Partnership Founded To Aid City Schools

In an effort to improve the city's schools, Cambridge business and educational leaders announced on Wednesday the formation of a "partnership" that they said will link private-sector skills with public needs.

"It's a win-win situation," said Vice President for State and Community Affairs John Shattuck, one of the effort's founders. He said he first conceived the project more than a year ago in a meeting with the late Mayor Leonard J. Russell and Superintendent of Schools Robert M. Peterkin.

Under the Cambridge Partnership for Public Education, MIT, Harvard's Graduate School of Education and Lesley College will aid public school teachers and administrators in pursuing further studies.

In addition, business executives will train school executives--many of whom are former teachers with no such grounding--in management theory.

University and business personnel will also be encouraged to volunteer to teach in the schools.

Furthermore, the program will coordinate existing efforts, said Robert Heroux, President of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. He noted that members of the Harvard Expository Writing and Physics departments already teach in the public schools.

Shattuck said the Partnership may make the schools more attractive to Harvard affiliates with children. Many professors now send their children to private academies, and a recent check of the rolls by city administrators revealed that only one student who attends public school lives on posh Brattle Street.

Students in the 13 elementary schools and at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School recently scored below the national average on a battery of standardized tests. The Partnership's plans also include a literacy program for the three schools with the lowest scores. All of these are in East Cambridge, in an area heavily populated by immigrant families, some of which do not use English at home. Heroux said the city's schools teach children of 63 nationalities who speak 42 different languages.

MIT plans to contribute by supplementing the salary of the project's executive director, Urban Studies Professor Alan Dyson. The Partnership has an initial budget of $54,000, raised from business and academic contributions. Heroux said Harvard had given $5000 to the fund, in addition to its new fellowship program for teachers.

A fund drive now in progress may raise the total budget to $100,000, Heroux said, adding that businesses are willing to contribute "in multiples of $5000."

Harvard's Conant Fellowships, named for former University President James Bryant Conant '13, were announced during the September 350th anniversary festivities. Set up this year, the fund provides full-year fellowships for five to six teachers from the Cambridge and Boston schools.

The educators, selected for achievement and for interest in studying a particular field, will study at Harvard's Graduate School of Education.