Alka Tyle: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: NapervilleWebsite: http://www.alkatyle.com (under construction)Office sought: Indian Prairie Unit D204Age: 47Family: Married, two children. Son is freshman in college, daughter in 6th grade.Occupation: Homemaker, TutorEducation: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 1986Master of Science in Computer Science, Rutgers University, NJ, 1992Civic involvement: -Director, Indian Prairie Education Foundation-Director at Large, IL Assoc of School Boards DuPage Division-Coordinator, 204 STEM Parents Group-Advisory Board, Junior Science Humanities Symposium, at Loyola Univeristy, Chicago-Board Liaison, 204 ParElected offices held: Vice President, Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education, Aurora, IL, 2007-PresentHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Economies today are driven by scientific, technological, and engineering solutions and innovation, and todayacute;s students will drive tomorrowacute;s economy. We need to make STEM education at all grade levels a priority and ensure we allocate resources accordingly. Even non-STEM careers today require the kind of quantitative and qualitative skills that STEM education teaches, in addition to the 4 Cacute;s of 21st century skills #8211; communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. We have taken a few important steps by appointing five STEM coordinators this year, and promoting middle school science fairs, but there is plenty left to do. Professional Development in STEM subjects is an important area. Math is the language of science and according to the latest research, the majority of our students need to finish Algebra I before entering high school. With the introduction of the pre-engineering program PLTW (Project Lead The Way) in high school, we will need resources to upgrade our labs with the necessary equipment and tools to be able to deliver the capstone course in a few years. Students wishing to do research will need us to extend the science curriculum by adding a research course, and upgrade our current science labs so they can support the three main areas of future research #8211; biotechnology, nanotechnology, and alternative energy, along with the traditional areas of science and engineering.Key Issue 2 I strongly believe what gets measured gets improved. To increase accountability, we need to continue to promote the growing culture of collaboration internally, as well as continue to sharpen and refine our measurement tools and performance indicators. Quality principals are no less important than quality teachers. A quality student information system, which we hope to acquire in the near future, will provide fresh and new ways of disaggregating and analyzing student data and informing instruction. We also need to continue to improve the alignment of resources with district goals by setting priorities, dropping what isnacute;t working, and delaying lower priority items. There are a lot of good reasons to do a lot of things, but focus is more important.Key Issue 3 The needs of our students of all ability levels are growing and changing as rapidly as the resources needed to meet those needs appear to be shrinking. This problem will continue to grow unless alternate sources of revenue and funding are identified and pursued. The district is actively seeking partnerships and grant opportunities, with some success. We need to work harder to leverage the enormous resources in our community, not the least of which is the intellectual capital of the parents and non-parents in the area. Perhaps we could find a way for some of the unemployed residents of our community to share their knowledge and talents with our students. In addition, a rather underutilized resource is our alumni. The role of the non-profit Indian Prairie Education Foundation, parents, professional organizations, foundations, universities, and businesses has never been more important than it is today. In parallel, we also need to continue to seek operational, staffing, and program efficiencies while minimizing the impact on students in the classroom.Questions Answers Do you support retaining teacher tenure rules that make it nearly impossible to fire teachers?I support introducing standards that teachers are required to meet to gain and maintain tenure. The problem of poor performing teachers is not with tenure itself, but with the absence of standards and criteria for granting and maintaining tenure. Good principals that ensure quality teacher observations and evaluations are important to this process. Additionally, tenure protects teachers from being fired for reasons unrelated to educational progress such are religious and political views, use of non-traditional methods to attain student success, and costing more than teachers with less experience. There is no silver bullet to resolve the education debate. Finland, where schools rank #1 in global surveys, has unions, tenure, and performance incentives. It also has national standards, high expectations of teachers, and a national commitment to funding education at the K-12 and undergraduate levels. Do you support merit pay for teachers?There is considerable debate going on about performance based compensation. The success of this country is based upon rewarding hard work and results. Clearly, we should not reward failure. We need to tie compensation more directly to factors closely related to student success. Studies have shown that there is no significant positive impact of graduate degrees on student performance. Performance based compensation will benefit effective teachers and reduce turnover whereas less effective teachers will be more likely to leave. It will also attract talented candidates. Another benefit would be an increase in applicants for math and science teachers where the supply is generally low. However, this alone is unlikely to produce desired results without mentoring and professional development. Other factors to consider, including others, in exchange for a uml;rewarduml; are additional responsibility, teaching at high poverty schools, and teaching subjects with a teacher shortage. Because of the complexity of the criteria involved, it would be best to form a committee of all stakeholders to research the issue and survey teachers and state laws relating to the issue before making recommendations. Teacher evaluators would need to be trained and other costs of implementing the program ascertained. It would be best to research different programs to find the best one that districts could then use to tailor to their individual needs.The district is trying to reconnect with the community and regain its trust through open communication and more transparency. Is that mission being accomplished?The 2010 community survey clearly showed that the districtacute;s increased commitment to transparency and communication is being well received. The newly launched 204tv.org and BoardDocs provide easy access to board meeting videos and documents. A separate area was created last year to post all the budget and austerity plan documents and information. The district just launched a Twitter feed. During the H1N1 crisis last year, information was posted on the website for easy access. Our superintendent, Dr. Birkett is on her world tour of faculty meetings this year, following the world tour of PTAs last year. A new board goals section will contain updates and reports from board meetings on all the goals and their measurement criteria. I hope we can continue to leverage new technologies and tools to make communication even more timely and relevant. We need to reach out more to groups where there is potential for growth, such as non-parents and subgroups that are not as engaged as they could be.What budget issues will the district have to confront? What measures do you support to address them? If cuts are needed, be specific about programs and expenses that should be reduced or eliminated. Do you support any tax increases for local schools?The issues with the potential for the greatest impact on the budget are the likelihood of a delay of up to 2 or 3 quarters worth of general state aid payments ($8.7M or more) this year. Cuts in categoricals would also impact the budget. At the same time, areas such as technology, building maintenance, dual language, and common core alignment need funding, especially after the cuts last year. The state legislature did not approve the $8.7B in bonds which means it will take the state 8 years to get caught up on all the payments it currently owes. The tax increase has helped but will not eliminate the need to further reduce operational, staffing, and program costs, if necessary, in areas of least impact to the classroom. It is still early to say, but cuts in support services (that minimize effect on services) and an increase in fees that were not impacted last year could be potential areas for consideration. At this time I do not support a tax increase for local schools.How satisfied are you that your district is preparing students for the next stage in their lives, whether it be from elementary into high school or high school into college or full-time employment? What changes, if any, do you think need to be made?The challenges students face during each transition are different from the previous one. The transition from elementary to middle appears to be relatively smooth for most students compared to the other two transitions. The transition from middle to high school will hopefully become easier for more students starting with those who were in 6th grade when the new middle school schedule was introduced last year. Still, it would be beneficial for our eighth graders to take final exams as a practice run for high school. They would benefit from visits to local colleges to get a taste of the college and career issues to come. Inviting high school students to come and mentor middle school students a few times a year could be a win-win for all students. The anxiety associated with transitioning from high school to college can never be eliminated, but it can be eased by helping students and their parents get started on the college application and career planning process in the freshman year itself. The professional learning communities at the high schools are proving to be effective in creating small communities inside the large schools. The learning resource centers are providing the additional support that is often missing in large schools. Peer tutoring and peer mentoring programs have proven successful in other schools and may be worth giving a try in 204. No matter what the age, teaching problem solving and communication skills, and providing opportunities to apply them go a long way in overcoming challenges, whether they are academic, social, or emotional.