Courtesy photo
- Occupation: education consultant and
author - Hometown: Dillon
- Years in Summit County: 15
- Family: wife, five children and four
grandchildren - Civic Involvement: Dillon Town
Council, 2010-2018
I look
forward to serving on the Summit School District board of education and believe
I have the experience and the credentials to make a positive impact on the
education of the children in the county. I have a Ph.D. in education administration
and 45 years of experience as a teacher, coach, principal, consultant and
author.
If elected,
my top priorities will include the following:
High academic expectations for all students and the support they need to meet those expectations.
Across the country, discrepancies between graduation rates
(high) and student proficiency levels in language arts and math (low), the
number of students needing remedial work before taking freshman-level courses
in college (one-third on average and much higher at some institutions), and the
widespread recognition that course grades often do not reflect students’ true
achievement levels (grade inflation) suggest we need to examine our
expectations for student achievement in American classrooms.
The elimination of low-level courses, true standards-based
grading practices and the requirement that all students earn a college credit
and/or industry certificate to graduate are among the strategies I support to
institutionalize high expectations for all.
Of course, high expectations for students also means high
expectations for the district. School
leaders have a moral responsibility to ensure quality teaching in every
classroom, the early detection of learning difficulties, and the programs and
supports needed to get and keep students on track. Those supports include
attention to the social/emotional needs of our students. Summit School District
has a number of such programs and supports in place.
Working to provide the leadership and
the resources necessary for Summit School District to become one of the top
performing districts in Colorado.
I believe the Summit School District has the potential to be
more than just “above state averages” on state achievement tests and
should instead set goals relative to becoming recognized as one of the top
performing districts in the state as measured by a number of indicators
including, but not limited to, state tests. I am a particular advocate for
locally developed common assessments as valid measures of student achievement
vis-à-vis established performance standards.
Courageous and visionary leadership and adequate financial
resources are necessary to achieve the goal of being one of the best in almost
any undertaking. As a board member, I would support policies and initiatives
calculated to advance that cause.
Hiring, developing and retaining
high-performing principals and teachers in every building and classroom.
Research and conventional wisdom unequivocally support the
contention that the single most important factor in a child’s growth is the
quality of the teacher in front of that child in the classroom every day (with
the second most important being the school principal). We need to strive to
hire the best, we need effective evaluation systems in place, and we need to
compensate teachers and principals well.
Just as important, teachers and principals need high-quality, targeted and sustained, research-based professional training as an integral component of their work experiences. Research makes clear that professional development can be among the most impactful factors in increasing student achievement and that it can also be an enormous waste of time and money. Having spent the past 15 years providing professional training to teachers and principals throughout the country, I can help steer us toward the former.