The 13 Most Important Questions For Every School Board Candidate
Much of the public conversation about schools is a distraction. These questions will illuminate the most pressing concerns in public education today.
This article is an updated and expanded version of the one I first published on IHD. Enjoy!
Hello Bar-Setters!
On Tuesday I shared my comments at a recent school board meeting where I argued in favor of a policy to ban phones in school. Keeping with this theme, I will kick off Throwback Thursdays with a list of questions that you should be asking your school board.
It is common to criticize the quality of American education and to think mostly of the people working at individuals schools. But much of what happens in each school is a direct consequence of the dictates of state and local government. At the local level, it is the members of the school board who are most responsible for the policy and vision of the schools. If you want to see change, they are your first stop.
In preparation for the school board election that took place last spring, a group of local teachers asked for my input about what questions I wanted to ask the candidates.
School board members are elected officials, but their campaigns largely ignore the policies that they will make or the implications of these policies in each school.
So I developed a list of questions to illuminate the most pressing concerns in modern education.
Below each question, I’ll give a short explanation of why the question is important and the type of response you should expect from a thoughtful, well-informed candidate whose chief priority is the long-term fulfillment of our kids.
The Questions
Where does the loyalty of a school board member ultimately lie?
Ultimately, with the students. This should not be perverted to mean that children know best, however. It means we are acting on behalf of the students and their long term benefit—their future and the future communities they will need to be capable of leading. This is all vague and easily bent to misguided policy, however.
Schools are rampant with what I have called “the perversion of kindness”—a common youth development malady where naive attempts to be nice to kids and young-adults cause far more harm than good. This manifests in removing accountability, teaching helplessness, and intentionally making courses easy. A new study finds that (you may need to sit down for this) students do not learn as well with teachers who give out grades more easily. More specifically, students performed worse in the years subsequent to having an easy teacher. For anyone who has ever been around a classroom or a kid, this is obvious. But within the current educational paradigm, rigor is often seen as code for cruelty.
School boards and educators alike must appreciate the essential role of challenge and the ultimate goal of creating an empowered high-schooler who is capable of standing on her own two feet.
What flaws do you currently see in (our district) schools and the (district) vision?
This is the “what do you stand for” question. It forces the candidate to take a position or reveal themselves as a purely political animal. I’m asking them to state their beliefs and how they differ from the consensus vision so that I can see the direction that they wish to push the district towards. If they deflect and give a “non-answer” that says a lot. A few flaws I’d be happy to see them identify:
A propensity to substitute new technology for substance. Everywhere you turn, there is technology for technology’s sake but little vision for how, why, and when technology is implemented and how, specifically, each new gadget is helping us learn.
Administrative blight.
Too many policy makers getting in the way.
A complete ignorance of the foundations of physical and mental health
An obsession with marketing and parental appeasement at the expense of clear values.
Too much standardization and rigid oversight. The educational reformer, Ken Robinson explains this best in his latest TED Talk:
“One of the effects of the current culture has been to de-professionalize teachers.… the dominant culture of education has come to focus on, not teaching and learning, but testing…. Standardized tests have a place…. But all that should support learning. It shouldn’t obstruct it…. in place of curiosity, what we have is a culture of compliance. Our children and teachers are encouraged to follow routine algorithms, rather than to excite that power of imagination and curiosity.”
What flaws do you see in the TEA's broader educational vision?
TEA is the Texas Education Agency—the governing body for public schools in Texas. To not see flaws in the TEA is to be unaware. Start with curriculums that are too broad and the propensity to create unnecessarily rigid roadblocks that interfere with local districts’ ability to adapt. This is another feeling-them-out question to see what candidates know and if they stand for anything concrete. (Note: I was surprised how hard it was to find anything resembling a concrete platform in my town’s recent Mayoral elections)
How do you view unequal performance between schools within (our district)?
This is a problem locally that I’m sure applies elsewhere. Our district has grown very large—six high-schools and at least twice that many middle, intermediate, and elementary schools. Schools serve very different populations who often have differing needs and school cultures. Still, uniformity reigns. New schools are built to look just like all the others. And policy is typically driven by a focus on the lowest common denominator. All the focus goes to equalizing the academic performance at the lower performing schools, which means the district is far less concerned with the improvement of its highest achieving schools. To some extent, some might not mind a slight dip in performance among the top achievers because it brings them closer to the other schools. This sentiment seeps into the school setting where I’ve heard teachers say that smart kids don’t really need great teaching because they’ll learn well regardless. All schools will be benefited most when we take them as individual organisms and put our focus on empowering and expecting great teaching.
