Dexter

From Leslie Brunetta, treasurer of the Committee to Elect Emily Dexter, Oct. 16, 2015: Emily Dexter is different. All the School Committee candidates are intelligent, accomplished people who want the best for Cambridge students. Their sincere desires for equity, excellence and accountability resonate with us all.

But Emily can move us from stating these desires to realizing them. The “achievement gap” in Cambridge Public Schools has barely budged over the past decade. Why? Because few people understand the data collected from our schools, and even fewer understand that information that remains unanalyzed is often more important than the data presented. In 2014, Emily and I examined publicly available but unanalyzed data to write “Unequal Schools.” This report uncovered inequitable staffing in our schools that correlated with achievement challenges.

Edward Byrne, aide to the mayor, recently cited “Unequal Schools” in a plan for increasing equity that has been praised by the School Committee. Even before this campaign season, Emily’s concern, approach to our challenges and ability to articulate issues were moving our local education conversation in a positive direction, on this and other subjects.

Read more about Emily here to see how giving her your No. 1 vote will lead to informed decision-making that will help every student get more out of our schools.