Candidate for
Member; Contra Costa County Board of Education; Area 2

Forty years in education qualify me to serve on the Contra Costa County Board of Education. I have worked at all levels of education-- elementary through graduate school-- in public and private institutions, in the suburbs and the city, as a practitioner, a program administrator, a faculty member at several universities, and a researcher. I have held a variety of positions in education, ranging from a K-12 teacher, community college instructor, tenured university professor, program administrator, curriculum developer, and education consultant.

I have extensive experience conducting educational research. In order to support my own research I have secured more than a million dollars in educational research grants from private organizations such as The Carnegie Corporation, The Spencer Foundation, and government agencies such as OERI under its Field Initiated Program and The National Science Foundation under its Small Grants Initiative Program. I have also served as a proposal reviewer for private and government competitive grant programs, including the Spencer Major Grants Program, Department of Education, The National Science Foundation, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

During the 200-2001 year, I was an Office of Education Research and Improvement (OERI) Fellow and spent the year working in The National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum and Assessment in Washington, DC where I worked along side appointed employees and career employees. In this capacity, I learned a lot about the federal grants programs including the criteria that are used to evaluate proposals submitted to the Department of Education for funding.

I have consulted with universities, school districts, public and private organizations, served on national and state level advisory boards, several specifically related to improving the educational outcomes for students of color. I have also written policy papers, been a reviewer for Race to the Top Initiative, served on several task forces of the National Board of Professional Development Teaching Standards (NBPTS) including the group that evaluated the trial run of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certificate in English Language Arts/Early Adolescence held at Stanford University and two groups charged with looking at possible sources of adverse impact of the certification process on linguistically and ethnically diverse NBPTS candidates.

I have devoted efforts to working on closing the achievement gap through my work at the federal level with the National Education Association and at the state level as Chair of the African American Research Working Group University of California organized by the Office of the President and as Chair of the University of California--Board of Regents Task Force on the Education of African Americans during the 2000-2001 academic year.

All of these experiences-- working as a practitioner in various educational settings, securing research monies, reviewing proposals and making recommendations for funding, conducting research, applying research to educational setting, and serving on policy making boards at the state and national level--have given me both the experience as well as a deep understanding of the educational issues currently facing the State and County.

I believe I have the qualifications, background, and experience to continue to be an engaged and productive member of the Contra Costa and ask for your support and vote in the 2 November 2010 election.