Dr. Judy Elliott, the recently-appointed distinguished educator for Buffalo's public schools, spoke to the media for the first time Wednesday at City Hall.
Elliott, who was born and educated in Western New York, was appointed by State Education Commissioner John King in June. She started her part-time job in the district on August 1.
The former chief academic officer in Los Angeles, who calls herself a data-driven systems thinker, sought to clarify her role in the district.
"My role is basically to come in right now and do an assessment of the structures and the inner-workings of the district, to meet with the schools, and help create a plan with the district, in partnership with the superintendent, to accelerate the improvement of students, " Elliott said.
Elliott, a part-time consultant, says she will be a partner and collaborator with new Superintendent Dr. Pamela Brown and with the school board, of which she is now an ex officio member. Elliott says much of her time in recent weeks has been spent meeting staff and analyzing numbers.
"I'm looking at the data, in terms of attendance and suspension, expulsion, how students are placed [and] how students are referred for special education. All of the systems working that go on in a district is what I'm looking at right now," she said.
Elliott will be working primarily on improving 28 persistently low-achieving schools. She said she's been meeting with principals in recent days and has visited at least a dozen school buildings.
One of the areas she will be examining as she crafts a plan of action for state approval is whether certain programs within the district are yielding results.
"One of the things I'm looking at is return on investment. If we have been doing programs or initiatives and we have not seen a return on investment in terms of student achievement and growth, then we have to ask the question why we are continuing to do such works. Those are the hard questions I'm asking," Elliott said.
Elliott has 45 days to create a plan for approval by the state. She will be paid $190 an hour for her work, along with $275 a day in travel expenses. Part of her salary be paid for using school improvement grants.
While she is only required to be in the district for 25 days by December, Elliott says she will be here as much as she needs in order to complete her work.
