Cambridge Schools Stall On Report Card Reform

The Cambridge School Committee ignored the issue of whether it will renew the contract of Superintendent of Schools Thomas Fowler-Finn and instead spent most of its time on “report card reform” during its meeting Tuesday. Even the educational audit by the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA)—which most agreed paints a worsening picture of student achievement—received only a few minutes of discussion at the end.

The EQA report, a detailed breakdown of the school system’s test scores and improvement, was released earlier this month. In a summary of the EQA report released before the meeting, committee member Patricia M. Nolan ’80 wrote that “The recent State EQA report states that the [system’s] achievement, which they measure through an indepth look at [test] scores, within district and compared to the state by grade, subgroup, timeframe, etc., is below standard.”

She added that “the report states that our ‘equity of improvement,’ [or the] progress in reducing the achievement gap, dropped on all six summary measures the EQA used.”

Nolan sponsored a resolution asking the committee to express “concern over the increased gap in achievement.”

Committee member Richard Harding and Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 also said they were dissatisfied with the report, but Nancy Walser—Fowler-Finn’s chief booster—said that the audit contained positive signs. She pointed out that it showed Cambridge’s Hispanic students scoring above the state average.

And while the Committee did not directly address the Fowler-Finn contract—the 800-pound gorilla in the room—members either pitted themselves against his views on the issues or defended them.

Robert Winters, the proprietor of the online Cambridge Civic Journal, confronted Nolan at the end of the meeting, heatedly accusing her of “cherry-picking statistics” to “fit her agenda” of undermining Fowler-Finn. He did not specify which statistics painted a better picture of the district’s achievement.

Benjamin Lummis—who lost his committee seat last November—agreed, saying that Fowler-Finn had put in place a good reform program and that it would take time for the results to show up in test scores.

The bulk of the meeting was dominated by Deputy Superintendent Carolyn Turk, who presented the findings of the “Report Card Taskforce.” Fowler-Finn had commissioned the taskforce to reduce the number of report card formats used in the system. Currently, the Cambridge schools employ 64 different formats in 13 schools.

But despite the work of the taskforce, the number of formats may not be reduced at all. The group only produced a baseline consensus on what should be included on the report cards, not a boilerplate template for the schools.

This drew criticism from committee members Joseph Grassi and Richard Harding, with Grassi directing harsh words at Fowler-Finn.

“What was the purpose of this exercise if we still have 64 different report cards?” Grassi asked. “I question the educational soundness. I am at a loss at this point, and I’m extremely disappointed with you, Dr. Fowler-Finn, for choosing to ignore this issue.”

Fowler-Finn was defended by Walser, who minutes before had congratulated Fowler-Finn and Turk for their work.

Walser said that “there is no research showing that standardizing report cards is correlated with achievement.”

Harding rejected this notion, pointing out that no “high-level districts have this many report cards anywhere.”

Following the 150 minute session filled with talk about report card reform, a few minutes spent on the achievement report, and no mention of the superintendent’s contract, the committee adjourned to executive session. There it discussed the contracting of an attorney to negotiate the Fowler-Finn contract. The name of the attorney was not disclosed beforehand, and the committee—over Walser’s objection—did not cap his fees.

—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.