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Paul Reville is well respected in state education circles. |
Governor Deval Patrick is expected today to name Paul Reville, chairman of the state Board of Education and an architect of the state's education reform plan in the 1990s, as education secretary, a Cabinet-level post that cements Patrick's sweeping overhaul of the state's education leadership.
Reville, a proponent of raising academic standards and holding schools that struggle accountable, will lead a new office designed to coordinate public education policy from preschool through college.
Patrick will announce Reville's appointment as the head of the Executive Office of Education at a press conference this morning at Monument High School in South Boston, said State House sources briefed on the announcement. Under Patrick's changes, the office will oversee the state's two education departments and three boards when it starts working in July.
Reville is widely respected in education circles, and the new position is a major step for Patrick as he tries to consolidate control of the state's education system to advance his proposals.
Patrick has outlined a host of ambitious initiatives for education, such as establishing universal preschool and full-day kindergarten, extending the school day and year, and providing tuition-free community college.
As governor, Patrick has appointed new leaders of the state boards of early education, education, and higher education. A new commissioner for the state Department of Education is slated to take office in May.
In January, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved the position of education secretary, giving the post limited powers over long-range plans, hiring, and budgets. Supporters say the new office will help unite a fragmented public education system to tackle broad problems, but critics argue that it adds a needless level of bureaucracy that threatens the political independence of the education boards.
Reville has previously expressed doubts about the post, testifying to legislators in 2003 that education policy should be insulated from the "ebb and flow of politics."
"No matter how well constituted, an education secretariat creates a competing center of power that vies with and against the state's" education commissioner and the Department of Education, he testified.
But Reville told the Globe in January he supported the new plan because it is "respectful of keeping some distance between the political process and the education policy-making process."
Reville will assume the post July 1, when he will resign as chairman of the Board of Education. Today, Patrick will nominate three new members to the expanded board, including Dana Mohler-Faria, president of Bridgewater State College and the governor's chief education advisor, the sources said. Reville will be a voting member of all three state education boards.
Patrick will also name two new members to vacant positions on the Board of Early Education and Care, said the sources, who requested anonymity to avoid deflecting attention from the official announcement.
Reville will be asked to usher recommendations from his so-called Readiness Project, a group of 200 business and community leaders developing a long-term plan for the state's education system, into concrete legislative proposals, sources said.
Narrowing the achievement gap between low-income, urban students and their wealthier suburban counterparts will also be a chief priority.
Many students are also graduating from high school without the academic skills needed for college. A recent Board of Higher Education report that found that more than one-third of public high school graduates enrolled in at least one remedial course in their first semester in college.
Through a spokesman, Patrick declined to comment pending the official announcement.
But in appointing Reville last August, Patrick described him as "a leader with a broad perspective on local, national, and international education issues and solutions." The governor chose Reville for his expertise, ability to forge consensus, and his ideas about education, the source added.
A well-known education policy researcher, Reville heads the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy in Cambridge and directs the education policy and management program at Harvard's Graduate School of Education.
State Representative Patricia Haddad, chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Education, praised the selection, calling Reville a thoughtful intellectual who could garner support for potentially divisive plans.
"His reputation is that of someone who brings people to the table," she said. "It's the person that will really make this [secretary position] work, and Paul has the ability to bring people together and look at the big picture."
Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, said Reville's collaborative approach was well suited for a position designed to promote cooperation.
"He's totally committed to children and improving their education," she said. "The more I know him, the more that's evident. He likes to use a collaborative approach and is always willing to listen before he makes decisions."
Patrick's budget, filed in January, would increase education spending by $368 million and earmark additional funding for kindergarten classes, extended school day programs, tutoring for students with low standardized test scores, and helping low-performing schools.
Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said Reville's diplomacy will help knit together a system that has "been uneager to collaborate."
"Reville has probably the best perspective of anyone on what has to be done and how it has to be done," he said.
Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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