Education secretary perfect role for Reville; Work in city a springboard to state post.

Byline: Jacqueline Reis

The governor's education agenda took (arguably) five days to roll out last week. The man whose job it will be to implement it is more straightforward.

S. Paul Reville of Worcester, who took office as the state's education secretary yesterday, has two children in Worcester public schools, a respectful way with everyone from state officials to unhappy parents and a history of working with kids who don't fit the traditional school model.

He grew up in Longmeadow and went to public and parochial schools there and in Springfield and Rhode Island before earning a degree in English from Colorado College. Professionally, however, he came of age in Worcester. "I'm really proud to be from Worcester. I learned many of the most important lessons of my career here," he said in a recent interview.

After college, he co-directed a street academy for dropouts as part of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). The program, called Full Circle, is now part of the Somerville school district. The experience made Mr. Reville realize he wanted to dedicate his life to education, and he earned a master's degree in education from Stanford University.

His big break came in 1975 when the Dynamy board in Worcester chose Mr. Reville from a list of 300 candidates to lead its program, which gives high school graduates from all over the country a year of internships and experiential learning before going to college. (Dynamy has since expanded to include a college access program for local high school students.)

"Suddenly, I had my own school," Mr. Reville said. He also met leaders in Worcester's public and private sectors, connections that would serve him well later when he led the Alliance for Education and helped start the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education.

Sandra S. Landau of Northboro, who led Dynamy's search in 1975 and remains friends with Mr. Reville, describes him as charming and "not terribly conventional," which was typical of Dynamy leadership. "He certainly is a leader and always has been," she said.

Mr. Reville stayed for nine years before leaving to go to the Alliance for Education, an advocacy organization, for 12 years. He continued to work for education-related groups, moving to the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform and teaching at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, which he continues to do. In 2002, he went to the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, where he was president until stepping down to become secretary.

In 1991, Mr. Reville and John L. Foley (now a Worcester School Committee member) were co-chairmen of the Coalition for Worcester's Future, which successfully pushed for an override to fund city schools.

Also that year, Gov. William F. Weld, a Republican, appointed him to the state Board of Education. The governor didn't reappoint him in 1996, but Mr. Reville helped build the 1993 phase of Education Reform.

"I think we've got the goals right, but we didn't really conceive nearly a robust enough system to achieve those goals," Mr. Reville said. "We haven't done enough to prepare children who come to school bearing the disadvantages of poverty."

The newest reforms carry his fingerprints. He "had a lot to do with shaping" the idea of Readiness schools, the administration's attempt to give one or more schools within a district more autonomy.

It was born out of a frustration that, 15 years after Education Reform, many students are still below grade level, charter schools aren't reaching more than 2 percent of the state's students, and pilot schools and Horace Mann charter schools haven't taken off in a big way.

If districts don't give Readiness schools a try, it might be a sign that critics are right and public schools can't change, he said. But he has faith. "We've got good people, and they can do it," he said.

"We've got to get this right for children now," he said. "There's got to be a rapid embrace of this, because the governor will be ready to move outside" the system.

The incentives for opening a Readiness school are still being worked out, and Mr. Reville has been criticized for suggesting a freeze on new charter schools as one possibility. An incentive of some kind makes sense, he said, because although Readiness schools will still be answerable to a district's School Committee, the district will lose some of its control over the building. Other possible rewards include extra funding.

Some education watchers believe Mr. Reville also persuaded the governor not to ditch the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test as a graduation requirement. "I certainly made arguments," Mr. Reville said, but he believes others were more convincing.

"Much more powerful as far as the governor's feeling about this was when he began to meet with parents of color," Mr. Reville said. During the campaign, the governor heard from activists, but once he was in office, he heard directly from parents who told him, "This is an important lever to get our kids a better quality education," Mr. Reville said.

Mr. Reville has four children and two stepchildren, and the six range from 6 years old to 29. One is at Flagg Street School, one is at Doherty Memorial High School, a stepchild is at Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School, another child is in college, and two others have graduated from college. "You try to do the best that you can to meet the needs of each child," he said. "We had to pick and choose with each child."

Mr. Reville doesn't plan to move out of Worcester with his new position, and he doesn't see it as all that different. "What I'm doing now, it has an important title, but it's really the same work that I've been doing all my life," he said.

Contact Jacqueline Reis at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: S. Paul Reville of Worcester, who took office as the state's education secretary yesterday, said "We haven't done enough to prepare children who come to school bearing the disadvantages of poverty."

PHOTOG: MICHELLE SHEPPARD