The field and science of education can be considered a study in the art of the pendulum. If anyone works in education long enough, the same approaches, beliefs, techniques, and ideas will come back around -- albeit, recycled with a few new elements, a new name and updated packaging.

Let’s take the vocational classes of the 1960’s as an example. My parents had options of graduating high school having taken classes that trained them for a job. My mom took classes that prepared her to be a secretary. My dad didn’t take any, but could have learned to be a car mechanic or electrician. Their generation spent high school learning a trade, giving them the experience to get work right after graduation.

These classes became the ROP I knew in the 1980’s. I could get out of school early to work or attend a trade school. Instead, I opted to take advantage of the “get out of school early” option and left school at noon every day of my senior year to work at the local movie theater in the evenings. Not sure this was the ideal use of my ROP opportunity.
Then ten years ago, I was involved in CTE (Career Technical Education). The local schools and community colleges were receiving money to align core curriculum with predetermined career technical pathways, intended to give kids real world experience in the classroom. I wrote curriculum for English classes that embedded cross-curricular career units. Because of this program, students were exposed not only to the content, but to its application, allowing them to make more informed college and career choices. This was presented as a novel idea, given that we were mired in No Child Left Behind at the time and schools were focused on tests, test taking and rote memorization. But we all knew we were simply participating in the movement of the pendulum once again.

Today, with the advent of Common Core, the push now is to prepare students for life after high school. Apparently we haven’t done this before. Today we are calling these courses Pathways. Again, not a bad idea -- in fact, it’s been a great idea since 1776 and the founding of the United States when we began training future leaders through apprenticeships and females for the teaching profession. And it’s been a great idea ever since.

This time, however, the pendulum has swung a little too far for my taste. The concept of Pathways allows students to take a sequence of coursework during high school to connect a student’s interest to a post-graduation career or college degree. Again, not a bad idea. But, unfortunately, the Pathways favor science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with some business courses thrown in for good measure. The newly minted label is STEM. My argument lies in what’s glaringly absent from these courses -- where are the liberal arts options? The art? Music? Language? Law? Writing? Philosophy? History? Anthropology?

Where are the courses that create well-rounded citizens of the world?

When I think about the companies that are currently changing the world, I see companies that embrace not just technology, but also design, sociology and storytelling. Apple is Apple because of Steve Jobs’s obsession with design, touch, feel -- the beauty of the art and aesthetic of his products. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is what it is today because he understands humanity and its need to be social -- a social media empire as much psychology and sociology as it is technology. And let’s face it, Starbucks does make great coffee, but this coffee company isn’t what it is today because of a specially-engineered coffee maker. It is what it is because of the culture, the people, and the story created around the brand.

Just like great movies take more than just a camera engineer and video editor to become classics. They take well-integrated music, camera angles, scripts, nuance, and storytelling.

Do we really want to be a country that writes bad software code because our programmers don’t understand fluency and cohesion? Do we really want to be a country that simply manufactures great microchips, but offers nothing value added? Or do we want to be a country that drives innovation because of our creativity, ability to solve the world’s problems and critical thinking prowess?

I will argue every day that STEM is only half the equation -- that a solid, well-rounded liberal arts education in conjunction with STEM will give us a leading edge advantage as a country and our kids the leading edge advantage as world leaders and innovators.
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The world of the 21st century is going to need more than just STEM -- it is going to need another pendulum swing.
I just hope it isn’t too late.

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Time and time again, all I see from the incumbents in this School Board race are press releases, responses submitted as a team, and rhetoric about what has been done in the past. I am not sure exactly how each feels about any one issue, haven’t been able to discern how one is any different from the other, and have a sense that they do only what the other endorses. Is that really what we want for the next four years in Los Alamitos Unified? A School Board that views the issues through exactly the same lens? A School Board so lock-step and ingrained that the status quo rules, whether working or not. A School Board where nothing new or innovative is introduced, brought to the cabinet, or used to challenge the accepted practices?

I appreciate all the current School Board has accomplished, as my own children have been the recipients of the progress. However I still see gaps, because my own children, unfortunately, have been the recipients of the status quo, as well. Regardless the rhetoric of success, don’t let the statistics blind the reality. We have work to do, and it makes me wonder: What have you done for me lately?

