Sharyl Allen for State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Republican
By Denise Rivette
Montana Independent News posed the same four questions to all candidates in the Montana superintendent of public instruction. Republican Sharyl Allen’s views are presented in their entirety below.
What are the Montana values that will guide your decision-making?
What skills, knowledge, and experience do you possess that make you the better candidate?
Skills: Policy Development, Design and implementation of school models, Thorough understanding of school finance, Leadership, Steadfastness, Visioning, Resilience
Knowledge in Action: I fight for parental rights and student rights. I am the only candidate who has built a school based on the Constitutional promise of an education system that fulfills the full education potential of each student. The school operates in our state with 20 years of student success. I am the candidate the legislators and industry came to for help in building school partnerships – as a result of our work, we have flourishing industry partnerships today. I am the only candidate who has made the initial vision of through-year assessments, a common-sense approach to student testing being implemented statewide in the fall of 2024, and comprehends the power of through-year assessments as a game-changer for student learning. I am the only candidate who brought together a think tank on Teacher Residency as a Recruitment and Retention model – that, after one year, got funded by the legislature via bill passage and has been named as a model practice by the Education Clearing House. I have a clear vision for the OPI and what support and service will look like in the field. I have over 20 years of experience with charter school initiatives and learning with founders like Seth Andrews (founder of Democracy Prep) and Mike Feinberg (co-founder of KIPP Schools). I am a change agent rather than a status quo person. I firmly believe that the factory model of education that we still perpetuate in our state and nation does not meet kids' needs. I am the only candidate who has consistently battled that embedded model. We need an experienced fighter who knows what setbacks are and still keeps fighting, someone who knows where the OPI is and what direction education is heading. We need a leader who will put first things first. That is the person who will battle for the hearts and minds of our kids, taking on the Cancel Cultures that are systematically indoctrinating the minds of our young children and the youth suicide rates of Montana.
What are your top priorities to address during your term if you are elected?
Teacher recruitment and retention
School funding
Relationship building – legislators, school district leaders, agencies, and associations
Student Mental Health
Rekindle the OPI's core purpose of serving the field
Data Modernization
Practical Implementation of ARM Revisions: (55 – Accreditation, 57 – Licensing, 56 – Assessment)
The Parent Rights and Roles
Celebrate Successes Statewide
What actions will you take to address those priorities?
Teacher recruitment and retention:
Because teacher retention requires multiple solution steps, here is a beginning list of solutions.
Expand the awareness and benefits of teacher residency so that when the cap of funding is hit and the evidence of success supports, the needed funding will be available. Residency leads to retention.
Work with stakeholders (university, districts, teachers, parents, businesses, associations) on a statewide initiative on the value of a teacher and being a teacher – one of the key reasons teachers leave.
Work on service from the OPI and reduce the burden of bureaucracy so teachers get back to their purpose: provide an excellent education for each child that enters their classroom – another reason teachers are leaving.
Remind parents of their responsibility to raise their children, not government and not government schools – another need expressed by teachers.
Work on a statewide salary schedule that complements or replaces The Teach Act.
Work with the Land Board on potential teacher housing solutions.
School Funding:
Simplify the funding formula with a model that ensures all students' learning equality.
Advocate for a change to the inflation factor through legislation. Having an inflation factor that addresses real inflation would be a step forward for public schools that still pay for the inflation effect on pricing yet rely on the local taxpayers and state government for funding.
Work to get the federal government out of State Education. The federal government has the power of the purse over requirements districts for testing, reporting, Title IX, special education requirements, standards, and more. I would advocate refusing federal funds and federal involvement in our education, a State Right: short term adjustments and long-term relief.
Relationship building – legislators, school district leaders, agencies, and associations
Legislators:
Build on current relationships with legislators and expand the network to more individuals elected to represent the people.
Listen and provide timely and transparent reports as requested.
Support their request for help on bills they may be writing, sponsoring, needing fiscal notes.
Be respectful of the roles and responsibilities.
Show up and speak directly to the questions truthfully.
School Leaders
January 2025 – Montana Association of School Superintendents meet monthly – ensure that the OPI has in-person representatives at every MASS meeting to listen to and gather the issues and concerns of our district superintendents with a follow-up in February with School Administrators Association (SAM) and board representatives, and present at their conferences on issues that need input and solutions. The OPI shows up in person every month to listen and provide support.
The initiatives at the OPI include representative voices from the field, higher education, parent groups, and others who have a stake in the success of K-12 education in Montana. We put our minds together to see what American Dream anchor pins we can create for Montana’s students.
Re-establish the Teacher and Leader Academies where learning and growing occur with school administrators, teachers, and others committed to student success.
Short, clear communications relevant to the different roles in schools.
Associations and Agencies
Rebuild the monthly gatherings at SAM where associations that support education and other vital stakeholders gather on bills, issues, needs, and support.
