Middle School Reform

We must ensure that the middle school reforms are implemented successfully. I support this effort, which includes additional teacher training, an accelerated curriculum, and new technology. Our middle school students deserve a challenging educational program that helps prepare them for the rigors of high school. Furthermore, there are still far too many students entering high school without achieving even minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics. There should also be more extended-day learning opportunities and additional after-school programs to support these children. Extended learning opportunities would provide additional structured support and ongoing monitoring of students who are in need of additional reading, writing, or mathematics instruction after school.

Parent and Community Involvement

Because we know there is a definite link between actively involved parents and successful students, we must make meaningful efforts to increase parent involvement. I support parent development programs aimed at helping families understand MCPS services available and learning best strategies to help their children succeed. The new Parent Academy is a great example of a program which will help parents to become more involved in their children's education and development by offering free workshops to parents on a variety of topics in multiple languages. In addition to programs, there should also be an increase in the number of school-based parent community coordinators in our schools to help parents understand the school system.

Furthermore, in order to create truly effective partnerships, our Board of Education needs to listen to all community members to understand the challenges our students and their families face. We need open communication between parents, teachers and administrators that value the perspectives offered by each of these stakeholders. I support regular town meetings for the Board of Education, similar to those held by the County Executive and County Council, so that Board members can hear directly from the community their concerns about our schools. There needs to be greater collaboration with parent and community groups such as MCCPTA, Linkages to Learning, The George B. Thomas, Sr. Learning Academy, Centro Familia, and Identity.

High School Assessments

It is alarming that an unacceptable number of students will be at risk of not passing the High School Assessments. We must provide the supports these children need to be successful. We need to utilize strategies such as smaller class sizes for HSA courses, with special attention to the on-level offerings. We need to provide HSA intervention classes to students that are at risk for failure. In addition, we need to provide remediation opportunities for students that fail to help them prepare for retesting.

Choices for Special Education

In addition to programs providing choice for general education students, we need to provide a level of choice into our special education system. Despite the money we are spending on programs, we are not meeting the needs of many of these students. Parents of students with disabilities need to be able to help choose the level of inclusiveness and type of programming they believe most appropriate for their child. Making families true equal partners is a practice we should employ to help address the needs of special education students.

Professional Development

We need to maintain and even improve upon the professional development and growth opportunities we provide our staff. The demands created by the increased accountability mandated by No Child Left Behind and our changing demographics require a staff development model that provides the skills and support needed for our teachers, administrators and support professionals.

More Teaching and Less Testing

There is too much emphasis on "teaching to the test" and not taking the time to apply acquired skills to real life applications. This is the result of a curriculum that frequently allows little time for students to practice meaningful application of acquired skills. Many students are unable to handle problems where they are required to think, reason, and apply acquired skills. We need to review the curriculum and ensure that time is devoted to topics that students need to know and eliminate or greatly reduce time spent on concepts that may be desirable, but are not critical. While testing is important to ensure that students are mastering the material, it cannot be so excessive that teachers do not have time to teach.

A Challenging Curriculum for All Students

We must ensure that our academic "high fliers" are being challenged to reach new heights of academic success. To accomplish this, we must analyze student performance data so as to identify differentiated supports to help students reach for higher academic challenges, stay engaged and be successful. For example, rather than just reporting on the number of students achieving mere proficiency, MCPS should report on the percentage of students in each disaggregated group scoring advanced on the MSA's. Each school would receive targets for improvement.

Preschool Education

We need to invest in our children at an earlier age by expanding our preschool programs. Enhancing early child development appears to improve a child's ability to learn at later stages. Not only does early education improve a child's cognitive ability, but it increases the productivity of later educational initiatives.

Safe Schools

We must guarantee that every child attends a safe and gang-free school. As a school system, we need to confront the twenty-first century realities of gangs and teen alienation, of mental health issues and stresses never before dealt with. To do this, we need to promote each student's connections with his or her individual school. Students who feel connected to school are less likely to use alcohol and drugs, less likely to join gangs, less likely to engage in violent or deviant behavior, less likely to experience emotional distress and suicidal thoughts, more likely to earn higher grades and test scores, and less likely to drop out of school. We also need additional training for teachers, administrators, and parents to focus on collective solutions that will not tax a budget that is already stressed. We need to increase the number and the quality of after-school programs, such as the Sports Academies now offered in a few high schools. Finally, we need additional counselors and school psychologists to meet these challenges.

A Responsible Budget

We owe the taxpayers of Montgomery County an honest assessment of how their money is spent. Every MCPS program (whether it is a magnet, signature, academy, language immersion, targeted class size reduction, staff development, home school model, etc) should be reviewed on a regular schedule. Measurable benchmarks should be used to determine whether the expense of maintaining those programs are justified by the measurable gains in student achievement. New programs and pilots need to follow the Baldrige model when introduced, gathering appropriate feedback from all stakeholders before going forward with a wide scale application. The Board of Education must be held accountable for this review.