In the eighth grade, I had Mr. Howard for science. One of his bulletin boards was decorated with a turtle and this line: “Always wonder why.” I don’t know exactly why he chose a turtle to impart these impactful words, but the turtle did just that and continues to impact my life on a daily basis. 

What does this turtle from 30+ years ago mean for Los Alamitos Unified School District and my race for a School Board seat? It means I don’t claim to have all the answers or be the expert. What it means is I have lots of questions that need to be asked and deserve a discussion:

• Of the 10,000 students in our district, why are almost 35% of them inter-district transfers?
• What is the district doing to increase the rigor in the classroom?
• What is the plan for Common Core implementation in ELA, mathematics, and technical subjects?
• How is LAEF spending our money, and what percentage of our donations is spent on administrative salaries and fees?
• How is the Board involving the community in its decisions?
• Why do we continue to hire from within for cabinet-level positions, perpetuating the status quo without regard for innovation and fresh eyes?
• Are we ready for an on-campus shooting? Who is responsible for my children in an emergency? What is the district’s communication plan? 
• Even though “recruiting” in sports in not allowed, why do I keep hearing stories about how this is happening with our district sports’ teams?
• Are school uniforms something our district families want to discuss?
• Why are most of the emails I receive from the district and our district schools about fundraising and asking for money?
• Where does all the money go?
• How are our classrooms differentiating instruction for children of all academic achievement levels?
• What can be done about the traffic in Rossmoor immediately?
• Why did we hire 80 new employees for this school year when salaries are our district’s biggest expense?
• Why are we not doing more writing in the classroom?
• Why are we still graduating 44% of our students without having taken an AP course and 28% of our students not having completed A-G requirements?
  
• What are we doing about the challenges with maintaining the grass at Oak's field? How much money is spent with each fix?
• How are we supporting our local, community sports programs with field space and facilities?

I could go on and on ... but I won't. 

My platform since day one has been based on three key issues: Curriculum. Safety. Equity. I am immersed in these issues on a daily basis as a classroom teacher, and I see my role on the Board of Education in Los Alamitos as one of challenging what has been business as usual - questioning the status quo. Our district has had lots of success; however, it’s important to recognize and embrace its challenges and gaps so we can continue to build a great district that remembers we do it all for our kids.

Elect the same – expect the same.

Elect the new – and let the questions uncover our potential. 

This week our neighborhood newspaper, The News Enterprise, will be publishing responses from each of the school board candidates to the same three questions. In case you don't receive the paper, I want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to see where I stand. All I ask this year is that votes are cast and based in facts. Ask the tough questions, hear each candidates' answers, and make a decision based on the direction in which you'd like to see our board move. We haven't had an election for a school board seat since 2006, as no one has challenged the incumbents in the last three elections. 

With our district facing unprecedented changes the next four years - new funding formulas, new curriculum and new technology - we need a leader on the board who can take us into the future, rather than continuing to live in the past.

Listed below are The News Enterprise questions and my answers.

How would you describe an effective school board member?

An effective school board member must act responsibly within the law and in the best interest of all stake holders to ensure fiscal stability, academic fidelity, effective policy, and community involvement. Trustees must be available to all members of the community – those with and without children – to build a school that graduates responsible young adults who have learned to teach, give back, and contribute. Our board needs to reflect the needs of the community, while maintaining a balance between those needs and those of the student. School board members are called "Trustees" for a reason: they are being "trusted" with the future of the community – our most precious commodity – the children.  

What are you top priorities for the next four years?

Curriculum.
The academic growth of the district has been stagnant for the past five years, Common Core is not commonplace in all classrooms across all grade levels, writing has been forgotten, and almost 50% of our children are not participating in AP courses, because the achievement gap is insurmountable. Curriculum needs to be a top priority – and a teacher needs to lead the charge.

Safety. 
Alleviating traffic congestion in our neighborhoods needs to be a top priority of the next school board. Alongside easing the traffic woes, the next safety steps need to include training students in Bully Prevention and online e-reputation responsibility, reducing drug and alcohol abuse, and ensuring all students are safe in all dark corners of every campus. Additionally, research shows uniforms to be a great safety measure; therefore, an initiative in dress code reform K-12 needs to be discussed. 

