Candidate name: Shirley Brandman

Place of residence: Bethesda

Date of birth: June 3, 1963

Place of birth: New York, N.Y.

Current occupation: Special education teacher and tutor for children with learning disabilities; attorney for children in abuse and neglect cases

Education: M.A. in special education⁄learning disabilities, American University; J.D., Yale Law School; B.A., Yale College

Community associations, involvement: Vice president, Educational Issues, Montgomery County Council of PTAs, June 2004-February 2006; County Commission for Children and Youth, 2002 -2004; PTA president, Burning Tree Elementary School, June 1998-June 2000; board chairwoman, WEAVE Inc. (Women Empowered Against Violence), 1997-2004; founder, Child Advocacy Clinic, Cornell Law School, 1993-94

Professional associations: n⁄a

Family: Married; two school-age children

Campaign office address and telephone: Brandman for BOE, P.O. Box 335, Cabin John, MD 20818, 301-320-3913

Web site: www.Brandman4BOE.org

Link to state Board of Elections campaign finance database

In our diverse community, it is difficult to isolate single priorities. The overarching goal of our pubic schools must be to ensure stimulating learning opportunities for all children with services tailored to address their needs and resources available to support their success. To reach this goal requires effort on many fronts and an unshakeable belief that every student will receive a comprehensive education culminating in graduation. If elected, I will begin with these steps:

Reform middle school: We must begin with a commitment to produce a challenging and well-rounded educational program. Middle school reform must include strengthening the curriculum, reducing class sizes and increasing the number of highly qualified teachers to promote opportunities for innovative teaching and differentiated instruction.

Increase community involvement: A student's education extends beyond the classroom. Each child's academic success depends upon the involvement and support of parents, guardians and the members of the larger community. Our Board of Education needs to hear the voice of the community to understand the challenges our students face. We must do more to reach out to parents and guardians, including overcoming language and cultural barriers.

Restore a balance between teaching and testing: Some testing provides useful feedback, but time taken away from the curriculum for test preparation cannot be regained. We cannot sacrifice teaching for the sake of testing. We need to re-evaluate the tests being given to our students and eliminate those that are not required by law and do not improve teaching and learning.

How would you rate the performance of the current school board: excellent, good, fair or poor? Why?

The current school board has tackled many difficult issues and has worked diligently to initiate important reforms. However, this board lacks a shared vision of its role and that has limited its effectiveness. I believe that the Board must see itself as independent from the Superintendent and his staff. As an elected body, the Board must provide oversight as a means of holding the system accountable to the public. The school board needs to ask more questions to ensure that the decisions made are in the best interest of all students. By engaging in more active debate and oversight, the Board ensures that its decisions to support the Superintendent's recommendations are not just a rubber stamp but a careful and deliberate endorsement which they can strongly defend.

How would you rate the job performance of Superintendent Jerry Weast: excellent, good, fair or poor? Why?

Superintendent Weast receives high marks for his vision of how to improve student achievement while accommodating growing enrollment and changing demographics. He has exercised strong leadership in addressing early childhood literacy as a foundation for further reform. The vision can only become a reality, however, if we are more candid about the areas where we still need to improve. Though we have taken steps toward narrowing the achievement gap, we are still far from success and success will require a community effort. The Superintendent can and must do more to reach out to teachers, parents and students to solicit their feedback and build meaningful partnerships. The Superintendent must convince the community that every child matters and that our school system will not be satisfied until we can address the full spectrum of need. This can only be accomplished through greater collaboration and openness.

Is the county funding for schools too much, about right or too little? If too little, where would you find additional money?

Without a doubt, Montgomery County places great value on public education. With an operating budget totaling $1.7 billion dollars, our schools are funded largely by county dollars. Though this sounds like an enormous amount of money, it is important to understand the context. Almost 89% of the operating budget goes to cover employee salaries and benefits. This allocation is critical. Montgomery County needs to remain competitive in its salary offerings in order to continue to attract highly qualified teachers.

Is this money enough to cover student need? That is a more difficult question. Student need is growing and changing; we have many more limited English language learners in our schools; we are identifying students who need more help and support in order to pass High School Assessment tests that, starting with the Class of 2009, will be required to earn diplomas; and we are still working toward class size reduction in the secondary grades. Meeting these needs has budgetary implications.

Montgomery County has been forced to address shortfalls in federal and state funding. The federal government has fallen short in its commitment to fund special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The state has fallen short on fulfilling its financial obligation under the Bridge to Excellence Act (Thornton) that would have directed millions of dollars to the county in recognition of higher regional costs. We must continue to advocate for increased federal and state contributions to education.

In the long run, the Board of Education may have to make cost trade-offs. Spending more money is not the only answer; we must ensure that we have the oversight in place to make the maximum use of each education dollar. Doing this effectively will require that the MCPS budget be more user friendly and easily understood. It is difficult to track program expenses in the MCPS budget and difficult to assess whether funds spent have achieved the desired outcomes. Accordingly, the first change that I would propose would be to make the school system's budget more transparent and further, that we link funding requests to data demonstrating the efficacy of programs we are asking to continue funding.

