How to build great schools
01
Insight
It starts with an honest understanding of what’s really happening in our schools—and then being transparent with the community about it.
I’ll work to ensure our leaders invite, engage, and honor diverse perspectives, without losing sight of the science. There’s no need to re-learn what decades of research tells us about tracking or teaching to the test.
02
Action
We can’t kick the can on big decisions. We need to get stuff done. We have a lot of challenges in our district that we know already—from compensation, to budgeting for enrichment programs and capital projects, to enhancing the performance of our AP programs.
With clear guidance for our teachers and administrators on what we expect, we can set in motion iterative improvement cycles.
03
Accountability
Our kids are better than test scores—we must broaden definitions of success, so that recognize and celebrate diverse talents in academics, the arts, trades, athletics, or community engagement. But holistic performance measurement is possible, practical, and urgent.
With well defined performance outcomes we can hold our leaders accountable (including me), again and again.
WHAT I WANT TO SEE
Policy Positions
Every kid is exceptional.
Sounds weird, but it’s true. For example, there’s no such thing as “neurotypical” when everyone is on a bell curve. And there’s no single “non-diverse” kid, when you factor everything that’s influencing their experience in the classroom. It’s our responsibility to care for everyone.
But this doesn’t mean teaching to a “lowest common denominator.” It’s the exact opposite. If we want our kids to get the best possible academic outcomes, we can’t go backward to a system that serves the loudest parents or easiest, “on-paper” achievers. We need to follow the science and build on what’s working.
Community partnership is vital for our future.
The creativity, experience, and expertise of our community could be an incredible asset in our schools. But the partnership model we have today is broken. Well meaning people want to get involved and support their kids, yet we often let this talent and enthusiasm go to waste.
We’ve got to fix the committee system in our district and set real, constructive project plans that utilize community collaboration.
We can’t be excellent without effective measurement.
There’s viable, meaningful, and actionable ways to measure the efficacy of a whole child education. Plenty of other districts have adopted them already. We need to measure the right things, in the right ways, to build exceptional schools for exceptional kids.
Teachers want to do what’s right. We’ve got to have their backs.
As a board, we need to be able to set clear standards and training for what it takes to make kids feel safe and supported in our buildings. Our educators and staff need to be able to do the right thing for our kids without fear of political backlash.