Timely communication to the folks for whom it is most relevant. Ensure our communication system can send text message alerts on critical deadlines, changes, etc.
Say please and thank you repeatedly when we request help and acknowledge it publicly.
Less talking – more Action.
Student Mental Health
The first step would be to duplicate the work in tribal communities of Students Rising, where students' voices, choices, and needs are heard as led by students and community elders.
The second would be focusing on flexibility for students through the proficiency-based learning model that has been available since the early 2000s in our state. Where students gain agency in their work and flexibility in learning, success follows, and the power of helplessness and lack of value/worth diminishes.
Third, we would support the implementation of successful work on student groups with properly trained staff members to lead where students who are facing different issues, addictions, eating disorders, loneliness, helplessness, lack of worth, etc., would gather weekly.
Fourth, we would learn about student developmental assets from Alaska and provide professional learning for every school district in the state. We would also know how moving from a deficit model with kids to an asset-based model shifts mental health.
OPI Rekindled Purpose
Within the first two weeks, there would be a statewide gathering of all OPI employees in person to rekindle the purpose and the work of each part and person of the agency.
Communication: Respond to the people – answer the phone and return emails and messages within 24 hours of receipt.
We are a serve the people model over a compliance model.
Align staff skills, knowledge, and passions to work that brings joy and satisfaction to the employees of the OPI.
Align the compensation model to the skills needed today for an agile, nimble service agency.
Data Modernization
Data Modernization has been challenging in the 23-24 school year. Lost faith in the reliability of data input and output, extraordinary hours by the field manually inputting data, and lack of clear communication of the outcomes.
The solution: Outsource data to those better skilled and equipped to handle large data and ensure that those who need the data get the data results to make informed decisions.
The OPI is not appropriately funded for the data demands, nor can it attract the market skill sets due to compensation limits.
Practical Implementation of ARM Revisions: (55 – Accreditation, 57 – Licensing, 56 – Assessment)
Chapter 55 – Accreditation 23-24 implementation has lacked a clear picture, a method of implementation in cycles of agility, and has caused more significant challenges for the field than before. The implementation is unreliable. Solutions include implementing accreditation cycles in an agile model or outsourcing accreditation of companies engaged in this work continually.
Chapter 57 – Educator Licensing: The data model at the OPI looks to be unsustainable. Outsourcing educator licensing to agencies that license professionals statewide with an effective and efficient system would make more sense.
Chapter 56 – Assessment: The primary purpose of Assessment is to serve learning. Accountability with Assessment and labels on students and schools is a federal government requirement. It is impossible to serve learning if student skills are unknown. Funding for Assessment is a state responsibility, yet the federal Department of Education provides the OPI’s current $3,000,000 budget for Assessment.
Solution:
Ensure the OPI budget for FY 25-27 includes the funding for state assessments: ACT, 3-8 standards assessment, 3-12 Science assessment of standards, and more…
Implement a growth model for Assessment, which measures each student against their learning = each individual’s growth, and then an overall classroom growth. Those needing “comparative” data, can measure classrooms to classrooms statewide.
The Parent and Family
The school and classroom should be an open environment for parents to connect to their child’s learning and the greater school community.
The parent should be seen as an equal partner in their child’s learning. The events that are offered for families should be tied to student learning. These are a few examples of parental engagement, whether it is publishing parties of student writing, math gatherings where students teach parents what they are learning, parents using their expertise to share their experiences, family history projects, or student exhibitions where parents come to be part of the classroom life.
The family connection to the classroom is an ongoing year-long process, and successful schools and classrooms see improvement in learning and a decrease in student disengagement. We should never forget that the family is a crucial institution in all societies.
The parent has inherent US Constitutional rights, and the Montana legislature has passed parental rights bills.
The parent is responsible for raising their child. It is a God-given responsibility and cannot be usurped by government or government schools.
Parents recognize there is a battle going on for the hearts and minds of their children and have begun to respond through choice motives: Espinoza vs. the MT Department of Revenue was fought to the US Supreme Court and won – giving parents the right to choose private religious schools with tax credit scholarships. Open Enrollment revisions in the 2023 MT Legislature give parents the right to choose a different public school that offers their child more learning opportunities than their local school, and the district of residence must pay tuition. Two charter school bills were passed in the 2023 legislature – the public school district charter bill is underway while the community choice charter is in court. Homeschool continues to be a valid option for thousands of Montana kids. Clearly, parents will determine their child’s education provider(s). While it may seem like a great challenge – it is also an excellent opportunity for new school partnerships.
Celebrate Successes Statewide
The OPI has a top media studio that has published numerous remarkable interest stories through digital media. Using this resource to its fullest, the stories of students, teachers, communities, and projects can come to life for all Montanans to celebrate their diverse and valuable successes. I would ensure the OPI media team is booked solid, capturing these stories from Montana communities and schools.