Agent of change: New schools chief begins job with a bang

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on July 31, 2009

Alberto Rodriguez gave notice last week that, as Amherst's new superintendent of schools, he will not be sitting at a desk at the back of the room and keeping quiet.

"I wasn't hired to be a maintenance man but a change agent," he said at his first School Committee meeting.

Then he read aloud the seven-page report on Amherst's schools that he asked his former supervisor to write after spending 10 days here this month. The report focuses on the weaknesses in the school system rather than the strengths.

And Rodriguez has not been shy about expressing his opinions on student achievement gaps, classroom motivation, overrides, moving the sixth grade to the middle school, and K-12 regionalization.

So just who is this man who's being paid $158,000 a year to supervise Amherst's schools at a time of cutbacks and change?

Rodriguez is 49, and has lived in Miami most of his life, working as a history teacher, principal and assistant superintendent. His wife, a school guidance counselor, and his two daughters, 19 and 20, still live there. He and his wife communicate regularly using online video and see each other in person every two weeks.

"Leaving Miami was not just a career change for me; it was a life change," he said. "I'm taking this position at great personal sacrifice."

His role models are his father, who left Cuba in 1955, and Ronald Reagan, because of his belief in small government. But he resists political pigeonholing and said his beliefs come from both sides of the spectrum.

Rodriguez said he came to Amherst because he was looking for a challenge. He'll get it.

The Amherst schools are reducing staff by the equivalent of 55 full-time positions, because of state aid cuts and the reluctance of town officials to ask voters to raise taxes. The remaining staff need to adopt a different approach to teaching and school supporters need to prepare for an override next year, he said.

"We need to decide as a community what kind of education we want," he said. "If we need to go through another round of cuts, the kind of educational system we will provide will not be the same. It will be unrecognizable."

Members of the School Committee have praised Rodriguez's strong entrance onto the Amherst stage.

"I'm tremendously impressed," said Regional School Committee Chairman Farshid Hajir after Rodriguez read the report. School Committee member Catherine Sanderson called the report "inspirational."

But within hours of his remarks appearing in print, Rodriguez came in for criticism in the blogosphere, not only for his policies but for his salary and family situation.

"He forced us to reach further into our collective pockets than we initially wanted to, in a time of considerable austerity," wrote Rich Morse, of Amherst, on Sanderson's blog. He also criticized Rodriguez's decision to have his family stay in Miami, writing, "A man needs his family by his side" and "someone (or two) to come home to who loves him unconditionally."

Teacher Nina Koch responded on the blog that "it's not up to us to judge the decisions a family makes about career and residence."

Rodriguez has burst out of the gates supporting those who think the schools should focus more on achievement and "excellence," and those who think that Amherst isn't doing enough for students who are struggling, especially those who are non-white.

"We're doing OK, but we can do a lot better," he said in an interview. "A town like this should have National Merit Scholarship finalists coming out of the woodwork." He told the School Committee, "We have excellence going on in pockets. We need to make it uniform and not leave it to happenstance."

He also wants to narrow the "achievement gap." This was a major focus of the outside report he commissioned.

Today's students need to be won over, he said. "You need to sell them on the fact that they need to learn what you're teaching them," he said. "If we keep addressing them the way we were taught, we're doomed to fail."

Rodriguez said he favors K-12 regionalization and moving the sixth grades to the middle school. He said he will visit Mark's Meadow School during its last year, and a recommendation about how the elementary district lines will be redrawn will come out in October.

The report, which cost just under $5,000, was compiled by Irving Hamer, deputy superintendent of the Memphis schools. He reviewed data, interviewed administrators and talked to Rodriguez, who said Amherst was fortunate to get such a national expert on education to spend 10 days here for that amount of money.

Hamer noted "the absence of a coherent K-12 literacy program, various report card models among elementary schools, teacher-developed programs of instruction that differ within the same building and between buildings, limited efforts to support struggling students, no common assessments except for MCAS, and the absence of an aligned curriculum."

He cited the "gross under-utilization" of the middle school. "There is a general perception that the middle school is not consistently rigorous across the entire faculty and that its students do not acquire the appropriate knowledge and skills," the report said.

Amherst should offer a pre-kindergarten program for students living in poverty, Hamer wrote. He also saw problems with high-achieving students.

"There is recorded criticism that even for students that benefit from enriched learning environments at home and extensive supplementary education, the teaching is not deep and rigorous, albeit wide-ranging," he wrote.

He also recommended introducing online courses at the high school, protocols for classroom "walk-throughs," setting measurable targets for student outcomes, collaborating with campuses on instructional technology, conducting meetings in the community, and performance targets for principals.

Successful implementation of changes "is likely to be transformative and may require some change management," Hamer wrote.

"These findings are meant to inform you, as superintendent, with opportunities for improvement and to help you formulate a compelling vision with a strategic plan designed to realize that vision," he wrote.