1. What are your top two priorities for the school board and what skills do you bring to the board to help you achieve them?
| Our top two priorities are raising achievement for ALL students while closing the achievement gap and finding solutions to our capacity issues. As a current board member and vice chairman for the past year and a half, I have in-depth knowledge of the work we have done on both of these issues over the past three years. I have served on the Policy Committee, Budget and Audit Committee, Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee, Jefferson-Houston School construction core group and as liaison to both the Talented and Gifted Advisory Committee and School Health Advisory Board. Throughout my tenure on the Board, I have built many relationships with teachers, students, parents, administrators, and city executives. I trust that they know I will always be honest with them, and I work only for the best interests of all of the children in our schools. My professional expertise is in K-12 education policy. I have worked for more than 20 years on local and national policy issues related to math, science, and technology education, as well as school health. As a current board member, I have the knowledge of the work we |
2. What are your two top critiques of the system and how do you intend to address them?
| We are still far behind in serving our students with special needs. We have made changes in the past three years that are putting on us on the right track. I will push for redoubling of our efforts in making sure our teachers have the support and expertise to teach students in inclusion settings in as many places as appropriate. I will support continuing to improve and expand our services for children with autism so that they can reach their highest potential. I will push for strengthening our high school programs so that our students who are not going on to post-secondary education have the skills and transition support they need to become successful in life. Most importantly, I will continue to support including our student, parent and community voices as we develop and improve our education program in these areas. We struggle in reaching out to many of our parents and families. We still have a culture that, in general, expects parents to come to us, whether we are teachers, administrators, PTAs or school board members. We must physically go out to them in new and different ways that they tell us are effective for them. I will advocate for and help structure systemic action based on the type of interaction parents want and need. |
3. Parents want to understand how Alexandria measures the success of its schools. They also want to know if they are sending their child to a good school. What measures of achievement are now being used? Are they adequate or are additional metrics needed?
| ACPS has a wide variety of measures for achievement. Official state and national metrics include Virginia's Standards of Learning and national Advanced Placement, SAT and ACT exams. Schools are ranked by the state and federal government based on students' SOL exam performance. Throughout the school year, teachers use assessments to gauge student understanding and mastery of material. These measures include the Scholastic Reading Inventory, Scholastic Math Inventory, and the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening. The goals of these, to gauge student understanding and need for interventions at a given moment to assure students are achieving and are challenged. Over the past two years, ACPS has been phasing in the Baldrige approach for management and leadership. Its main ideas are a customer focus to all work and a cycle of Plan-Do-Study-Act for all work. Baldrige has helped Cora Kelly become the highest performing elementary school in the city, and it is beginning to transform how teachers, principals, Central Office and the School Board see their work. Our schools also measure their success with their focus on enriching all aspects of education. For example, many schools use Habits of Mind to instill strong character and community among their students. Lyles-Crouch focuses on character education and has been recognized as a National School of Character. At the Board level, we use key metrics that tie back to our Strategic Plan priorities. These metrics focus the Board's work on high achievement for all students and closing the achievement gap. |
4. One of the school board’s major responsibilities is overseeing and managing the superintendent. What do you believe is the right relationship between the school board and the superintendent?
| The official relationship between the Board and Superintendent is clear: The Board sets policy, hires/fires and manages the Superintendent, and oversees the budget. The superintendent manages all personnel, oversees curriculum and instruction and day to day operations of the school system. In practice, the Board and Superintendent work best together when there is collegial respect and challenge. The Board should keep conversation, questions and concerns at the global level—30k feet. Board members should advise the superintendent when they have information on topics that is reaching beyond an individual issue and becoming a systemic problem. The board should hold the superintendent responsible for achievement, budget fidelity, and strong leadership within schools and departments. |
5. Superintendent Sherman stated that, “Our community and students deserve candor and a complete picture when it comes to looking at school and division performance.” On a scale of A to F, how would you grade the school administration on communication, transparency, and candor? If you give a grade less than A, what changes to improve the situation would you recommend?
