I have tried to find copies of public positions I have taken and speeches I have made on various occasions. These contain public records of the positions I have taken on a variety of issues. I am not always certain that I have found the final version of the speech or of the document, but I have done my best. And, of course, even when I have a prepared text, I do not follow it exactly. Still, the documents below will help you understand where I stand on a variety of issues. I am working on developing and posting more up-to-date policy statements.

Opening Day 2004: This is an address given on the first day that teachers and staff return. It is intended to help set the tone for the coming school year. It emphasizes the importance of leadership and introduces the new superintendent, Dr. William Lupini. It also stresses the important of mentoring and induction programs, our commitment to raising achievement for all students and our concerns about the MCAS graduation requirement and No Child Left Behind.

2005 Budget: This is a speech I gave to Town Meeting on the 2005 School Department budget.

2 Brookline Place: This is a speech I gave to Town Meeting supporting the proposed zoning and related changes enabling the development of 2 Brookline Place.

Powerpoint slides for my presentation on No Child Left Behind: This addresses some of the same problems that I discuss in this opinion piece.

Opening Day 2003: This speech emphasizes the School Committee's opposition to the MCAS graduation requirement but also our commitment to evaluation, and especially to ongoing evaluation of our programs.

MCAS Survey: On behalf of the School Department, I surveyed our professional staff about the impact of MCAS on their teaching. The most important results are that the majority of Brookline educators devote little time to material intended to help students to do well on the MCAS and which they would not otherwise cover. More than three out of ten believe that the effect of the time they spend on such material is entirely or mostly positive while less than one in ten believes that it is mostly or entirely negative. Among those reporting an effect, there is some tendency for those who devote less time to material aimed explicitly at MCAS to view the effect of the time they spend on such material as positive. Among those reporting changing how they teach, the proportion who believe that the change had a positive effect on student learning ranged from 42% to 56%. In no case did the proportion who believed the effect was negative exceed 12%. There is a lot more detail (and nuance) in the report. I recommend reading it.

MCAS Position Paper: This is a position paper I wrote in 2001 in which I advocate treating performance on individual MCAS exams as a completely separate certification from the high school diploma in much the same manner as AP exams although targeted at a different population.

My 1999 campaign flyer covered my positions on a variety of issues that were facing the schools at that time. Of course, the issues have changed, and some of my positions have evolved since that time, but none of my stands has altered radically.