Do you think the current system for renovating schools is adequate, or does it need changing?

No. The time line for modernization of MCPS schools is extremely long. By the existing schedule, many schools wait upwards of 50 years before being modernized. Over the next 6 years, only 12 schools are on track for renovation; at that pace, it could take 65 years to complete a full cycle of 140 schools. As a result, school buildings fall into disrepair and often do not get immediate attention because the push is to wait for modernization to fix all the problems at once. Given the long modernization waiting period, MCPS needs to set aside additional resources for maintenance and repair of aging buildings. MCPS should also accelerate the modernization schedule by moving up renovations whenever there is a vacancy in a holding school.

In addition, portable classrooms, intended as temporary solutions to overcrowded buildings, have become semi-permanent fixtures at many schools. Given the poorer air quality in portables and the demonstrated concerns about mold, we must improve the means by which we assess the health of our buildings and our portables so that we do not subject teachers and students to an unhealthy environment while they wait for modernization.

How well are the county's high school consortia working to raise student achievement?

The school system has not studied this question directly. But there is significant reason to study the impact of our two high school consortia on student learning before we proceed to further replicate this model or abandon it. The Northeast Consortium was designed to promote student choice believing that students would be more motivated to learn when attending a school of their own choosing. We should study whether this is in fact the case and whether it is working. We should examine the choices students are making and how equitably students are being assigned to their first choice.

The genesis of the Down County Consortium, which is younger, was slightly different. The smaller learning communities included in the consortium were created in response to research indicating that children would learn better in smaller learning environments. Is it working? The Down County consortium is officially entering its third year and the school system will need time to analyze the results. However, given our investment in this effort, we should be seeking interim benchmarks. For example, we might look at whether students are successfully completing more classes, are more prepared for and attempting advanced work, and whether fewer students are failing 9th grade, in order to begin evaluating these programs.

How well is the middle school consortium working to raise student achievement?

It is too soon to know. The middle school consortium is only entering its second year. This experiment with whole-school magnets at Argyle, Parkland and Loiederman will let us study the impact of a new learning experiment. These programs are different because students from within the local neighborhoods as well as students who apply to these specialized programs all learn together within a unified program. Rather than segregating a magnet program with a school, these whole-school magnets offer every student access to advanced and specialized courses. This innovation is exciting because it builds real peer-learning communities uniting students from diverse backgrounds who share a common passion.

It will take time to measure how well the middle school consortium works to raise student achievement. Recently released data from the Maryland State Assessment does show that the percentage of students scoring at proficiency or better among this year's 6th graders at Argyle, (the first class to participate in the middle school consortium) is significantly higher in both math and reading than last year. While not conclusive, these early results are promising.

Are too many students being pushed into advanced placement and honors classes without proper preparation?

We always want to encourage our students to reach. Opening advanced placement and honors courses to motivated students and removing unnecessary barriers has been a very positive step. Yet simply looking at the number of students who enroll in advanced classes does not tell the whole story; we need to see if the students who take these courses complete them successfully.

I have heard stories from high school teachers about students who were pushed into advanced courses without adequate preparation and then floundered. While we must hold high expectations for all our students, we must also be sure that we provide them with the resources, support and guidance to succeed. Careful monitoring and mentoring, by school counselors or other academic advisors, of students taking advanced coursework may help assure that these students will be successful. In addition, we must not, in the push for accelerated and enriched instruction, forget the student who properly belongs in on-grade level courses. Success for every student requires that each student has a level of instruction appropriate to his needs. We cannot succeed with a ‘‘one size fits all” approach to education.

Should the school system's health curriculum include discussions of homosexuality and demonstrations of contraception use?

The school system should provide responsible, age-appropriate sex education with the option for families to elect participation in accordance with their beliefs. If we truly want students to grow up informed and ready to make choices that keep them safe and healthy, we must provide a curriculum that is comprehensive and medically accurate. Discussion of sexual orientation and homosexuality should be included. We know that combating prejudice and bullying targeted at students who are ‘‘different” by virtue of being gay requires education. By including information about sexual orientation in the health curriculum, we will foster an environment of greater tolerance in our schools.

Similarly, the video demonstration of condom use should be included in a comprehensive curriculum. Condoms are the only form of birth control that can prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The number one reason for condom failure is improper use. In 2004, at the request of health teachers, MCPS piloted a condom use demonstration video in three high schools, designed to present information in a way that would hold students' attention. The response was overwhelmingly positive. If we are serious about protecting our students' health and giving them access to information about how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections, HIV⁄AIDS and unintended pregnancies, we should include the demonstration in our instruction.

What do you think about the board's relationship with the community?

