Tadlock to champion STEM fields
By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
The start of a new school year is an exciting time for a community like Elkhorn as the patterns and rhythms of the classroom replace overnight those of the summer.
Having a little trouble sleeping the night before the first day of school isn’t surprising for a bright-eyed 4-year-old kindergartner eager to make new friends, a dad whose last of three children is starting her senior year, an elementary school teacher starting the final year of a career spanning 35 years, or a local merchant, himself a graduate of the local high school, who knows kids will be stopping in his business on their walk home after school.
And Jason Tadlock, the new district administrator for the Elkhorn Area School District, probably won’t be immune from that night-before excitement either.
Tadlock replaces Greg Wescott as chief school administrator for the Elkhorn schools.
Tadlock has spent more than two decades working in a variety of educational settings as a youth counselor (1991-2001), a Spanish teacher, a talented and gifted education program coordinator (Webster School District, 2001-05), a middle/high school principal (New Glarus School District, 2006-10) and, most recently, the superintendent-business manager for the Wheatland J1 District in Burlington. Complementing his work in schools, Tadlock has also served on state level committees and as a consultant specializing in program assessment.
Tadlock’s interest in education goes back to his own days as a student.
“I’ve always had an interest in education,” Tadlock said, “because my father is an educator.”
Tadlock recalls hearing speakers and attending sessions organized by his father, Martin Tadlock, when he served as chair of the Middle Level Education Team at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Martin now serves as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Bemidji State University.
Two years of serving in a volunteer mission in El Salvador that included teaching English for community classes at night sealed the deal for Jason Tadlock’s career as an educator.
“I was very fortunate to have a father who helped guide me,” he said.
Thanks to his father’s influence, Tadlock learned early on the importance of understanding schools from a variety of perspectives that led him to work as a recess aide and in school food service.
“I made a conscious effort,” Tadlock said, “to take positions or opportunities that would better me as a teacher and which have also helped me as an administrator.”
Tadlock even qualified for a school bus driver’s license, a useful skill for an administrator in a small school district like Wheatland.
Tadlock thoroughly enjoyed his four years as a Spanish teacher, the coordinator for gifted and talented learning, and a coach in the Webster School District.
Still, he admits, “I was really interested in getting into the principalship and leadership roles.” After earning his first of two degrees in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 2005, Tadlock accepted the position of principal at New Glarus Middle/High School in 2006.
The value of Tadlock’s various experiences in educational settings became clear when he became the superintendent-business manager for Wheatland.
“In a small district like that,” Tadlock commented, “you wear a lot of different hats” and need to be a “jack of all trades.”
Tadlock was drawn to the Elkhorn Area School District for several reasons, many of them learned during consultant work with the district on using assessment data to improve student achievement.
“Elkhorn has a great number of things that made me interested in Elkhorn,” Tadlock said, including “beautiful facilities and a very supportive community.”
Observing that “school boards make or break the superintendency,” Tadlock said that the Elkhorn Area School District “had a great reputation.”
Tadlock has taken several steps to get to know the Elkhorn Area School District, starting with a survey that was sent out to gather information for all district employees at the end of the 2012-13 school year.
A similar survey will be available on the district website (www.elkhorn.k12.wi.us) for parents, community members and stakeholders.
“I also want to know from community members who have gone to school here 30 years ago, what their thoughts are and what are the traditions that need to be preserved,” Tadlock said.
Tadlock has completed face-to-face interviews with all the principals and directors.
“Eventually I plan to have one-on-one meetings with the different community leaders, the city administrators, and police and fire department leaders to gather input and feedback,” he said.
Describing himself as “very passionate” about creating technology-rich learning environments for students, Tadlock has been pleased to discover a shared vision in Elkhorn regarding educational technology and “very positive momentum or recognition that we want to move forward in this direction toward providing more access and opportunities to our kids as it relates to technology, tools and resources.”
Tadlock is currently working with the district’s administrative team in developing a shared vision for a three to five year plan to present to the school board after first getting some stakeholder involvement.
“My hope is that within the first month or two of the school year we’ll have a three to five year plan laid out on where we’re going, what our target is and the steps of how we’re going to get there.”
