Detracking in the Stamford, CT Public School System

A conversation with Dr. Joshua Starr – Superintendent of Stamford’s Public Schools

Recently the NSA sat down with Dr. Joshua Starr in his office for a free-ranging conversation.

Much of the existing public discourse around education involves budgetary issues; we chose to focus instead on pedagogy. Our conversation focused on how Dr. Starr and his team are shaping the District’s teaching modalities and affecting how knowledge is made available and acquired.

Now in his fifth year as Superintendent, Dr. Starr feels that his administration’s efforts to centralize and standardize curriculum are well advanced. Stamford’s public school curriculum had not been revised in decades. Consistency across Stamford’s twenty schools and within all classrooms makes it possible to more thoroughly and objectively evaluate curriculum and how it is being delivered.

One of the Stamford Public Schools’ goals is to raise standards for all children. Dr. Starr firmly believes that equity among and within our schools is the logical successor to many of the important gains made from civil rights and desegregation initiatives of forty years ago. The same curriculum should be available to all children. All children should be challenged and encouraged.

A cornerstone of this philosophy is “detracking.” Stamford has defined tracking as “the practice of grouping students based on their achievement levels with little opportunity for movement.” Dr. Starr believes tracking is not benefitting any students no matter what their school level. He believes that data shows that you can raise the outcomes for lower performing students without impacting higher performing kids. Currently, children are sorted into as many as five distinct academic groups. One of the biggest indictments of public school education in the United States is the huge performance gap between the lowest achieving groups and the highest. In Stamford, this performance gap has consistently been in the 40% range as measured on standardized tests.

Grouping by ability may not just lower certain student’s self-esteem but may also predispose faculty to notions of what individual students are capable of. Many teachers, particularly in the middle schools are in support of detracking.

In addition to (1) eliminating low-level classes, the Starr administration has focused on the following core areas: (2) supporting professional development, (3) reforming instructional methodology and (4) “efficacy” (which involves reshaping teachers’ belief systems).
One period per day has been added for academic enrichment, where students are encouraged to delve deeper in topics of interest. There is also a half hour per week advisory period where students discuss the social and emotional issues around school and learning.

Dr. Starr pointed out that Stamford’s initiatives have been well received by both the State and the GE Foundation. Both have asked that equity – specifically detracking - be built in to all of Stamford’s reforms. Stamford has included detracking in its Strategic District Improvement Plan and has been commended by Hartford for having one of the most transparent budgets, aligned with its educational goals out of roughly fifteen major Connecticut school districts.

No matter what the policies and initiatives, Dr. Starr firmly believes the over thirty-years of data that suggest that teacher effectiveness is the most determinant factor in educational outcomes.
Dr. Starr is especially proud of how hard all of his staff works with a sense of pride and for a common purpose. He feels the greatest accomplishment to date has been institutionalizing an education framework with higher standards and greater access. The main regret of his tenure is not having the resources available to institute world languages and technology programs. Perhaps his biggest surprise is how the same set of educational data can be interpreted in several different ways. As the Superintendent responsible for educating more than 15,000 students, Dr. Starr believes in a systematic approach with a dispassionate analysis of outcomes.

While we were chatting with Dr. Starr, my mind kept turning to Dr. Roger Bannister. On May 6, 1954 he became the first man to officially run a sub-four minute mile. Nobody had thought it was possible. Incredibly, just 46 days later another runner broke Sir Roger’s record. Within only three years, sixteen other runners had broken the four minute mile barrier.

Telling a child something isn’t possible can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Believing that all children can have adequate educational outcomes seems like a logical goal but requires a paradigm shift in thinking for many parents, teachers, administrators and public officials.

The NSA would like to thanks Dr. Starr for his generous time. Sarah Arnold, Public Affairs Officer for the Stamford Public Schools, was extremely helpful in providing much of the background information for our meeting and participated in our discussion. Special mention must be made of the GE Foundation’s tremendously generous support of the Stamford Public School System. The NSA’s own Master Teacher – Gail Okun – provided special insight and technical expertise for this article.