Where a child attends school is not reflective of anything other than a rich environment that this community must embrace and collaborate around. Many positive things are occurring at Medford Public Schools and as a school committee representative, I would look to expand on many of these positive aspects of education in Medford. How we market our school and programs is important both inside Medford and outside Medford. Education is about learning from your mistakes. Medford, as with anyone, can learn from others in their educational practices and in the vision for a successful and manageable central administration and operations function. The recent DOE Coordinated Review indicated that Medford School Administration must look to expand its data collection on targeted sub-groups. MCAS testing is the focal point but as statistics provided by both the DOE and SPEDWATCH showed troubled data and missed data must be better collected and maintained. Medford teachers and staff work very hard and ensuring our children are receiving the best education as a means to be successful. By ensuring that faculty and staff have the appropriate tools to educate and prepare for the school curriculum would be my short term and long range goals. As a teacher, you must prepare a speech and coursework five (5) days a week, six (6) hours a day for 180 days. Sometimes the audience isn't interested or is not motivated by the topic or presentation. We must not only motivate the child into understanding that they have the ability to learn, but we must continue to motivate teachers with the understanding that they can also teach every child. Education is about learning and teamwork. We will do better.
