Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools
Survey of Candidates for Election for the D.C. Board of Education
Candidate’s name: MARTIN LEVINE
Office/District: District Two (Wards 3 and 4)
What are your three highest priorities for the Board? What would you do about them?
- Re-establish confidence and restore trust in the institution. The Board’s
first job must be to show that it can exercise positive leadership and act as an effective
partner with other governing bodies and stakeholders in our schools. The Board must
demonstrate cohesion and a seriousness of purpose that has often been lacking. From the
first day, the Board should reach out to the Superintendent, the Mayor and City Council,
the Congress, parents and teachers, school advocates and others to develop a common vision
and a shared agenda for the school system.
The Board must also establish an appropriate relationship with the superintendent. The
Board should set general policy guidelines and goals, grant the superintendent
considerable autonomy in pursuing them, and evaluate his or her performance against agreed
upon measures. The Board should give voice to citizen concerns, but it must not intervene
in day-to-day management of the schools, nor substitute its judgment for that of school
officials in staffing matters. The Board should cushion the superintendent from pressures
by other governing bodies – rather than magnify them.
- Undertake a series of reforms to change the culture of the school system – and to
sharply raise expectations regarding the results we can achieve.
We’re shooting
too low, and congratulating ourselves for incremental gains. Today fewer than 30 percent
of public school students are fully proficient in basic skills. We should set a goal that
within seven to ten years 70 to 80 percent of students perform at that level, as the top
achieving DC schools currently do. Such a goal could serve as an organizing objective for
systemic change, and galvanize others in the DC community.
To support this goal, we should create a covenant with instructors, principals and
other school employees. We will provide an environment in which they can succeed, and will
then expect a different level of results. Among the changes we should make:
- Increase autonomy for principals and teachers. Give them the freedom to decide how to
bring about learning – then hold them accountable for the results.
- Put in place management systems that will eliminate the recurring crises in school
maintenance, payroll, transportation and school meals that distract teachers and
administrators from their core instructional mission.
- Eliminate remaining pockets of overcrowding so class size doesn’t stand in the way
of learning. Give teachers access to sufficient supplies and technology, teachers’
aides, and ongoing training.
- Provide more early learning support for children and their parents, so kids don’t
fall irretrievably behind from the start.
- Offer more academically demanding courses in the upper grades to prepare students for
work and college – and insist that students master necessary skills before being
advanced to higher grades.
- Create more effective tools for promoting classroom discipline by providing alternative
learning environments for persistently disruptive students.
- Provide timely assessments and appropriate placements for special education students
within the DC public school system, rather than continuing to pay large sums to private
institutions for uneven results.
- Harness Washington’s special assets.
The District is home to a uniquely rich
mix of private companies, professional associations, international institutions, museums
and universities, and nonprofit organizations. We should create additional opportunities
for these groups to help our schools – mentoring students, enriching curricula,
enhancing technology, and increasing students’ access to the workplace. Every school
should have a set of four to five partners providing coordinated support under the
guidance of the principal.
Finally, the District should be ready in January to present the incoming U.S. president
with a concrete plan for how the new administration can partner with the city to redeem
the candidates’ pledges to put education at the top of their agendas.
What is the role of parents in the DCPS at both the individual school and city-wide?
Should the Local School Restructuring Teams be continued and if so, how can they be made
more effective?
Parents play a vital role both at the school level and city-wide. They should have
strong input in school management – offering their views to principals and teachers
in a systematic way and on a regular basis on questions of how available resources should
be most effectively deployed to meet the educational needs of their children, and what
programs should be available to serve them.
Representative groups of parents should also have regular input with the Board of
Education as it sets policy guidelines and goals, and with the Superintendent as he/she
develops plans and procedures to implement those guidelines.
The LSRTs should be continued, but their input should be solicited on a broader set of
issues. They should be involved in providing organized views on such questions as the
appropriate grade breaks between elementary, junior high/middle school, and high schools,
which must underlie decisions regarding how to continue with the rebuilding or replacement
of our aging schools.
What is your view of the facilities planning process now underway?
The planning process is a critical one – and the involvement of parents and other
stakeholders is vital. However, as noted above, I believe that the planning process is
beginning from unstated assumptions about the appropriate program, grade, and geographic
mix of our schools. I would open those questions to broader community input to assure that
the results we achieve reflect the full range of interest of the citizens that our schools
serve.
What has been your personal involvement with DC Public Schools? Have your children
been enrolled and for how long? Why are you interested in this position?
I’m a native Washingtonian with a life-long commitment and involvement with the
city and its schools, as well as background in education. I’m running with the goal
of placing DC’s schools on a dramatically different path.
I’m a graduate of the DC public schools: Whittier Elementary School and Paul
Junior High in Ward 4, as well as Wilson High School in Ward 3. During the 1980s and 1990s
I served as a mentor to students at Woodson High School in NE Washington, as part of a
corporate partnership with the school. I have a niece who teaches in a public elementary
school in SE Washington. (My wife of 30 years and I have no children.) This fall I’ve
reached out to PTAs, senior DCPS officials, principals and teachers, and school advocacy
groups – to gather their input on issues facing Washington’s schools and options
for addressing them. I’ve visited schools in Wards 3 and 4, met with school
officials, teachers and parents, and participated in community meetings on school
restructuring.
I have the skills and experience to help lead change in the city’s school system.
I would bring to the Board a background as a student teacher of high school history.
I’ve also been a university professor and administrator – teaching political
science and directing public administration programs at Miami Univerity in Ohio. I’ve
served as Deputy Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget Office, directing analysis
of education issues. For thirteen years I was a senior executive at Fannie Mae, developing
public-private partnerships in Washington and elsewhere. I have a record of bringing
people together around shared goals.
How can you avoid the acrimonious relationships between board members, and between the
School Board, Superintendent, Mayor and Council that have prevented a concerted effort to
bring to our children’s schools all of the resources needed to provide the high
quality of public education our children need and our city needs for them?
The key is leadership. As noted in response to the first question, the new Board must
unite around the goal of improving our schools, develop a compelling vision for doing so,
and reach out to all other stakeholders in developing an agenda for realizing that vision.
The Board must demonstrate the kind of cohesion and leadership that invites support
instead of repels it, and must serve to cushion the superintendent from political
pressures. The right people in the right positions on the Board can, and will, make the
difference. I am optimistic that with appropriate focus, the new Board of Education can
substantially alter the future of our schools – and, thus, of our children. |
