Basic Information
Email scott@fourpointeducation.com
Facebook Scott Joftus
Twitter ScottJoftus
Questions & Responses (All Candidates)
1 – What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
- In-person schooling is critical for the academic and social and emotional wellness of our students.
- Virtual learning taught us a number of innovative and successful approaches to instruction, family and community engagement, food security, and the importance of technology and wi-fi access.
- We cannot continue to deliver schooling in the same way as we did prior to the pandemic.
- High-quality communication is essential to maintaining the trust of and support from families and the broader community.
2 – If you could go back and do one thing differently from what was done in the last two years in Montgomery County what would you change?
I believe that MCPS should have created a “war room” focused on Covid response. We asked staff, educators, and administrators who are not trained in crisis management and communications to take on too many responsibilities that were outside their areas of expertise.
3 – What do you think are the 3 biggest and most pressing issues facing our county in the next 4 years? Why?
My top three priorities are as follows:
- Rebuild trust with the community through improved communication and stakeholder engagement
- Address the loss of learning due to COVID through expanded tutoring and extended learning opportunities (e.g., summer school, after school)
- Increase student and staff access to mental health supports.
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
My experience will aid me greatly in working collaboratively with stakeholders to achieve these priorities. I began my career as an elementary school teacher in under-resourced schools as a member of the first-ever corps of Teach for America. Later, I worked as an advocate for traditionally marginalized students and as a program evaluator and technical assistance provider for school boards and superintendents.
Eighteen years ago, I founded FourPoint Education Partners to help school boards and superintendents plan and implement strategies that foster inclusion, remove systemic barriers to student learning, and improve school quality. For example, as president of FourPoint, I worked with districts across the State of Kansas for five years and across the District of Columbia for four years to improve student outcomes in low-performing districts and schools. Feedback from stakeholders and evaluations conducted by graduate students from George Washington University found that our work contributed greatly to improved student performance and school quality. After several years of demonstrating results, I was invited to teach future education leaders and current Master’s-degree candidates at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education, where I have served as an adjunct professor for 12 years.
It takes committed leadership and proven strategies to ensure that all students have the opportunity and support they need to succeed. It takes listening to students and their families to ensure that everyone’s needs are being met by their schools. It takes a clear vision to ensure that our schools have long-lasting success.
I was honored to be selected to serve the Montgomery County community by completing the term of Pat O’Neill. I have seen firsthand how crucial a functioning, transparent school board is, and I believe that my skills and passion for this work will help to restore confidence in MCPS and the Board of Education if elected to a full term.
5 – Would you consider supporting changes to electoral process such as open primaries or non-partisan elections in Montgomery County to allow 155,000+ registered Unaffiliated/Independents in Montgomery County to vote locally when it counts?
Yes.
Questions & Responses (BOE)
1 – What will you do to ensure MCPS is accountable to the BOE for decisions, contracts, and spending?
I believe that that the Board of Education and administration, working together, should have two main objectives in order to ensure accountability. First, as I teach in my course on Education Leadership at GW’s Graduate School of Education, education leaders must work to foster “systemic coherence.” Systemic coherence means that systems, structures, and resources are aligned around a set of key goals. Without coherence, accountability is impossible because no one knows who is responsible for what.
Second, education leaders must establish and maintain a culture of continuous improvement using performance management. In this way, board members and administrators can track implementation of programs and spending and know the extent to which we are getting the desired results prior to there becoming a problem. Then, we can make course corrections that result in improved outcomes for all students.
2 – Would you ever consider going fully virtual again given the costs seen in hindsight (increased mental health issues, lowered test scores, and increased violence)?
Only as necessary, which is much less likely now that we have experience with virtual learning. Unless there is an extreme circumstance, I believe the approach that MCPS took beginning in January 2022 (shifting individual schools to virtual learning based on lack of staff capacity and/or dangerous levels of virus spread in the school community), should be the strategy going forward.
3 – Do you support the shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy/science of reading?
Not only do I support the shift—which started this year as a pilot in 10 schools—I have been working with Senator Van Hollen’s office to secure a $12 million earmark for the expansion and evaluation of structured literacy to all MCPS elementary schools.
4 – What is your plan for continued recovery from learning loss and proficiency issues related to covid and virtual?
- Expanding structured literacy to all elementary schools, while carefully monitoring implementation and impact (performance management), and bringing the Enriched Learning Curriculum to all elementary schools.
- Fostering coherence to ensure effective and coordinated central office supports for schools.
- Expanding access to mental health and social and emotional wellness supports by increasing salaries, investing in telehealth, and ensuring effective implementation of Wellness Centers.
- Expanding learning opportunities by investing in virtual tutoring and after school and summer tutoring.
- Increasing salaries for staff, educators, and administrators so that we have a highly qualified staff and providing incentives for the most effective teachers and principals to work in schools serving the highest concentrations of low-income students.
- Expanding access to preK for low-income students.
- Increasing the number of community schools, which provide “wrap-around” supports for students and their families.
5 – What do you think MCPS should do to deal with staffing issues, subs, and make MCPS a place that people seek out for employment again?
- Continue to increase salaries for staff, educators, and administrators.
- Improve school cultures through leadership development training and effective central office supports.
- Expand career pathways in middle and high schools and incentives for paraprofessionals working to become teachers.
- Pilot some alternative staffing initiatives (e.g., using technology to increase the number of students in some classrooms to free teachers’ time for collaboration, professional development, and planning)