In her first months as superintendent of New York's Malverne Union Free School District, ASCD President Mary Ellen Freeley already knew which issue she would begin to tackle: the achievement gap.
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The fact that Malverne, a community in Long Island's Nassau County, has had eight superintendents in 10 years did not bode well for preparing the schools for a long-term plan, but Freeley was ready when she took over the helm last summer. In a previous job as superintendent of a diverse district, she worked hard to open the challenge of AP classes to all students, regardless of race or income level. Now in Malverne, Freeley wants to help local educators—and the community at large—to raise their expectations for student academic achievement and seek ways to help all students fulfill their potential.
"I've been trying to get everyone on the same page at the same time—that is, getting the school board, staff, and the community to value the same goals," Freeley says. "Change by itself is a tough concept for people, but the way to bring it about is to always make kids the focal point. That way, you can get people on board with you."
For example, Freeley believed that the local public had no real idea of the successes of this small 1,700-student school district, which is 60 percent African American. So Freeley suggested each of Malverne's four schools—two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school—host a breakfast for local realtors and invite them to tour the schools in session as one way to get the word out.
"I really wanted realtors to experience the school day. The school board thought it was a great way to sell the schools, faculty and staff felt honored to be showcased, and parents loved it because it will improve their property values," Freeley says.
Freeley also extracted a promise from realtors to invite prospective house buyers to get a private tour of Malverne schools because "when people come into one of our schools, they fall in love with it."
Educational Influences
Stretching to reach important goals has been part of Freeley's educational ethos since high school in Queens, where her history teacher, Sister Mary Eugene, urged her "to set her aims high."
Later, at St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, Freeley worked for the education department chair, Sister Margaret Louise, "a woman really ahead of her time." Under the nun's direction, undergraduates who worked in the on-campus lab preschool each conducted a study of one child's many facets—social, emotional, intellectual, moral, and physical perspectives—and included family interviews as well.
The child study was a valuable experience "that I'll never forget," says Freeley, because she looked at every dimension of the child. Sister Margaret Louise's sound advice, she recalls, was to "always, always look at the child first."
Freeley's doctoral work with Rita Dunn, a pioneer of learning styles theory, gave added richness and depth to her earlier training. Dunn identified different "modalities" through which individuals learn, including visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic. When teachers recognize these learning strengths, they can help their students find ways to take advantage of them through accommodations, Freeley says.
"We have to help kids understand that there are certain optimum conditions when they have to learn something deeply," says Freeley. She believes the intimate setting of Malverne—she crosses one street to visit the middle school or another to visit the high school—will help her to know students and staff even better. "I can give compliments on school work or extracurricular activities because I know what they've done."
In her spare time, Freeley enjoys a monthly book club with a dozen other professional women from a variety of fields. They've recently read the autobiography of freshman U.S. senator Barak Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance; Kite Runner, a novel set in modern Afghanistan; and Azar Nafisi's provocatively titled memoir, Lolita in Tehran. That book highlights the transformative power of literature and the danger, secrecy, and bravery needed to run a women's book club in Iran. "You have to read something like that to be reminded about the freedom that we have here," notes Freeley.
With three grown children out of the house, Freeley and her husband, James, a business professor at Long Island University, have more time to take advantage of the cultural life of New York City, only 20 minutes away. Theater (especially musicals), art museums, and walks in Central Park help Freeley tap the energy of the city and gain new perspectives on creativity, she says.
Energy for Change
As ASCD President, Freeley wants to continue the work of the organization's relatively new governance structure, so that it can even better represent a diversity of voices from all corners of ASCD's constituency, she says.
Like her favorite city, ASCD has a vital energy that Freeley says is unique among education groups. "You see it at Annual Conference. Among the participants, there's a spirit present that we're proud of what we do and that the bottom line is about how we can help kids."
