{"id":800330,"date":"2019-10-13T12:36:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T18:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=372950"},"modified":"2019-10-13T12:36:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T18:36:31","slug":"tim-westerberg-teacher-principal-experience-can-help-improve-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/tim-westerberg-teacher-principal-experience-can-help-improve-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Westerberg: Teacher, principal experience can help improve education"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"446\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-westerberg-sdn-101419.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-westerberg-sdn-101419.png 512w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/col-westerberg-sdn-101419-300x261.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\"><figcaption><strong>Tim Westerberg<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Occupation: education consultant and<br \/>\nauthor<\/li>\n<li>Hometown: Dillon<\/li>\n<li>Years in Summit County: 15<\/li>\n<li>Family: wife, five children and four<br \/>\ngrandchildren<\/li>\n<li>Civic Involvement: Dillon Town<br \/>\nCouncil, 2010-2018<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I look<br \/>\nforward to serving on the Summit School District board of education and believe<br \/>\nI have the experience and the credentials to make a positive impact on the<br \/>\neducation of the children in the county. I have a Ph.D. in education administration<br \/>\nand 45 years of experience as a teacher, coach, principal, consultant and<br \/>\nauthor.<\/p>\n<p>If elected,<br \/>\nmy top priorities will include the following:<\/p>\n<p><strong>High academic expectations for all<em> <\/em>students and the support they need to meet those expectations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Across the country, discrepancies between graduation rates<br \/>\n(high) and student proficiency levels in language arts and math (low), the<br \/>\nnumber of students needing remedial work before taking freshman-level courses<br \/>\nin college (one-third on average and much higher at some institutions), and the<br \/>\nwidespread recognition that course grades often do not reflect students\u2019 true<br \/>\nachievement levels (grade inflation) suggest we need to examine our<br \/>\nexpectations for student achievement in American classrooms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The elimination of low-level courses, true standards-based<br \/>\ngrading practices and the requirement that all students earn a college credit<br \/>\nand\/or industry certificate to graduate are among the strategies I support to<br \/>\ninstitutionalize high expectations for all.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, high expectations for students also means high<br \/>\nexpectations for the district.&nbsp; School<br \/>\nleaders have a moral responsibility to ensure quality teaching in every<br \/>\nclassroom, the early detection of learning difficulties, and the programs and<br \/>\nsupports needed to get and keep students on track. Those supports include<br \/>\nattention to the social\/emotional needs of our students. Summit School District<br \/>\nhas a number of such programs and supports in place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Working to provide the leadership and<br \/>\nthe resources necessary for Summit School District to become one of the top<br \/>\nperforming districts in Colorado.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I believe the Summit School District has the potential to be<br \/>\nmore than just \u201cabove state averages\u201d on state achievement tests and<br \/>\nshould instead set goals relative to becoming recognized as one of the top<br \/>\nperforming districts in the state as measured by a number of indicators<br \/>\nincluding, but not limited to, state tests. I am a particular advocate for<br \/>\nlocally developed common assessments as valid measures of student achievement<br \/>\nvis-\u00e0-vis established performance standards.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Courageous and visionary leadership and adequate financial<br \/>\nresources are necessary to achieve the goal of being one of the best in almost<br \/>\nany undertaking. As a board member, I would support policies and initiatives<br \/>\ncalculated to advance that cause.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hiring, developing and retaining<br \/>\nhigh-performing principals and teachers in every building and classroom.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Research and conventional wisdom unequivocally support the<br \/>\ncontention that the single most important factor in a child\u2019s growth is the<br \/>\nquality of the teacher in front of that child in the classroom every day (with<br \/>\nthe second most important being the school principal). We need to strive to<br \/>\nhire the best, we need effective evaluation systems in place, and we need to<br \/>\ncompensate teachers and principals well.<\/p>\n<p>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. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/tim-westerberg-teacher-principal-experience-can-help-improve-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tim WesterbergCourtesy 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 09:15:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}