Emily Dexter
2019 Candidate for Cambridge School Committee

Home address:
9 Fenno St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Contact information:
website: www.emilydexterforcambridge.com
e-mail: emilydextersc@gmail.com
Tel: 617-460-1597
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/emilydexter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emilydextersc
Twitter: @emilyrdexter
Blog: Public School Notes: Essays, Commentary, and Grassroots Information about Education and the Cambridge Public Schools. www.publicschoolnotes.wordpress.com

Send contributions to:
Committee to Elect Emily Dexter
9 Fenno St., Cambridge MA, 02138
OR
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/emilydextersc

Background
Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, I’m currently a 2nd term member of the Cambridge School Committee. With research training from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I know how to raise new issues, ask new questions, ask for and interpret data, and move issues forward with a sense of urgency. I have also gained skill in working on the School Committee: In my first term, I passed five motions; in my second term I passed twenty-five motions. I was also chosen to serve as the budget co-chair this term because I am extremely knowledgeable about our past and present school department budgets and I know how to advocate for resources.

Outside of my School Committee role, I am engaged in several education-related projects. In 2018, I helped create a local, grassroots organization, Data for Better Schools, the purpose of which is to use data for community organizing. I am also an active member of the We the People National Math Literacy for All Alliance, which is focused on enacting federal legislation that will improve math teaching and learning in underserved communities in the U.S.

Prior to being on the Committee, I was a member of the Cambridge STEAM Working Group (STEM + the Arts), which successfully lobbied the Cambridge City Council to establish a STEAM office in the city administration. I also served on the board of Enroot, a program that supports immigrant high school students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School and Somerville High School. Early in my career, I worked as a language specialist at a progressive school for Deaf students in Framingham, and later as an educational researcher at Harvard and Lesley University. My two children attended Cambridge Public Schools, K-12.

In my first two terms on the School Committee I accomplished the following:

• Pushed successfully for smaller class sizes in the critical 9th grade transition year, and more guidance counselors, social workers, and paraprofessionals for all grades. This year, 16 paraprofessional positions were restored that had been cut from the budget in 2011.
• Advocated relentlessly for universal 4-year-old education, which is now in the design phase.
• Insisted on receiving data on Special Education placements, which triggered an examination of referral practices that had led to disproportionate placement of Black and Latino boys in Special Education.
• Insisted on receiving data on chronic absences, resulting in more district support for parents struggling to get their children to school every day.
• Led a successful effort to reform the high school attendance policy, which was disproportionately penalizing students with disabilities and low-income students.
• Pushed to expand the Spanish language program, which resulted in two more elementary schools offering Spanish instruction.

Priorities

1. Improve learning and achievement, particularly in math. Math is the language of the 21st century for both the job market and civic life. We need an urgent plan for math, the goal of which should be to prepare every student to take advanced math classes in high school.

2. Ensure adequate staffing in every school and classroom. We’ve made some improvements to our staffing levels in the past few years, but our district still has an average class size on par with Medford, Salem, Somerville, and Pittsfield, cities with far fewer resources than Cambridge has. We need more trained educators in our classrooms, and more social workers to provide wraparound services to struggling families.

3. Make preschool, afterschool, and summer programs accessible to all. Cambridge is moving forward with universal early childhood education, but we still have families who can’t afford an enriching afterschool and summer program for their children. We need a system that ensures universal access to out-of-school time education.

4. Create more real-world learning opportunities at the high school. Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School has some wonderful internship and apprenticeships opportunities, but not all students know about them or are able to participate. We need a comprehensive system that provides every student with a well-designed immersive work experience matched to their interests.

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Top challenges facing CPS today

• The unacceptably poor outcomes for low-income students, Black and Latino students, and students with disabilities.
• The increasing numbers of students who exhibit mental health and behavioral challenges, including serious depression, anxiety, and trauma-based behavior.
• The fact that while roughly 60% of our students are students of color, only 25% of our teachers are educators of color; along with lack of enough male teachers, particularly at the elementary level.
• The lack of knowledge that most Cambridge residents have about our schools, and the many myths and misunderstandings that circulate as a result.
• The separation of the school department, governed by the School Committee, and the Department of Human Services, governed by the City Council. This makes it difficult to coordinate the areas of shared responsibility, such as early childhood education and afterschool and summer programs.
• Inadequate data systems that make it difficult to conduct research, generate reports, or access comprehensive information about students.