| I see ACPS communications as a work in process and we are in a better place than in past years. On communications, we deserve a C. Staff try to reach a variety of audiences with timely information. Our systems clearly need work, our clarity of message needs improvement, and our principals need more support in communicating directly with the community. They are our best ambassadors, and with the right communications materials and information, they would do a great job for us. As I mentioned in the previous question, we are implementing the Baldrige model, which is strong and customer focus. I am hopeful that this systemic management approach will provide us with continuous improvement as we go forward. On transparency, I'd give us a B. All board and district decisions are tied directly back to our strategic plan and education plan metrics. We share with the public our data on academics, facilities and budgets. Our policies and budget information are clearer and more user friendly than they have been in the past. Having said all of this, we have shortcomings and need to do better. On candor, I'd give us an A. I believe Dr. Sherman is honest and clear about our academic situations. Some think he is too honest. Board discussions about our need for improvement and the path forward are honest and thoughtful. We do not hide our achievement gaps, our financial issues, or budgetary discussions. |
6. Because of big enrollment increases in recent years, Alexandria’s elementary schools are bursting at the seams. But these enrollment increases appear to be limiting elementary school choice. How would you address the capacity challenges facing the schools and their effects on parental choice?
| In the recent past, we have had the luxury of focus schools that were open to students across the district. With our 20% increase in enrollment over the past 4 years, we simply cannot offer that option at this time. To address capacity issues, we are constructing modular units in every conceivable space. Three new schools are in process, with Jefferson-Houston funded and to be completed in 2014, Patrick Henry funded and planning to be gin in July 2013, and Cora Kelly pending funding from City Council and planning to begin in 2015. ACPS is working with City Council and City staff on finding space for additional school sites, one on the East side of town and one on the West. If, in the coming years, we get back to a place where we're not so capacity constrained, we can revisit the idea of focus schools or some other model. Until we have that infrastructure in place, we need to live within our current limitations. |
7. Superintendent Sherman said in October 2011 that “eliminating academic achievement differences among race, income, disability and language subgroups must be the highest priority.” This, he said, is “an educational and moral imperative.” Schools across America are struggling to close this achievement gap. Do you believe that Alexandria has been making progress in closing its achievement gaps? If so, what are the best examples? Where and in what areas do we need to do more?
| High achievement for all students as we close the achievement gap is a large challenge. We are making progress. Our best and most recent example of success is our increase in graduation rate and decrease in dropouts for the 2011-12 school year. Other indicators are the number of students being challenged to take algebra in eighth grade, which is up to 55% for this past year, from about 25% four years ago; the increase in the number of students and parallel increse in scores on our AP and SAT tests; and the success of Cora Kelly and William Ramsay Elementary Schools in 2011-12. We have many concrete actions to attack this issue systematically. We have an ACPS curriculum—which we never had before—which demands that all children are taught to high academic standards. We have professional development for our teachers and staff to increase their talents and expertise in teaching students who come with serious needs that make them more susceptible to falling into the gap—ELL training, Special Education and ELL co-teaching, skillful teacher and skillful leader. We are supporting students at multiple levels. We are implementing reading interventions at the elementary level, which are beginning to show changes. We created smaller middle schools to create better learning communities for our students. We have AVID at the middle and high school level, helping our kids who are sliding through school engage in their learning. We have interventions at TC Williams: the International Academy for English Language Learners; Conspiracy to Succeed, which helps students build a culture of academic excellence and combat the notion that they shouldn't appear too smart; small class loads for our English and math teachers. All of these supports and interventions take time to show progress, and we are starting to see success. |
8. One of the board’s major responsibilities is budgeting. How do you restrain costs and still provide what students need?
