HGSE Alum Rivera Unanimous Choice to Lead Boston Public Schools

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced today that the superintendent search committee has unanimously recommended that HGSE Alum Manuel Rivera, Ed.M'75, Ed.D'94, be named the next superintendent of Boston Public Schools.

Rivera, currently the superintendent of Rochester City School District, plans to begin his role as Boston Public Schools superintendent next year. Thomas Payzant, a fellow HGSE alumnus, stepped down as Boston Schools superintendent in the spring and has since joined the HGSE faculty as a senior lecturer.

"I started thinking about the possibilities of Boston," Rivera told the Boston Globe today. "They've had a great superintendent. It's terrific. They just won the Broad prize [the top award for urban education]. It's like joining a winning team."

Rivera knows a thing or two about winning. Last year, the American Association of School Administrators named him Superintendent of the Year. The award honors an educator who exhibits leadership for student learning, personal and organizational communication, continuous improvement of skills, and active community involvement.

Over Rivera's six years as superintendent of Rochester (NY) City School District made a tremendous impact in the classroom and community. Under Rivera's leadership, the district set up a series of early college schools with higher education partners and has changed the organization of many elementary schools from neighborhood to magnet schools. He also started a district-wide school choice program.

As a result of Rivera's secondary school redesign plan, both the graduation rate and the percentage of students earning a Regents diploma increased significantly.

Although he has spent his entire education career in New York schools, Rivera admitted that he almost didn't pursue education as a career. In fact, he was accepted into law school, but decided to study at HGSE instead. Ultimately, his decision to earn his master's degree at HGSE contributed immensely to his future in education, he says.

"It was a great experience for me. You tend to think of Harvard as an elitist place, but it was not," Rivera says. "I worked with great minds and people who cared a lot about kids." Rivera lists among his influences the late professor Jeanne Chall, Pforzheimer Professor Susan Moore Johnson, and Thompson Professor Richard Murnane.