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Charting Success: James Verrilli '83 Fashions A School For Inner-City Newark, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

James Verrilli '83 has heard it many times before. The suggestion is that students at North Star Academy in Newark N.J., do so well on assessment tests because they've been "creamed," skimmed from the top of the pool of thousands of kids in the city's conventional- and troubled- public schools. When the suggestion was made yet again during a recent interview, Verrilli tried not to bristle.

How Should We Teach

Colby Magazine

Education reform is a top priority in America. Public opinion polls rank it as the country's most pressing issue, and debates rage over Bush administration initiatives on school vouchers and standardized testing. Public education and how to improve it are at center stage.

But the cacophonous debate about public education can drown voices that have been speaking on education reform for decades. The political hue and cry about problems can cause us to overlook the crucial work now being done in schools across the country. Many of those voices belong to Colbians and much of that work is being done …