The pandemic is forcing us to adapt everything — this gives us a unique opportunity to innovate equitably. I am committed to addressing our short-term challenges in ways that improve our long-term capacities.
21st Century Literacies
When I was growing up, my father would memorize maps before we left the house. He was illiterate and had trouble reading unfamiliar road signs. I know how scary it is to feel completely and utterly lost.
It is my top priority to equip students with the 21st century literacy skills required to navigate a changing world. This isn’t just learning how to read, or learning how to use Zoom for virtual learning during the pandemic. We have to strengthen the ways we equip our students with:
Information literacy
Digital literacy
Financial literacy
Health literacy
Cultural literacy
Vote to equip every student with 21st century literacy skills.
Digital Equity
As the former Executive Director of Libraries Without Borders, I have experience working with city, state, and national governments to close the digital divide.
The pandemic provides us with an opportunity structurally improve how we integrate education technologies. I am committed to expanding digital equity in DC, and will support DC’s ongoing efforts to achieve a 1:1 student-device ratio.
It’s not just about the hardware. I am committed to working with parent-led advocacy groups like “Digital Equity in DC Education” to ensure that we learn from the pandemic to build sustainable processes for on-boarding students, parents, and educators to ever-evolving technologies.
Vote to equip every student with 21st century learning tools.
Accountability Frameworks
The pandemic has thrown a lot of our data collection into disarray — this gives us an opportunity to improve how we collect data long-term.
According to OSSE’s 2019 report, “A school’s overall STAR rating has a close relationship with the percentage of its students that are considered at-risk.”
Right now, the top-rated schools also tend to be the schools that serve students from wealthier families. I want to dig more into this data to ensure that we are not penalizing schools/teachers that educate students who come from “at-risk” backgrounds.
We need to deepen our understanding of how schools are helping students to learn and grow, for example, by attributing more weight to student improvement (vs. to final scores alone).
Vote to improve how we collect and interpret education data.
Connecting Every Student
As the candidate with the most experience connecting learners to holistic support systems, I will work to connect every student to:
Cost-effective education technologies, engaging every student in learning both remotely and in-person
Social workers and counselors in schools, promoting mental health and reinforcing school safety
Athletic fields, expanding active learning opportunities
School libraries with diverse reading materials, developing a love of reading and promoting 21st century literacies
Customized learning opportunities that are successful for them
Reliable information and timely updates
Holistic support networks to address challenges ranging from nutrition deficiency to dyslexia
Ward 2’s Unique Role in DC’s Education Landscape
Students who live in Ward 2 make up only 2% of DC’s student population in DCPS and Public Charter Schools (1755/91322). Our schools also serve the fewest number of students of any Ward (3,863).
If you yourself have not directly engaged with schools in DC, you are like the vast majority of Ward 2 voters. If you share my belief that public education provides the foundation for our democracy and our economic growth, we have a unique role and responsibility to advocate for all students.
Ward 2 Coalition-Building
As your representative, I will actively support ongoing efforts to create an education network in Ward 2 similar to the Ward 4 Education Alliance. This will bring together Ward 2 parents, students, educators, and community members to share information and advocate for continued improvement in the quality of education in Ward 2 schools. I will also strengthen communication channels, for example, by building a Ward 2 education newsletter similar to Ruth Wattenberg’s in Ward 3.
I know that I will be most effective in this role if I:
Listen to you, learning from your experiences and perspectives;
Regularly collect and share relevant and reliable information; and
Strengthen platforms for us to advocate collaboratively.
