Gov. Deval Patrick's plans for education have been incubating slowly in something he calls the "Readiness Project." Scores of experts and advisers have been huddling for nearly a year, collecting a tall pile of recommendations for fixing Massachusetts schools from preschool through college.
If he's wise, Patrick will choose from that stack a handful of initiatives that are both far-reaching and achievable. He must also assemble a team to sell them that combines educational insight with political courage and experience in the politics of education reform in Massachusetts.
It's hard to imagine a better person to lead that team than Paul Reville, Patrick's choice to be secretary of education.
Reville, a Harvard lecturer and head of the nonprofit Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, was an architect of the state's last successful education reform effort in 1993. In that effort, and in the years since, he has embraced a balance between competing educational imperatives: Adequate funding and accountability for results, innovation and consistency, local responsibility and state leadership. He has won respect from all sides of the educational battlegrounds, which will be critical in the success of the next round of reforms. Reville's experience also ensures that the next steps in education reform will build on the progress of the last initiative rather than undermining it.
There is much work to be done: closing the achievement gap, enriching education through extended learning time, extending the innovations fostered by charter schools, smoothing the transition from high school to college. Paul Reville is an excellent choice to lead this vital discussion.
