Reply to Ruth Wattenberg for Ward 3 Board of Education

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[quote=Anonymous]I support Ruth Wattenberg, the most qualified and experienced candidate in for Ward 3. Here something she posted elsewhere in DCUM.

[quote]Hi, this is Ruth Wattenberg! I wanted to respond to the concern that I might have a limited Janney/Deal/Wilson view. First, I have of course been very active at those schools. I chaired Janney's Spanish committee, which brought Spanish instruction to Janney. I chaired Deal's local school restructuring team during the first year that it enrolled 6th graders, a pivotal year in its transformation from a so-so junior high to an increasingly excellent middle school.

My experience in education goes well beyond my involvement in improving my kids' local schools. I have 30 years of experience in education policy and school reform. I edited a magazine on educational issues, the "American Educator," for the American Federation of Teachers for many years. As editor, I was in touch with the top researchers and thinkers in education in an effort to bring their work to larger audiences. For example, I published a version of the now well-known research that has established the existence of a "30-million word gap" between low-income and affluent children at age 3. In fact, that research is an important basis for DC's expansion of its early childhood program. I learned about and published on a wide variety of subjects, but focused heavily on issues that were relevant for improving high-poverty schools (very important in DC of course) and issues that focused on the importance of a curriculum that is rich in science, history-social studies,and the arts--not just narrowly focused on basic reading and math skills. My website, ruth4schools.com, includes a page devoted to this issue, including links to articles I published in our magazine and that I have written myself. (It includes an article I recently wrote on the importance of implementing Common Core's English standards in a way that doesn't squeeze out these less-tested and untested subjects, but strengthens them.)

In addition to editing American Educator, I was educational issues director for AFT, where my job included such work as bringing together teams of superintendents, teacher leaders, and school board members from the country's largest cities to find ways to redesign--and sometimes shut down-- low-performing schools.

Since leaving AFT six years ago, I have worked with various national education reform organizations, including serving on the national board of the Core Knowledge Foundation (probably the most respected national advocate of a rich curriculum for all kids) and working with the Education Trust, Achieve, and the Fordham Institute. These are groups with divergent viewpoints, but they all agree on the need for rigorous standards and a rich curriculum. All are concerned about the erosion of science, history-social studies, and the arts, which is the issue that I have worked with them on.

I'm the only person running who has experience both in improving our local schools and in broader education issues.

Why does it matter that I have this broad experience that spans both our local schools and national education policy and research? For one thing, it means I'll know what questions to ask. One role of the State Board is to provide oversight to all of our DC schools. Here's a question I'll ask: We have undertaken this huge, and potentially powerful and meaningful early childhood program. (Under this initiative, all our 4-years olds and low income 3-years olds have access to pre-k). It is probably the most ambitious in the country. But, big, new programs like this don't just work because you legislate and pay for them. They need to be based on the best knowledge of what works, be well-implemented, and constantly monitored and tweaked. I'm not aware of any wide-ranging independent research that has been undertaken to monitor the effects or implementation of this potentially great and successful program. It would be tragic if five years from now, we get student achievement results and find out that the effect of the program has been minimal--because we didn't pay attention and correct shortcomings as they developed. That's the kind of questioning I will bring to the State School Board--on this and other issues.

The combination of both national policy experience and local school improvement experience also puts me in a unique position to advocate for what our local schools need. Take the improvement of Hardy, for example. This has got to be a top educational priority in this ward (along with finally renovating Murch!!!!). On that issue, I bring my experience with Deal's transformation which is very substantial--and which taught me a lot about how to get things done here, in DC, in Ward 3. And, I bring an extensive background and understanding about school improvement generally. I will bring unique understanding, credibility, and knowledge to advocating for the support that Hardy needs to become a very strong, highly in-demand middle school.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my unique, broad background. For more info, please visit my website, ruth4schools.com. If anyone has additional questions, please feel free to email me at ruth4schools@yahoo.com.

Ruth Wattenberg[/quote]
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