School Department budget
Helping to create the CPS budget is one of the Committee’s most important responsibilities. The budget is the blueprint for the coming year. Cambridge does have a higher per pupil expenditure than most other districts, but much of the difference is in infrastructure costs, not spending in the classroom. With 16 very small schools (not including the high school), Cambridge misses out on economies of scale at the school level, has high busing costs due to Controlled Choice, and sends many students with disabilities to specialized schools, which is expensive in terms of both tuition and transportation. Cambridge also funds items that other districts can’t afford, such as family liaisons in all our schools, social workers, and funding for nonprofits that work with Cambridge students.

CPS has also seen high enrollment growth over the past 15 years. The total enrollment in 2008 was roughly 6,000 students; this year it is roughly 7,400, an increase of almost 25%. As a result, class sizes and student-educator ratios have increased. However, this has also been a period of great revenue increases for the City of Cambridge. Not adjusting for inflation, the city’s non-school budget has increased by 68% since 2008, while the school department’s per pupil budget has increased by only 25%.

Achievement gaps
Cambridge schools are diverse in terms of many student characteristics, including income and other measures of socioeconomic status such as parents’ education. Like in almost every other district in the U.S., family income, in Cambridge, correlates with student achievement as measured by standardized tests. We also see income-based differences in other student outcomes, such as high school enrollment in Honors and AP classes, and college enrollment and completion. Some of these achievement gaps are undoubtedly related to: inadequate staffing, particularly in our elementary schools; lack of access to enriching out of school learning opportunities; overly rigid and standardized curricula that don’t meet the needs of all students; and Cambridge’s lack of universal early childhood education. We are also working urgently to reduce chronic student absence, which adversely affects learning.

Meeting the needs of all learners, including those with advanced skills
If we truly want teachers to be able to teach all their students well, we have to give them adequate resources. We’ve emphasized professional development in this district for two decades, but that is only one resource.

At all grade levels, there are students with a wide variety of academic skills, from those working far below grade level to those working at advanced levels. Meeting the needs of all learners requires having enough trained adults in our classrooms so students don’t end up bored or having to learn too much from a computer. Teachers need more planning time to design learning activities that can engage students with a wide range of academic skills. We also need to ensure that our curricula are flexible enough that teachers can provide students time to pursue their own interests and passions at their own level. When staffing is inadequate, curricula too rigid, and there isn’t enough planning time, teachers are forced to standardize rather than individualize instruction. All students should have opportunities to work with students who have skills at their own level, as well as with students with higher or lower academic skills. Such opportunities might include working with older or younger students.

Socioemotionally, all students need to accept diversity of ability, and not stigmatize students for being too advanced or too behind in academic skills. It’s also important that schools have mental health staff who can recognize issues such as depression or acting out, which might indicate that a student needs more challenge or feels left behind. We should also ensure that we use assessments that are capable of measuring high levels of academic ability. Cambridge currently uses a preK-8 reading assessment that meets that criterion. MCAS is able to identify some students with advanced abilities, but only to a limited extent.

The superintendent and school department administration
The primary responsibility of the School Committee is to direct the superintendent in ways that reflect the diverse goals and values of our city. To do so, the Committee must work with the superintendent and district administration in ways that are collaborative and collegial, but that also acknowledge that, because these are public schools, the democratically elected School Committee has ultimate responsibility for what happens in the district. The job of the superintendent and administration is essentially to operationalize the will of the public as articulated by the School Committee, while also ensuring that the schools meet state and federal requirements.

Capital needs
Cambridge recently rebuilt two large schools and will soon begin work on a third. The high school was renovated in 2010. We have ten other school buildings, however, some of which have been very poorly maintained over the past two decades. The school department has estimated that the city will have to invest more than $500 million over the next five years for capital improvements to our aging school buildings, not including the expenditures on the new school building (Tobin) currently being designed. The School Committee and City Council must work together to ensure these capital improvements are made, in order to ensure high-quality learning environments in all of our schools. We also have to anticipate the increased enrollment that will come with all the new housing being built in Cambridge. Cambridge schools are currently at maximum capacity and we need more space, including for expanded early childhood education.

CCTV candidate video (2019)

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