Steven Adamowski, Hartford’s new Superintendent

With nearly 35 years as a successful educator and school reformer, Dr. Steven J. Adamowski took over as Superintendent of Hartford Public Schools on November 27, 2006.  Working with the Board of Education, he has laid out an ambitious reform agenda in order to close the achievement gap between Hartford students and their peers across the state. 

Prior to coming to Hartford, Dr. Adamowski was a senior fellow and managing director of the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C., where he worked to help school districts improve their effectiveness as standards-based, performance-driven systems. 

“A Fortune 500 educator is leading Hartford’s students,” said Mayor Eddie A. Perez, who also serves as chair of the Hartford Board of Education.  “Dr. Adamowski has a proven track record in raising student achievement. He believes in kids and he believes in success.”

As former Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer of the Cincinnati Public Schools, Dr. Adamowski led a massive district redesign, which produced dramatic gains in student achievement. During his tenure from 1998 to 2002, Cincinnati earned national recognition for its school accountability system, budgeting, alignment of teacher evaluation and compensation, improvement of early literacy, and redesign of high schools.

A Connecticut native, Dr. Adamowski earned his bachelor’s degree from Southern Connecticut State College, his master’s from Trinity College and his doctorate from St. Louis University.  He began teaching in the early 1970s in the New Haven Public Schools and has served as Superintendent of Schools in Norwich, Connecticut, Chatham, New Jersey, and Clayton, Missouri.  Dr. Adamowski has also served as an adjunct assistant professor at Sacred Heart University, as a principal in Farmington, Connecticut, and as Associate Secretary of Education in Delaware, focusing on educational accountability and standards.