It needs improvement. We do not serve the interests of our students unless we can create true partnerships between the Board and our community built upon the recognition that we share mutual goals for children. Members of the Board of Education are elected to represent the community. That role can only be fulfilled by listening to parents, guardians, teachers and other education activists. We also need to reach out to the members of the community who have been under-represented in the process, particularly the more than 25% of families that come to us from nations around the world. As a first generation American, I understand the difficulties immigrant families face in navigating the school system, and appreciate the extra effort required to welcome these families.

As a member of the Board I would work to strengthen the Board's outreach to the community through more open and more frequent interaction. Outreach and building connections has been my strength in many years of advocacy for children. I have the skills to listen to the diverse voices in our community and to work collaboratively to meet our goals. As part of my campaign, I am visiting schools in every cluster to talk with principals, teachers, parents and students to develop connections with each of the local communities and learn first-hand of their unique needs. To date, I have visited schools in 18 of the 25 clusters. If elected, I will continue these visits as a member of the Board.

Does the County Council have too much, too little or not enough oversight of the school system?

The County Council has an appropriate level of oversight over the school budget. In its role as the funding authority, the Council should ensure that county monies allocated to the schools are well-directed and achieving the intended learning results. As fiscal guardian, the Council should be entitled to question and study the merits of how money is spent. This year the Council added positions for two budget analysts to work exclusively on the MCPS budget, which is rapidly approaching the $2 billion mark. This oversight is warranted. Yet, at the same time, the Council cannot and should not substitute its judgment on matters such as policy and administration which are within the school board's responsibilities.

What should the school system do to improve performance by minority students?

If there were easy answers, we would have solved the problem by now. The first step is to acknowledge the scope of the problem. We must be candid about the ongoing achievement gap in minority student performance and examine it school by school, class by class, and student by student to determine where there are obstacles so that we can work to overcome them. Recent reporting on high school students who need extra help in reading shows that minority students are more likely to lack strong reading skills than their peers. The school system must continue to search for better and more effective literacy interventions. All teachers should have access to training and support to bolster literacy instruction - in every subject including science, social studies and math - so that students practice reading at every opportunity.

Other critical steps for the school system will be to:

oensure high expectations for all students regardless of race and culture;

osupport multicultural training for teachers and staff to make classroom instruction relevant to all students;

oestablish greater connections through mentoring of minority students to guide and encourage success;

ocontinue to remove barriers and provide motivated students the support to seek out advanced course work;

owork to increase the time available for instruction by extending learning opportunities before and after school to help students catch up and keep up; and

oredouble efforts to engage minority parents and guardians in supporting student success.

Do you think the school system is doing enough to meet the needs of special education students?

While MCPS serves many special education students well, the school system still lacks a full continuum of resource options to meet the diverse need. Special education students include a broad spectrum of disabilities. We should make sure that students all across the spectrum have choices and that those capable of taking higher level courses, with accommodations, are able to do so. In addition, we should expand the hours-based staffing model being piloted this fall at Forest Oak and Silver Spring International, which allocates teacher resources based upon the services students need rather than simply based upon numbers of students. Hours-based staffing allows for a better fit between actual need and staff allocation.

As MCPS moves toward greater inclusion of special education students in the general education classrooms, the school system must provide classroom teachers with appropriate training and support to ensure that all children will be successful. Most importantly, MCPS needs to change the way it determines class sizes for inclusion classes. Currently, MCPS does not ‘‘count” special education students as members of an inclusion class when it determines class size because special education staffing is computed separately from regular education staffing. As a result, inclusion classrooms may end up with larger class size than non-inclusion classrooms. This is unacceptable.

Finally, more training is also required to ensure that special education students are not punished for behaviors that are not willful. Teachers, paraeducators and bus drivers who work with special education students should be given better and more training so that they are prepared to support children and care for them without the need to resort to excessive restraint.

Are the schools safe for students and teachers? If not, what should be done?

Tragedy has forced our awareness that schools are not always immune from violence. To better ensure the physical safety of teachers and students will take a community effort. First, many of our older school buildings offer ready access through doors which cannot be locked or monitored from a central location, and most of our portables lack a connection to the school's main communication system. These needs must be addressed through new technologies. Second, parent and community supervision of sporting events at schools along with increased police resources can enhance the safety of our students. Third, we must engage school communities in dialogue about safety risks (through programs like Study Circles) to acknowledge the threat of gangs and the increased presence of knives in school. Solutions will involve better use of our buildings as after school community centers where we offer safe extracurricular activities. Finally, we must continue to encourage and promote programs like Project Change which focuses on ending bullying and changing patterns of interaction that, left unaddressed, often escalate to violence.

To be truly safe, however, our schools must not only protect the physical safety of teachers and students but also their health and well-being. We owe it to our teachers and students to provide education in buildings which are ‘‘safe” from lead in the water and mold in the walls. We must be vigilant in the inspection and condemnation of buildings and portables which do not meet standards for protecting the health of our teachers and students.