Equity.   
I want to see inter-district transfer students, 35% of our district's current enrollment, dramatically decreased immediately, so our own in-district kids are given first, top priority for academics, arts, athletics and activities. I also want reform and transparency in all fundraising. I will also argue it's time all students – disenfranchised, EL, GATE – in LAUSD receive the same opportunities, regardless the school, leadership or classroom teacher. 

Do you have any specific changes you¹d like to make in the District?

I am a teacher, so my specialty is culture and curriculum. I will focus on what matters most for our kids: academics. Our district likes to celebrate the successes, but neglects to publicize its failures. My first academic change will be to increase the writing, depth and complexity in all courses, because there is no excuse for having only increased ELA proficiency 5% in the last six years. Additionally, our district needs to train all teachers and departments in the power of vertical alignment to ensure access to and success in AP courses, rather than accepting the fact that we are still graduating 44% of our students without an AP experience – one of the most significant measures of college success. Finally, we need to update our signature practices to embrace Common Core and 21st century education, especially since 28% of our students have not completed A-G college entrance requirements upon graduation, leaving them under-prepared for college and career opportunities. 

I have many more ideas for supporting kids, teachers and administrators, all while embracing what makes Los Al great. It's time to shake things up. 

In the words of Mark Twain, "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."

Vote informed!

I went to an event a few days ago to introduce myself to the community and talk about why I’m running for Los Al school board. I presented my prepared talking points, got a pat on the back from the candidate sitting next to me for “making it look easy” and shook a few hands on my way out once the event was over.

I felt as if the afternoon had been a success. Then on my way out of the room, heading to the parking lot, I ran into two women who asked me a few last questions. One was a retired teacher and the other her guest at the event.

The retired teacher asked me about vertical alignment – literally. She asked, “What is vertical alignment?” I realized at that moment I hadn’t been clear about what this is exactly, especially if someone retired from my own profession isn’t clear what I’m talking about. I mention this concept in my platform, at all speaking opportunities, when talking about the race with friends, throughout my blogs, and during conversations when I get worked up about curriculum. But I’m a teacher, and I have a tendency to speak in educational acronyms and jargon. The time has come for me to present the basics of this topic and give everyone a chance to understand its power … and know why we need to start talking about it in Los Alamitos Unified.

When I first started teaching twenty years ago, I walked into my ninth grade classroom on day one, sat at my desk, and set about planning the year. I worked in isolation on curriculum and standards. I decided what to teach and when to teach it, and did just that. I thought back to my own education, pulled from memory those activities and assignments I found valuable and fun as a kid, and incorporated them into my classroom. I used the CA State Standards as a driving force, but was free to do as I pleased day in and day out.

When I started at Oxford Academy eight years ago, I walked onto a campus whose English department taught philosophically different from my early teaching experiences, using a different approach – an approach called vertical alignment.

And it changed everything about how and what I teach.

In a nutshell, vertical alignment is simply:

• building students’ content knowledge and skills year-over-year, 
  
• avoiding redundancy in sequential courses, 
  
• holding kids accountable for their learning from one year to the next, 
  
• building collaborative curricular teams of teachers focused on a common goal, and 
  
• increasing access to advanced and AP courses for all students.
  

I’m going to use the English department at Oxford as an example to explain how this works.

At Oxford, we align our 7th – 12th grade classrooms with an eye on preparing all students to feed into AP Composition and Literature in twelfth grade – that’s our only English track. But we only have six years to get 11- and 12-year-old kids ready to perform at a college level for this exam, so it requires that as teachers we focus on the end goal.