Why do you believe that mental health has been declining rapidly in children and the broader U.S. population? This trend far pre-dates COVID-19, so please exclude any specific pandemic-related policies in your answer.
Oh, baby! This is the good stuff. Schools should feel a responsibility to strive to be an authority in human development that takes note of pernicious forces and responds to empower its citizens to overcome them. Education is anything but that. I want a school board member who recognizes the problems in mental and physical health, can demonstrate an understanding for what causes them, and who embraces the school’s responsibility to combat these issues.
What is the role of schools in responding to this?
I don’t want the band-aid, political approach—more counselors and anti-bullying presentations. Let’s get to the root of the damn problem. We can create a school environment where our kids thrive and are trained to thrive in the modern world. This is explained in detail in my book.
In order to accommodate the social distancing requirements of the 20-21 school year, all elementary and middle schools were given iPads. This practice was never stopped. Last school year, my kindergartner was given an iPad that he reported playing on often. What are your thoughts on the role of iPads in elementary education going forward?
This comes down to understanding the developmental needs of young children and the power of this technology. When asked if his kids love the iPad, Steve Jobs responded as any sane tech designer would: “Actually we don’t allow the iPad in the home. We think it is too dangerous for them in effect.” This is why top tier Silicon Valley schools, such as the Waldorf School in Mountain View are intentionally low-tech, celebrating the fact that they use chalk and number two pencils.
Anything but a complete removal of the iPad from elementary schools is unacceptable.
What are your thoughts on the current breakfast and lunch menu offered to students?
Nachos, pizza, French toast sticks, single serving cinnamon toast crunch. How are we still doing this?
A screenshot of the breakfast menu at my son’s elementary school. What are your thoughts on vending machines and the PTA selling Otis Spunkmeyer cookies in the halls?
Schools have become a conveyor belt of junk food. I have many thoughts. Suffice it to say, an institution that felt “a responsibility to strive to be an authority in human development that takes note of pernicious forces and responds to empower its citizens to overcome them”—that type of place would probably do more to counter self-destructive health norms and less to embed them.
Sally and Becky are both taking U.S. History. Sally's teacher gives more homework and puts essay questions on the test rather than maintaining the multiple choice and short answer format of other teachers in the school. Is this right? Explain.
The best schools expect and empower teachers to be the expert in both content and teaching. This is what we see in all the top countries like Finland, Sweden, Japan, and South Korea. When I look back on high-school and college it was the challenging teachers that impacted me most and whose lessons stick with me. However, there is a lot of pressure to standardize every assignment in every class so that no parent can ever complain about one geography teacher being harder than another. These complaints would have been dismissed immediately a couple of decades ago. It is time to restore that common sense. To be clear, hard teaching is not necessarily good teaching, but the point remains. Policies that push for uniform classes guarantee blander education and less engaged teachers.
Is P.E. twice a week sufficient for elementary students?
No. For those interested see my post on The Single Best Thing You Can Do to Improve Learning.
Freddy did not pass his 8th grade math or science STAAR exam and he failed multiple classes because he rarely showed up for his Microsoft Teams calls. Should he have the option to be promoted to high school? Please explain your thinking.
Too many students are put in classes and asked to learn subjects they could never learn because they don’t have any of the prior skills necessary. I’m not a fan of grade inflation and social promotion. I think they distort reality and discourage the appropriate adaptations that would happen in a more honest society.
Are you for or against the test retake policy (my district’s policy which requires teachers to allow students to retake tests for up to a 70%). Please explain.
Meta-lessons are more valuable than any grade on a test. You failed because you did not prepare well enough. Now you are in a hole. Time to get a planner, to begin studying, to start studying better, etc.
Furthermore, when you dictate to a teacher that they have to go out of their way to give another test and the teacher grasps that it is because of the grade not because we care about what is being learned, resentment festers.
Thank you for reading and sharing with anyone you think would find this valuable.
Carry the fire!
Shane
Great questions and topic!!
I have a question, my local school board has 7 members, 1 member is an assistant coach in another school district, 70 miles away. Some say this is illegal, others say it is unethical, what is your opinion?