Dr. Betty J. Sternberg

email:bettys10@aol.com

Dr. Betty J. Sternberg is currently the Director of The Teacher Leader Fellowship Program at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), a unique program that partners CCSU, the Connecticut Education Association (CEA) and 11 school districts to create a fellowship of teacher leaders and those who support them.  While a professor from July 2009 – June 2016 at CCSU, she taught doctoral, 6th year and master’s level courses in Leadership for Teaching and Learning and in Curriculum Development. In addition, she supervised interns preparing to receive certification as intermediate administrators and supervisors from the State Department of Education.

From August, 2006 through June, 2009 she served as the Superintendent of Schools in Greenwich, Connecticut and was the first woman to serve in that role.   Among many outcomes, she garnered unanimous approval by the Board of Education to establish an International Baccalaureate magnet school that opened at the New Lebanon School in September, 2009.  Given her focus on improving classroom instruction, she spearheaded major reform in the teacher evaluation system overseeing the pilot of a system that was fully implemented in September, 2009.  She instituted a system of regular, systematic review of each curriculum area that started with a comprehensive review of the science curriculum, and strengthened data-driven decision-making throughout the district through the establishment of district and school improvement teams.  Finally, she led the community in a review of their secondary schools that resulted in a Vision of the Greenwich graduate and a “gap” analysis of the present programs related to the Vision.

Dr. Sternberg served as Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education from November 2003 until August 2006.  She was appointed by a nine-member State Board of Education to which she served as chief executive officer. She was the chief administrator of the State Department of Education, an agency with upwards of 350 employees in the central office and more than 2000 staff members in the state’s technical schools. She oversaw a $2.0 billion state education budget.  Of the 17 individuals to serve as Commissioner since the establishment of the position in 1838, she was the first woman.  During her tenure as Commissioner, she became well-known throughout the country as the first Commissioner to raise questions publically about the efficacy of aspects of the No Child Left Behind Law – particularly the testing requirements. 

Dr. Sternberg was a 26-year veteran of the Connecticut State Department of Education, where she served as associate commissioner of teaching and learning from 1992 to 2003. Throughout her career, she has been a driving force in developing and implementing programs to strengthen teaching, raise expectations for student achievement, enhance curriculum and develop high-quality programs for preschool-age children.  Dr. Sternberg was a key architect of the standards piece of the Education Enhancement Act of 1986, a nationally recognized initiative to attract and retain high-quality teachers to the profession in Connecticut.  She directed the development of the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), annual assessments of student achievement in Grades 4, 6, 8 (CMT) and 10 (CAPT) that were considered among the most effective in the country.  She also supervised the development and dissemination of Strategic School Profiles, the first school-by-school, comprehensive database in the nation.  Dr. Sternberg directed the development and dissemination of The Connecticut Framework: K-12 Curricular Goals and Standards in 11 core curriculum areas.  She coordinated the work of the state’s reading panel that produced Connecticut’s Blueprint for Reading Achievement and she wrote the monograph Connecticut’s High Schools of the 21st Century: A Blueprint for Continuous Change.

Dr. Sternberg received her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the Stanford University School of Education and her master’s degree in mathematics and science education from Columbia University, Teachers College. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Brandeis University. She began her career as a mathematics resource teacher in San Jose, California, from 1972 through 1975. After five years at RESCUE (currently EdAdvance), a regional educational service center in Litchfield, Connecticut, Dr. Sternberg joined the Connecticut State Department of Education as Chief of the Bureau of Curriculum and Staff Development in 1980.