Instead of teaching the same concept every year, we teach the concept in an introductory year and build on that concept every year thereafter. Here’s one simple example of how we teach the thesis and argument claim:

• 7th – Introduce a 3-point thesis, including subject and position
  
• 8th – Continue to master the basic thesis and introduce the counter-argument
  
• 9th -  Experiment with phrasing of the thesis and work on clarity of relationships between elements of the thesis
  
• 10th – Work on mastery of the thesis, adding elements of style
  
• 11th – Introduce concept of sophisticated, complex and relevant logical sequence of knowledgeable claims; rhetoric focused and mode differentiated
• 12th – Work on mastery of sophisticated and complex claim statement with expectations of complex ideas, complex argument and clear qualifiers

Again, I know this example is full of teacher jargon, but I’m hoping you see how the sophistication of the instruction and expectations grows year after year. And we include this level of alignment in all aspects of the English curriculum – reading, writing, speaking and listening. We plan from the top, but build vertically from the bottom to be sure all kids are ready when they take that capstone course in twelfth grade. You can walk into any English teacher’s classroom on my campus and hear him or her say something along the lines of: “I know you learned this last year.” There is power in these words … our students know we will hold them accountable for their learning and expect them to be able to apply that knowledge long after it’s been mastered. I believe vertical alignment is the cornerstone of our school's success.

I will agree that not all students are destined for AP capstone courses, but I will argue there is no harm in preparing all kids for the choice, closing the learning gap, holding kids accountable, taking advantage of the precious little time we have to teach and reach each child, and engaging children in their own education. I get more than a little frustrated when my own children come home with activities covering the same material that's been covered multiple previous years. I want to see more rigor, higher expectations,  and increased complexity.

The power in the vertical alignment model of curriculum development lies in its focus, and Los Alamitos has the advantage of being both small enough to be able to tackle vertical alignment with precision and count on our students to step up.

Let’s finally capitalize on our Los Al advantages - and watch our students soar. 

That is the question.

Common Core. What is it? What does it mean for our kids? What does it mean for our schools? Our teachers? The future of our society? Do we really want more federal control of local education? 

The questions are endless, and the answers are convoluted. What’s to believe, and what’s to dismiss?

I visited with a chapter of Republic Women’s Federated this afternoon, and Common Core was a hot topic. The members of the group asked very pointed questions about our feeling with regard to the implementation of Common Core.

Some of the concerns in the room:

• loss of local control
• “fuzzy” math
• untested pedagogy 
• children being used as guinea pigs
• outdated and biased textbooks
  

I get it. I’m a school teacher and have been faced with the looming “Common Core” for the past several years. I’ve been on district Common Core Committees, studied the Common Core State Standards, been asked to implement Common Core strategies in the classroom, and been part of numerous discussions about what Common Core means to the future of America’s children.

You know what I’ve come away with? As simple as it sounds, I have honestly come to understand the Common Core as an opportunity to ensure America’s children are college and career ready. Can they read, write, speak and listen? Common Core means literacy across the curriculum. I truly believe it’s that simple. Get kids reading, writing, speaking and listening in all class, and we will have a generation of kids ready for the 21st century world.

That’s what colleges and Fortune 100 companies (P21) have told us … we need students who are globally aware, critical thinkers, collaborators, creative, and able to communicate effectively. Clearly, what we’ve been doing with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) hasn’t worked and has, ironically, left our children behind. Colleges tell us every new school year with incoming freshman that the children they are being sent aren’t ready for the rigor of college. Companies tell us with every new high school graduating class that the graduates can’t communicate or problem solve. So what are we fighting against exactly? Do we really want what we’ve had the past twelve years? Do we really want another generation of students who are only taught how to pass a standardized test?

Common Core simply offers opportunities for our students to demonstrate mastery through well-structured project-based learning, giving them opportunities to synthesize information to solve problems, create, innovate, explore, and build.

I work at Oxford Academy, a nationally-recognized high school in Cypress. You would be hard-pressed to find a classroom still being instructed using the traditional-rows-of-desks configuration, a teacher still using the same old worksheets of fill-in-the-blanks that have been used for the past ten years, students unable to synthesize primary source documents to construct well-organized arguments in history, politics, literature, science and world languages.

Common Core at Oxford Academy means rigorous curriculums, engaged students responsible for their own learning, well-trained teachers to facilitate learning, an expectation that all students can learn and excel, and an openness to believe that our educational system can only get better.

Do challenges exist with the Common Core? Absolutely. No program, regardless the industry, is flawless, but Common Core is a step in the right direction, and I teach at a campus that allows me to say just that. I’ve seen it in action, and our kids excel.

