Dr. Boone, Dr. Mulqueen, members of the School Committee, and fellow parents and residents. Thank you for the opportunity to offer my observations and suggestions for changes in the Worcester Public Schools. I do so on the basis of 25 years of accumulated knowledge and research in my capacity as head of The Research Bureau, 11 years as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education during the formative stages of implementing the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, 3 years as a researcher at the US Department of Education, and perhaps most important, 33 years as a parent who considered the education of her children her most important responsibility.