Questions for 2019 BOE Candidates from Madison Partnership for Advanced Learning
Ali Muldrow, Seat 4
1. Every MMSD plan (AL, ELL, Special Ed, BEP) seems to have specific challenges with implementation at the school level. What will you as a board member do to better understand these issues and get the information you need to assess these situations? How will you ensure that issues with implementation and unmet student needs get addressed?
One consistent factor in the implementation failure of many District plans is the delay with which Community input is sought. Teachers know what the schools need; parents know what the schools need; children know what the schools need. The school district must view teaching staff, families, and community members as partners in delivering high-quality education to meet the needs of all of our students, and must include them earlier and more frequently in the development and implementation of plans and programs.
2. In a February Madison365 article, Superintendent Jen Cheatham wrote: “A superintendent, no matter how determined or talented or passionate simply cannot succeed without a Board that clears the path for success.” How do you interpret this statement from a board member’s perspective?
Where I see the greatest truth in Jen's statement is that the Board must take steps to remove barriers, and instead encourage, greater creativity in the classroom. We can best serve our students when we embrace a whole-child approach to education, and a student-led approach to curriculum.
3. In 2018-19, 5,661 MMSD students (21% of all students) were identified as advanced learners in one of the five domains: specific academic areas, general intellectual, visual/performing arts, leadership or creativity. This included 8,503 AL designations as some students are identified in multiple areas. Disparities by race, income and language have improved slightly but still need significant work. Providing consistent and systematic advanced instruction (beyond math) to advanced learners continues to be a challenge at most schools. Please explain your thoughts on how schools can address both the critical work of helping students reach proficiency while allowing students to move beyond that level when they are ready.
Holistic assessment and differentiated curriculum allow teachers to do what they do best: evaluate student capability, bolster students’ needs and foster greater mastery in students’ areas of strengths. This can only occur when we create an environment that allows teachers to be nimble and creative in selecting and delivering curriculum most relevant to their students’ lives and their students’ needs. Enhanced creativity in instruction, including by incorporation of Arts education into Core curricula, can assist in providing students of differing abilities with appropriate work, and can assist in advanced learner identification by inspiring students to express their Advanced capabilities.
4. How can MMSD effectively measure success for its advanced learners?
Success for Advanced Learners is effectively measured the same way success is effectively measured for all students, not by standardized test scores, but by careful observation and qualitative approaches to formative and summative assessment. Success is also more effectively measured when students participate in their own assessment, and in the development of their own plan of learning.
5. The current 2019-20 proposed budget includes Strategic Equity Projects. One proposal addresses a recommendation made by the Advanced Learning Advisory Committee through the Office of Civil Rights resolution process to address racial disparities in access to and preparation for advanced coursework. This recommendation includes increasing the Advanced Learning staff to 1.0 FTE (from current 0.5 FTE levels) for every K-8 school in order to provide a talent development program for underrepresented students and a systematic structure for advanced learning in every school. If elected, will you support funding this recommendation?
Yes.
6. How can MMSD increase genuine engagement by stakeholders (students, families, staff
and community members) in processes both at the district and school levels?
The most significant change that MMSD could make to improve engagement would be to stop talking about ways to bring stakeholders in and instead look at ways that district leadership could go to where the stakeholders already are, and engage with groups through existing networks and channels. It is our job as school system to reach our students where they are academically, and that applies to the geography of their communities as well.
Ali Muldrow, Seat 4
1. Every MMSD plan (AL, ELL, Special Ed, BEP) seems to have specific challenges with implementation at the school level. What will you as a board member do to better understand these issues and get the information you need to assess these situations? How will you ensure that issues with implementation and unmet student needs get addressed?
One consistent factor in the implementation failure of many District plans is the delay with which Community input is sought. Teachers know what the schools need; parents know what the schools need; children know what the schools need. The school district must view teaching staff, families, and community members as partners in delivering high-quality education to meet the needs of all of our students, and must include them earlier and more frequently in the development and implementation of plans and programs.
2. In a February Madison365 article, Superintendent Jen Cheatham wrote: “A superintendent, no matter how determined or talented or passionate simply cannot succeed without a Board that clears the path for success.” How do you interpret this statement from a board member’s perspective?
Where I see the greatest truth in Jen's statement is that the Board must take steps to remove barriers, and instead encourage, greater creativity in the classroom. We can best serve our students when we embrace a whole-child approach to education, and a student-led approach to curriculum.
3. In 2018-19, 5,661 MMSD students (21% of all students) were identified as advanced learners in one of the five domains: specific academic areas, general intellectual, visual/performing arts, leadership or creativity. This included 8,503 AL designations as some students are identified in multiple areas. Disparities by race, income and language have improved slightly but still need significant work. Providing consistent and systematic advanced instruction (beyond math) to advanced learners continues to be a challenge at most schools. Please explain your thoughts on how schools can address both the critical work of helping students reach proficiency while allowing students to move beyond that level when they are ready.
Holistic assessment and differentiated curriculum allow teachers to do what they do best: evaluate student capability, bolster students’ needs and foster greater mastery in students’ areas of strengths. This can only occur when we create an environment that allows teachers to be nimble and creative in selecting and delivering curriculum most relevant to their students’ lives and their students’ needs. Enhanced creativity in instruction, including by incorporation of Arts education into Core curricula, can assist in providing students of differing abilities with appropriate work, and can assist in advanced learner identification by inspiring students to express their Advanced capabilities.
4. How can MMSD effectively measure success for its advanced learners?
Success for Advanced Learners is effectively measured the same way success is effectively measured for all students, not by standardized test scores, but by careful observation and qualitative approaches to formative and summative assessment. Success is also more effectively measured when students participate in their own assessment, and in the development of their own plan of learning.
5. The current 2019-20 proposed budget includes Strategic Equity Projects. One proposal addresses a recommendation made by the Advanced Learning Advisory Committee through the Office of Civil Rights resolution process to address racial disparities in access to and preparation for advanced coursework. This recommendation includes increasing the Advanced Learning staff to 1.0 FTE (from current 0.5 FTE levels) for every K-8 school in order to provide a talent development program for underrepresented students and a systematic structure for advanced learning in every school. If elected, will you support funding this recommendation?
Yes.
6. How can MMSD increase genuine engagement by stakeholders (students, families, staff
and community members) in processes both at the district and school levels?
The most significant change that MMSD could make to improve engagement would be to stop talking about ways to bring stakeholders in and instead look at ways that district leadership could go to where the stakeholders already are, and engage with groups through existing networks and channels. It is our job as school system to reach our students where they are academically, and that applies to the geography of their communities as well.