am running for the Frederick County Board of Education because I feel there needs to be a change in education in Frederick County. To start off, I am a mother of three children, each of whom attend different schools within the FCPS system. Two of my children have IEPs (Individualized Education Plan, a
document developed for each child who needs special education), one for behavior issues and the other for Asperger’s. The child who has behavior problems is currently in the Pyramid program and the other has been "mainstreamed" all his life.
Children with special needs are not ones who cannot learn, but they learn different than the average child but can still be challenged. A perfect example occurred when one of my children was in 7th grade and new to FCPS. My child was placed in merit English and four months into the class, my child was failing. I, along with his English
teacher, who knew how children with Asperger’s learn, advocated for my child to be placed in an Honors English. She knew that my child was capable of performing at a higher caliber.
One term into the Honors English class, my child had an ‘A’. My child not only needed to be challenged and not educationally placated. If not for the collaboration between myself and his teacher, one placement test would have laid out an academic path that could have been devastating. We need to hire more teachers and administrators who
have expertise in educating children with special needs and as a member of the board I would ensure to make sure that happen.
Another issue is the numerous standardized testing that is currently occurring in our school system. Testing is not an effective measurement of achievement or growth. Constant standardized testing actually lowers achievement because it reveals inequity in education but never bring about equity. Standardized testing shines a light on the
socio-economic difference among students. In order to have equity in the testing, you would need to lower the level of the curriculum taught to students, thus performing a disservice to all.
The long term effects of standardized testing conditions students to learn for the sake of passing a test or a class and not for obtaining knowledge. I currently work at a local college and instructors state they prefer working with older students because they do not demand to know what is on the test. If I was elected to the Board of
Education I would work to have a complete overhaul of standardize testing as well as implement other options to determine a child’s achievement or lack thereof.
Finally, I would like to see to more choice within our school system. We currently have three charter schools, a Career and Technology Center (CTC), and an Academy for the Fine Arts (AFA), with enough students on their waitlists that FCPS could open at least four more charter schools and one more CTC at full capacity. This illustrates that
parents and children want more options for education. Additionally, both CTC and AFA are only part time programs requiring students be transported from their home school. If these schools were full time, integrating the arts and technology with the academics, we would have more robust career and fine art programs, instruction time would increase (since students
would not need to travel between schools in the middle of the day), and costs would decrease with buses arriving and departing twice a day instead of four times a day.
I believe there is great potential for the Frederick County Public Schools and with the right people in place, we could make FCPS a leader in Academic, Special Education, and Career and Technology. We just need the right people in place to steer it in that directions. I strongly believe I am one who can help do so.
