By Ken Gewertz

Gazette Staff

Bobbie D'Alessandro, the new Cambridge superintendent of schools, visited Harvard this past Tuesday for meetings with President Neil L. Rudenstine and Graduate School of Education (GSE) staff and faculty.

At a reception at Gutman Library, D'Alessandro, who is former superintendent of schools for Lee County, Fla., seemed to bring a bit of the warm South with her as she introduced herself to guests and spoke engagingly about her plans for the future. She has been on the job for about eight weeks. Formidably articulate and exuding a focused energy, she described her typical workday.

"I usually begin at 7 a.m. and go till 8 o'clock or 10 o'clock in the evening, then I'll come home and do some work on the computer. I need to put in that many hours right now because I'm not from here and I need to learn about the community."

D'Alessandro said that she was "very pleased" to be chosen for the Cambridge job. One of her objectives is to make the close relationship between the Cambridge Public Schools and Harvard even closer.

"I think it's very important to make it a dual partnership in which there is constant dialogue," she said. "We need to think not only about how the GSE can help the schools, but what we can do for interns to make their experience more interesting."

Robert Peterkin, the Francis Keppel Senior Lecturer in Education and director of the Urban Superintendents Program, seconded D'Alessandro's wish to strengthen the partnership between the University and the schools.

"People at the Ed School understand the need for quid pro quo, that we need to be of service to them as well as they to us."

Peterkin, who served as superintendent of the Cambridge schools from 1984 to 1988, knows D'Alessandro because she once sought his help to conduct an educational equity audit of the schools in her Florida district. The audit was designed to objectively assess inequalities based on race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

"I was impressed with her honesty and courage," Peterkin said. "She was willing to expose these inequalities and then to write a specific plan to address them."

GSE Dean Jerome Murphy said that he is looking forward to working with D'Alessandro on a number of projects. These will include initiating joint programs with the GSE's Principals' Center, making it possible for more graduates of the GSE to fill teaching positions in the Cambridge schools, and cooperating on programs to incorporate technology into the classroom.

"The relationship between Harvard and the Cambridge schools has been strong over the last few years, and Bobbie wants to make that relationship even stronger. We're delighted with that," Murphy said.