed at the intersections of hallways, and there was more plexiglass than glass in the windows.

Despite those limitations, Patrick said, he was able to thrive thanks to a 6th grade teacher who took him to see The Sound of Music as a gateway to European history, and who made him feel like a "citizen of the world" for the first time.

"It is above all the quality of teachers," Patrick said. "There's a strong sense of community here and it's showing up in the results."