League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area Education Fund
Hamilton, Butler County, OH November 5, 2013 Election
	Michael Harlow Answers Questions Candidate for Member of Board of Education; Northwest Local School District

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What are your qualifications for office?

I am an experienced public policy professional who has worked to build support for education reforms in public school districts across Ohio. I have seen what works and what does not work.

2. What can be done to improve your school district's results at current funding levels?

The new report cards issued by the Ohio Department of Education show that Northwest has a lot of ground to make up. The district's performance index score is lower than Norwood and Deer Park. It will be a challenge to improve but it will only come from commitment from all involved, not from a top-down directive. Improving our education is like improving our diet: most of the plans will work but they all require commitment in order to be successful.

3. What will you do to build consensus in the community in support of your school district?

The base needs to be broadened in order to build true community support for the Northwest School District. There are businesses, community leaders and parents who will unconditionally support the schools but the current track record of the district requires that other stakeholders need to have a seat at the table and be able to speak freely about the condition of the district, the performance of its graduates, and the satisfaction of its parents.

4. What would you do to advance the concept of "equity in education" in your district?

Equity in education is vitally important for all of us.

We have a great deal of work to do in equity at Northwest. A report from the Ohio School Boards Association shows a strong correlation between poverty and performance index scores on the report card. No one should be surprised by that. However, Northwest is being left behind. Among Southwest Ohio districts, Northwest ranks 41st in low poverty but 51st in performance index. Other factors such as income and degree attainment also affect student performance. Here, Northwest does even worse, ranking 19th in district adults with college degrees, and 27th in household income, but 51st in performance. We are behind the curve, so to speak, in terms of performance.

There are many good examples of schools which have been able to turn around its performance through a thorough commitment to excellence that involves all participants. Equity means that a student who is at Northwest has the same opportunity to succeed in life that a student from the highest-performing districts do.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 1, 2013 11:43
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