Reply to Two Montgomery school board seats will have primaries as new candidates join race

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the extent that the Apple Ballot does not pick incumbents, I recommend that all parents vote Apple Ballot.

My guess is that the board members and Central Office who like the way things are now are trolling this board, trying to split votes so they hold onto their seats.[/quote]

I’m one of the critics of the apple ballot and I’m certainly not a board member or from the central office. If they’re not supporting the incumbents, I’m actually surprised because in my experience, there’s generally a mutual back-scratching cycle between the three groups. I am certainly not supporting the incumbents, as I’ve been wanting to change out the board for years.  Honestly, I stopped paying attention to the apple ballot endorsements years ago.

My point that I elaborated above, is that the apple ballot represents the union and their interests don’t necessarily coincide with the kind of positive educational measures people envision when they want to support the teachers. If the candidates endorsed this year favor my issues, I would be shocked, but once I recovered I would happily vote for them. My issues:
1.  Strong, content-based curriculum (preferably with textbooks), produced by subject matter experts, that has already been effectively implemented elsewhere (I’m hopeful we’ve made progress since the curriculum audit, but with COVID, I really have no idea of the rollout status or the effectiveness of the new curriculum)
2.  COVID precautions - I support a conservative approach, prioritizing safety. I had assumed this would include vaccine mandates, but I think there was recently some data questioning vaccines for young children, so I really don’t know what’s best, but I hope we would follow recommendations from the AAP, AMA, CDC, etc.  I would even support another shutdown if cases spiked (which I’m really, REALLY, hoping we’re past). 
3.  A better grading system - I would like every assignment graded and not just marked for completeness. I would like to do away with the minimum base score of 50. I would like to reinstate final exams for high school courses. While I’m at it, I’d like to give the teachers the discretion to let a child do extra work for extra credit. 
4. Grouping - I’d like to see flexible ability grouping (NOT tracking). I agree that we should never limit a child’s opportunities, but heterogeneous grouping, by definition means that all kids get less instructional time at their ability level. Flexible grouping as described in this Washington Post article can be very effective.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/11/03/ST2007110301386.html

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on all of these issues, or even any of them. I would however like them to determine what issues are important to them, and then research the candidates’ respective stances on those issues, and not just put blind faith in the apple ballot. [/quote]

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