High Quality Academics

As a school district, our number one focus must be improving academic outcomes. Here's what we can do.

What the board can do:

• Goals and Budgeting:

  • Understand the teachers' perspective and get their feedback on district-wide goals through listening sessions and collaborative efforts. What do they believe to be the top barriers to acheiving the goals?

  • What do they need in their classrooms that they don't have today?

  • How can we allocate resources through the budgeting process to break down these barriers and ensure their classroom needs are met? We won't be able to do it all, but listening and hearing common themes will enable smart prioritization.

• Curriculum Policy:

  • Curriculum policy is set by the BOE. Implementing curriculum is hard work, and many districts abandon efforts before the work pays off. Setting expectations backed by strong policy make it more likely we will see it through and adapt as necessary through challenges.

• Track Data and Ask Good Questions:

  • One of the most important roles of a board member is to ask questions. We should know what data we intend to track to measure progress towards goals and ask for regular reporting. Whether results trend up or down, asking why will increase shared understanding among districst staff and BOE about what's really going on, and may even spark new ideas.

Learn more!

Since my son started school, I have loved digging into the Science of Learning. It's fascinating to read about school transformation and imagine it happening here. Understanding more about how the brain learns has made me a better learner and a better manager. These insights have helped me pass the CMA exam, train new-hires, and now, learn all about school boards.

All of this learning has given me more background knowledge to serve successfuly on the Board of Education!

I invite you to keep learning along with me. Here are some resources that have influenced me:

What I believe:

• High Quality, Rigorous Curriculum

  • The "Science of Learning" tells us that in order to teach kids how to think critically, we have to give them a lot of stuff to think about.

  • Background knowledge - the accumulated knowledge about our world over time - is just as critical for reading comprehension as decoding and skills.

  • A high-quality curriculum that focuses on building background knowledge shows extraordinary promise in narrowing the socio-economic achievement gap.

  • A strong curriculum also provides teachers structured guidance on what to teach, reducing the "content-creation" burden and allowing them to spend more time doing what they love - teaching kids.

  • When a curriculum is implemented district-wide, it creates more consistent experiences between classrooms and schools, and allows for better building from one grade to the next.

• Well-Supported Classrooms and Teachers

  • Sadly, many curriculum implementations fail or aren't embraced by teachers, often due to insufficient training both on how and why in the beginning. To be successful, we will have to financially support strong, high-value training from the beginning.

  • As we are able, we should prioritize competitive teacher pay in the budget processes, ensuring that teaching remains a highly-desirable and respectable career.

  • A strong curriculum also provides teachers structured guidance on what to teach, reducing the "content-creation" burden and allowing them to spend more time doing what they love - teaching kids.

• Equitable Experiences Across All Schools

  • When a curriculum is implemented district-wide, it creates more consistent experiences between classrooms and schools, and allows for better building from one grade to the next.