In a nutshell, a Common Core classroom simply expects students will be able to:

• read and comprehend more complex texts
• write arguments supported by text-based evidence
• synthesize a variety of information to solve complex problems
• engage in a global community and be able to communicate effectively 

Can a student more active in their own education and learning be a bad thing? Isn’t this just the type of person who ends up curing cancer, traveling unchartered missions into space, discovering the Autism link, solving the world’s natural resources challenges?

I believe it really is as simple … and complex as this.

Of all the teachers I’ve ever encountered, I can pinpoint only a handful of them who stick with me today.

• Mr. Didier taught middle school French, and he had us engaged in the language by listening, speaking, writing, and reading on day one in seventh grade. By the end of eighth grade, I could carry on a pretty decent conversation in French.
  
  
• Mr. Bickel was my Geometry teacher. Every day we took notes and dissected triangles without fail. He was tough, but he had a way of engaging each of us. We were responsible for mastering the strategy, maintaining our knowledge, and performing every skill with precision. 
  
  
• Mr. Howard taught science. I can still remember some of the content we explored that year, and I’m sure it’s because the science class was taught through experimentation and questioning. In fact, he had a bulletin board on his wall all year with one simple quote: “Always wonder why.” I’m convinced that bulletin board influences my life every day.
  

I could mention a few others, but I think you get my point. We all have these: the teachers who inspire us to be better, teach us ideas and concepts that stay with us for a lifetime, and make us believe we are invincible.

But were these classes rigorous? Or do I just remember hilarity, style, personality, classmates? As a teacher, I think about this all the time. What exactly do I want my own students to walk away remembering? That I was the “cool” teacher? Or that I was the teacher from whom they learned more than they thought possible?

I will argue the later without question. And I'm convinced my own experiences with Mr. Didier, Mr. Bickel and Mr. Howard prove just that. But how is something like this accomplished?

Rigor.

Rigor is more than content and standards. Rigor is the why, the how and the “so what” – the ability to take the strategies, knowledge and skills and apply them in areas outside of one in-class assignment.

Let me give you an example near and dear to my heart – grammar.

Grammar worksheets make me crazy! I don’t use them in the English classroom, and I go ballistic when I see or hear of my own children doing them. Our educational system has decided that the eight parts of speech need to be taught, reviewed and practiced every year from kindergarten through twelfth grade. But many adults who lived through these painful worksheets themselves will argue they struggle with writing today. Businesses and hiring managers of the 21st century will argue that high school graduates don’t know how to write a memo, business proposal, marketing brochure or simple email. So do grammar worksheets equate to good writing?

No.

However, is it important to know how to write a complex sentence? Is it important to use introductory phrases for style? Can short and long sentences used in combination make a point more effectively than a report written without?

Absolutely.

Grammar plays a role in voice, style and fluency. However, grammar worksheets take grammar and teach it in isolation. Rather, a teacher who wants to teach an element of grammar needs to do so in conjunction with a rigorous writing curriculum. Let's take a look at one simple example. Instead of grammar worksheets to combine pairs of 40 simple sentences to create compound sentences, how about that same teacher:

• give students a writing model about a page long that includes sentence variety,
• ask the students to identify the compound sentences based on samples,
• give students a few minutes to discuss in pairs to identify the components of a compound sentence,
• require the students to annotate on the model the effect of each sentence type,
• tell them to take out the draft of a paper or essay they've started previously,
• require them to now color-code their paper based on sentence type and annotate for effect,
• require them to revise their piece for sentence variety, and then
• ask the students, in a formative assessment Exit Ticket from class, to give one example of a compound sentence as could be written for an argument paper in history and explain how using sentence variety can be more effective than not.
  

This is just a simple example, but in it you’ll see that the student will have had to learn parallelism, coordinating conjunctions, sentence types, audience and purpose.

Rigor requires not only content mastery as listed above, but also the ability to engage in that content, apply the strategies and skills, transfer the knowledge and show accountability for learning.

Rigor is a shift in teaching philosophy. It doesn't mean more. It means different. And I see no excuse for rigor not being the standard in all classrooms. No longer can we be content with seeing the same worksheets and projects year-after-year.

It’s time for a change.