Commissioner Mills’ legacy

On Board Online • June 29, 2009

Few state commissioners of education last as long as New York’s Richard Mills, who is retiring June 30 after 14 years. His legacy, which will surely endure, is a state in which everyone is focused on results.

Long before the federal No Child Left Behind Act made it mandatory, Mills and the state Board of Regents established educational standards and created assessments to measure student success. Although no testing system is perfect, and our state has struggled with various implementation issues, Mills has been an articulate and persuasive champion of the idea that highly effective school boards and school administrators focus on student achievement and make decisions based on data.

Mills frequently went on the road to visit school districts. He always wanted to know what was working and what could be replicated. He was a fixture at NYSSBA’s Annual Convention, where we never could find a room big enough to hold all the board members who wanted to engage him in dialogue, which was always earnest and passionate.

As an advocacy organization that represents school boards, NYSSBA and the commissioner didn’t agree on what was the best solution to every issue. But, in retrospect, his tenure must be viewed as an unqualified success.

In any job, one should leave the place a little better than one found it. By that measure, Richard Mills has plenty of which to be proud.