TBC Alumni Interview: Hartford Schools Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez
This week, students in the Hartford Public Schools, one of the largest districts in Connecticut, returned to the classroom for the first time since March. We talked to Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez about the challenges she has faced and the possibility of lasting change.
Leslie Torres-Rodriguez is a 2018–19 fellow of The Broad Academy, a professional-development program for urban school-system leaders at The Broad Center in Los Angeles. The center is currently being transformed into The Broad Center at Yale SOM, which will continue to offer programs to bolster public education leadership.
I know that there is no one perfect plan, for us and also for our families, who have to make a choice. I go back to what we saw in the spring, that remote instruction does not reach all of our students, that the levels of engagement were lower across the board, and especially for students and families that are economically disadvantaged. A plan for remote-only learning, I don’t think, does well by all of our students and our families and their needs.