The new superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools, Pamela Brown, spoke to campus as part of the Year
of the City lecture series last Thursday, outlining how she plans to turn Buffalo schools around.
Brown replaced interim Superintendent Amber Dixon in July of this year. Dixon had taken over as
superintendent when James Williams resigned in August 2011.
Buffalo State puts an emphasis on working with the Buffalo Public School district, said Wendy Paterson,
dean of the school of education, in her opening remarks.
“We are focused on maintaining our open and respectful communication with Buffalo Public Schools,”
she said, “and our commitment to teacher education.”
Brown began her speech by talking about the role area colleges play in turning around Buffalo schools.
“It’s so great to be here today,” she said. “I really consider this an honor and a privilege to begin to
make this connection with Buffalo State College. It is extremely important that we maintain ongoing
communication, because we have similar interest. We’re all in the business of education.”
Among other methods, Buffalo State currently works with the City of Buffalo through tutoring programs
in city schools and the Say Yes to Education program, which provides a college education to students in
the Buffalo school district who meet certain qualifications. President Aaron Podolefsky announced in
his State of the College address that Buffalo State would be admitting all of the students who met the
criteria for the fall 2013 semester.
With city graduation rates just above 50 percent, Brown has her work cut out for her. Part of her
strategy revolves around her core beliefs, which she outlined in the speech.
“I believe that all children should, and must, have a world class education,” she said.
Having competent teachers and leaders is vitally important, Brown said.
“Victory is won in the classroom,” she said.
Brown also talked about getting the administrators working in the school district’s central office, located
in Buffalo’s city hall, into the classrooms, so they have an idea of what is actually happening. The central
office was criticized in a recent evaluation of the school district for being out of touch with the schools
themselves.
Every student coming out of the Buffalo Public School district should be prepared for college or
employment, and that is currently not the case, Brown said. Part of that is preparing for the global
economy.
“We have to make sure that we’re not just preparing students for grade level performance as we
considered it previously,” she said. “We have to provide advanced preparations for all of our students in
all areas.”
With 86 percent of the district labeled as economically disadvantaged, lower-than-average attendance
and graduation rates, and a growing population of students who do not speak English as their first
language, Brown laid out a plan of action to get city schools performing at a higher level.
“Our first priority has to be what is in the best interest of children,” she said. “Future teachers, I want to
plant that in your mind…children come first. Within that, student achievement comes first.”
Other parts of the plan include staffing the schools with caring and effective staff and holding faculty
and staff accountable to providing the best education possible, even if that means learning new things.
“Everything we do has to impact the instructional goal,” she said.
Michael Canfield can be reached by email at canfield.record@live.com.