Tadlock’s goal is to build on and refine the district’s current strategic plan with a focus on quantitative indicators to show the progress being made in reaching targets.
“Raising the academic rigor and overall student performance of our students will be a key focus,” Tadlock said.
“I want us to have our student achievement at a level where it’s creating access and opportunities for our students,” he continued. “In a quantitative format I feel that means seeing our average ACT score at 24.”
Equally important for Tadlock is maximizing student academic growth “to see our students progressing at as high a level as they possibly can.”
“I feel a lot of school structures as traditionally established sometimes can put a ceiling on what kids are capable of and I’d like to see that ceiling lifted and really provide opportunities for all students to grow.”
Tadlock also links positive student growth to participation in co-curricular activities–programs or out-of-class activities which provide curriculum-related learning and character building experiences. Co-curricular activities are voluntary, not part of the regular school curriculum, are not graded and do not earn credits toward graduation.
Tadlock said, “I’d like to see each and every one of our students involved in at least one co-curricular activity in the school district. I think when they do that they’re engaged, they have positive life experiences, they can identify with a group or an organization and they feel connected to the school.”
Tadlock views educational technology integration with teaching and learning as an ongoing challenge and aims for Elkhorn to be a “leader in technology integration and STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education.”
Tadlock hopes that “in a very short time frame” the technical schools and universities enrolling students from Elkhorn will say, “Wow, these kids are really well prepared and they have the background and the skills needed to help support their peers that are around them.”
With respect to school facilities, Tadlock said “we are at a spot where Tibbets Elementary and West Side have inadequate core space, meaning they don’t have [adequate] cafeteria, commons, gym space.” These needs, Tadlock said, can probably be addressed by modifications or additions to the existing school structures.
Commenting that the district’s enrollment has plateaued during the last couple years, Tadlock added that “if our population grows, say one of these planned subdivisions were to start building right away, we would need to be looking at adding an additional building I would think.”
Of more immediate interest in the upcoming school year, Tadlock cited finalizing the district’s “Response to Intervention” (RTI) plan.
In education, RTI is a method of academic intervention used to provide early, systematic assistance to children who are having difficulty learning. RTI seeks to prevent academic failure through early intervention, frequent progress measurement, and increasingly intensive research-based instructional interventions for children who continue to have difficulty.
During 2013-14 the Elkhorn Area School District will participate in the second pilot year of a statewide transition to the Wisconsin Educator Effectiveness System, a new evaluation system for teachers and principals. The system, based on professional performance and student achievement, will go into effect during 2014-15 and Tadlock believes it will provide teachers with “continuing, ongoing feedback” and “constructive, open and honest communication.”
Asked for a good way to judge the success of a school district like Elkhorn’s, Tadlock said “First and foremost, we are a customer service oriented business so we’ve got to have our parents and student happy and satisfied with what we’re doing, regardless how high students are achieving or all those other positive outcomes.”
“I think we need to have very positive community support and parent perception,” Tadlock said. “I would like to see 90 percent or greater customer satisfaction, or parent satisfaction, with the district,”
Given his preparation and experience as a school business manager, it is not surprising that Tadlock said, “I firmly believe you have to operate a school like a business.”
As an example, Tadlock suggested that cutting an athletic program to save $2,000 may prove to be far more costly to the school district over the long haul if even a handful of parents take advantage of the Open Enrollment program in Wisconsin to move their children – and as a result the state funding for their education–to a neighboring school district where that athletic program is available.
Readily describing himself as a “problem solver,” Tadlock looks forward to opportunities in Elkhorn to “sit down, think, really carry something through and do it well.”
That Tadlock welcomes input from the community is clearly evident in the upcoming recertification of Elkhorn’s participation in “Project Lead the Way,” the leading provider of rigorous and innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] education curricular programs used in middle and high schools across the U.S.
As part of recertification, Tadlock said “We’ve got to reach out with our community businesses and industries that are related to the STEM field, bring in local experts to evaluate our program and our students’ work. Get them actually involved in real meaningful, impactful work that can shape that program so that we can improve it, make sure it’s on track, and moving forward.”
“I think that getting people involved in that meaningful, actual hands-on shaping of what you’re working on is very critical.”
