Superintendent Joshua Starr hosted a press conference for student reporters Oct. 18, answering questions about a variety of topics, such as the attendance policy, budget cuts and his experience as an educator. Representatives from several high school newspapers, including the Black & White, attended the session.

Starr is working to establish a culture of openness and honesty in his first year as superintendent, which prompted him to reach out to high school journalists. Though he can’t have a personal relationship with every principal, teacher or student, Starr said at the conference that he plans to visit every school.

The superintendent’s top priorities right now are targeting variability between schools, improving school culture and increasing professional development.

“This is a wonderful system, but there are differences between schools in performance and accessibility,” Starr said, citing variability as his greatest concern. “Not every school should look and be exactly the same, but there needs to be excellence in terms of performance.”

He would like schools to develop an accepting culture, open to input from all stakeholders, including students and teachers.

“It’s very important to me to have a culture of candor, where people are freely sharing opinions and ideas, where everyone feels they are a part in making us better,” he said.

Improving teaching is also key to enhancing learning, Starr said. Though the budget doesn’t allot much money for professional development, he plans to take advantage of talent already in the system.

“We don’t have a student learning problem; we have an adult learning problem,” he said. “Teachers need to get better at their jobs.”

Starr also addressed the difficult topic of budget cuts, saying that he doesn’t want to cut extracurricular options, but academics are his top priority.

“It’s unfortunate that sometimes really tough choices have to be made,” Starr said. “Teaching kids how to read and do mathematics is more important than some other things. It’s terrible. But I don’t choose how much money we have, I just get to invest it.”

Ultimately, Starr is committed to improving learning, not just test results.

“Sometimes what we think of as great teaching is great performance,” he said. “Let’s focus on making sure there is great teaching for every child, every day, in every classroom.”

He added that No Child Left Behind places too much emphasis on standardized testing, an unreliable and counterproductive measure of achievement.

“The overreliance on standardized test scores is tragic and inappropriate, and has compromised our ability to move forward in the future,” he said.

Starr wants to make sure math acceleration is adapted to focuses on thoroughly teaching concepts and reinforcing critical thinking skills. Teachers should differentiate between students’ varying skill levels, but “acceleration through separation” may not necessarily be the best way to approach that, Starr said.

Finally, Starr said he expects an attendance policy recommendation by April. Many principals voted to reinstate the Loss of Credit policy, which punishes excessive absences with lost credit in a course, but Starr said seat time may not truly reflect a student’s ability.

“We had to kind of pull back this year, but I think it needs to be revisited,” he said.

In reference to his comments, Starr said he strongly believes in the importance of following through on one’s commitments.

“If you say you’re going to do something, you have to do it,” he said “And if you can’t do it, you have to be clear about why you can’t. You can’t do everything; it’s just not possible.”