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By Dr. Rebecca Hamman

July 1st is just around the corner and Stamford’s new Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Adrian Talley, takes the helm as the school district’s highest instructional leader. The excitement is electric. Our kids are ready, educators are willing, and parents/taxpayers are expecting big changes.

But if the expectations are so high, why would the Stamford Board of Education (BOE) continue to act as it has for the last seven years? Does this group of nine individuals not realize the power they have in helping Stamford Public School (SPS) improve? Evidently not.

After voting to support a $360M budget, this board still seems to struggle with their overall mission — improving teaching and learning. So once again, they need to be asked the hard questions about HOW to close the gaps…

Effectiveness Gap

What really makes an effective Board of Education?

• Listening to educators and parents or just sticking with politics?
• Using listening and common sense or preferring groupthink over individual due diligence?

Trust will only become stronger if all nine members are considered part of the team. The BOE president thinks only six members exist. Right before the May 19 Special Meeting, he went as far as requesting that his party vote ‘no’ on any amendments. They all listened. Political micromanagement, presidential privilege, bloc voting, and bullying are still alive and well. Despite seven years of declining achievement — mirrored at both the middle and high school levels — the majority party believes that mediocrity is acceptable.

Budget Gap

How should a healthy school budget be built?

• Using a new ‘return on investment’ model or repeating the same antiquated process?
• Focusing on data to drive spending or playing a political, close-your-eyes game?

The Board of Education even asked for an extra week to review the proposed 2026-2027 budget created by the outgoing superintendent. Only one member stepped forward and shared amendments. Rather than address a bleeding achievement artery and ask deeper questions about system concerns, the super-majority party did nothing.

The budget sets the stage, but data tells the real story. The BOE can only blame itself for not doing what it was created to do. If the BOE continues to be irresponsible, families-in-the-know will continue to leave and educators will move on. High expectations are essential and should never be taken lightly when student success is attached to a budget.

Achievement Gap

What approach should be used to improve teaching and learning?

• Taking assessments seriously or ignoring test scores consistently?
• Using audits to gain perspective or continue throwing money at systemic problems?

Fidelity with instruction, training and accountability has not been consistent:

• The Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBAC) 2024-2025 test scores tell us 4 out of 5 stand-alone, grade 6-8 Stamford schools are now performing at the lowest quartile out of 252 Connecticut middle schools. Sadly, now 50-70% of all SPS middle school students lack phonemic awareness, decoding and comprehension skills as well as fall two or more grade levels behind their peers (2026 I-Ready diagnostic & Imagine MyPath program).
• Going further, high school scores have declined over the last six years. Class of 2025, only 50.6% (English Language Arts) and 23.2% (Mathematics) met or exceeded benchmark levels on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), compared to Class of 2019, 55.3% and 37.7%, respectively.
• Struggling regular education and multilingual (ML) students need certified remedial reading specialists—currently only 3 out of 9 teachers (gr. 6-8). This is one of the main reasons SBAC and SAT scores have declined and mirror each other.
• Piecemeal curriculums sit on shelves (e.g., Reading 180 & Language Live) because central office leaders only order parts of curriculums.
• Class sizes matter, too. Department heads/grade level leaders, teachers and administrators need to review struggling learner concerns in co-teaching courses.

Clearly SPS needs to focus on completing a curriculum, instruction and assessment ‘rebuild’, starting at the middle school level with reading. Without midterms and finals, along with the rise of artificial intelligence, learning is difficult to monitor consistently—we need them back. Competencies across grades 3-10, also need to be redeveloped around editing and revising, writing (narrative, expository, persuasive), Degrees of Reading Power (DRP), reading comprehension and mathematics.

Data results should drive instruction and budget lines. So does this BOE need to wait for a new superintendent to stop a bleeding artery? Why was this data ignored for 7 years? To the demise of excellence, current and former BOE presidents have often stated, ‘test scores don’t matter’. Voters take notice—BOE elections are just around the corner.

It is obvious we have potential to shine as a district. Close the gaps Stamford BOE. Please stand on the right side of learning for our students’ sake, not politics.

Dr. Rebecca Hamman currently serves as a member of the Stamford Board of Education. She is a career educator (teacher and administrator) and has worked 11 years elementary and 15 years secondary. Her comments are her own, and do not represent the official views of the Board of Education or its committees.

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