Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers speaks at the monthly roundtable meeting of Boston-area superintendents at the Gutman Library at the GSE. Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann introduced the discussion. (Staff photo by Stephanie Mitchell)

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

President Lawrence H. Summers spoke to local school superintendents at the Graduate School of Education (GSE) Friday (Nov. 1) on the challenges and opportunities currently facing the nation’s public schools. “There is no more important domestic issue in the country than education,” he said, adding that he hoped to see greater collaboration between Harvard, the GSE, and public schools in training future teachers and conducting relevant and profound education research.

Since 1997, superintendents from 18 area school districts, including Boston, Lowell, and Quincy, have met monthly at the GSE to discuss the public and personal challenges of leading a school district and to hear from Harvard faculty about new research relevant to the work of public school systems.