| The current board has already done a strong job of restraining costs. Our per pupil expenditure is down 1.4% over the past four years while our student enrollment has gone up over 20%. We have kept money in the classrooms, keeping class size small, keeping ELL and Special Education teacher resources where they need to be. We have been able to do this because we streamlined Central Office staff and minded our Virginia Retirement System funds, creating a lock box to safeguard funds over two years. This helped mitigate VRS rate increases and kept funds in ACPS. Moving forward, I will look closely at the ACPS Total Compensation Review Committee recommendations on changes in salary and benefits structures that may bring efficiencies. I will also review our professional development offerings to assure they support our teachers' needs and are not overly complex and costly. |
9. Despite increasing enrollment, there is a perception that some parents continue to question the quality of Alexandria’s public schools and send their children to private school or to a public school elsewhere. Is this perception accurate, and if so, what can and should the school system do, if anything, to convince these families to stay in Alexandria schools?
| The perception and rhetoric about ACPS is pervasive and longstanding. Whether or not it is based in fact, we as a school system and community must address it. ACPS leadership, including the school board, needs to be more visible in leading the charge with accurate information about our vision, our successes, and the support our schools and our children need from their community. The new board must be very deliberate in taking on this part of the School Board's work, and I hope to be part of this work as a board member. Our principals are our best ambassadors out in the community. They are also on the front line of the change that is continuing to happen in our schools. We must help them and encourage them to be out in the community to tell their stories of success. On a personal level, I believe each one of us who is a member of the ACPS family needs to be part of the solution. We need to challenge the rhetoric in the media, on message boards, on playgrounds, and at civic association meetings and gatherings of all sorts. We need to have our own narrative about the value of ACPS to us, use the facts we know to be true, and not be scared to stand up for our schools and our children. |
10. There is pressure on school systems to develop rigorous teacher evaluation systems. Virginia requires that 40% of a teacher’s evaluation be based on student outcomes. Because the state allows districts some flexibility in determining those outcomes, what makes sense for Alexandria?
| Over the past year or more, an ACPS Teacher Evaluation Committee has been reviewing the Virginia requirement on teacher evaluation, as well as research and practice on this issue from around the nation. On June 7, the Committee brought forth evaluation system recommendations to the Board for review. These recommendations are quite comprehensive and thoughtful, and they include student outcomes as 20% of teacher evaluation for 2012-13. The Commonwealth allows for one year of flexibility in implementing the 40% level. All school divisions must base 40% of teacher evaluation on student outcomes for the 2013-14 school year. Our Teacher Evaluation Committee has wrestled with these issues and seems prepared to recommend 40% for next year. They have done the research and are the professionals who will be held to this standard, so I concur with their recommendations. |
11. Despite much effort, many parents of special needs children do not feel satisfied with the services being provided to their children. Indeed, this is evidenced by the fact that parents are often seeking redress in the courts. What do you think the school board can do to address the issues with the system’s efforts to help children with special needs.
| As I stated in my response to an earlier question, we have much work to do in serving our children with special needs. The Board could help further our efforts by pushing for implementation of the recommendations in the Autism and Inclusion plans, which have strong and broadly agreed-upon goals and tactics; monitoring the key metrics in our ACPS Education Plan to improve reading and math success and reduce disproportionality; and asking the superintendent for monitoring and reporting on IEP implementation. |
12. Despite the increase in enrollment, there are families of young children who still have doubts about ACPS and plan on sending their children to private schools or move out of the city. How can ACPS improve its communication to families of younger children?
| I cannot comment on how and why other people perceive the world the way they do. But, what I perceive about ACPS is that it serves children from around the world and across the socio-economic spectrum, from people who are new to this country and don't speak English to people who go to ivy league schools. What I know is that the best man at my wedding, from a lower middle class family, went through ACPS start to finish, graduated from TC Williams, and went on to Princeton and later earned a PhD in engineering. His sister also graduated from TC Williams went to Princeton. She married her high school boyfriend, who also graduated from TC Williams, and went to Yale. |
13. What is the one decision made by the board in the last six years that you disagreed with and how would you have voted differently?
| Having served on the school board for the past three and one half years, I can look back and be confident in the decisions I have made. I can say this because our work as a board has been largely collaborative. When I have had concerns about an upcoming vote, I have talked them through with my colleagues and the superintendent. We have made adjustments where necessary to assure consensus when we came to the board table. |
