WCRIS Board of Directors meets with Superintendent Stanford Taylor
The WCRIS Board of Directors met with the Department of Public Instruction Superintendent (DPI) Carolyn Stanford Taylor on Sept 13 to hear issues of concern from the state’s private K-12 schools and identify areas of common ground to improve education for all of the state’s students.
Superintendent Stanford Taylor was appointed to her post in January by Gov. Tony Evers, who left the superintendency after winning the governorship. Stanford Taylor is a 17-year veteran of the DPI, and formerly served as a Madison Public School District principal and classroom teacher.
At the WCRIS meeting, Stanford Taylor expressed gratitude for the DPI partnership with WCRIS, and expressed willingness to build on the collaborative work we began with former Superintendent Evers.
As a result of that collaboration, many good things have been accomplished. For example:
- non-Choice private schools now get access to the Forward exam for $37 per student, instead of the previous price of $50;
- the DPI has contracted with WCRIS to provide the Private School Ombudsman duties that are federally-mandated by the Every Student Succeeds Act; and
- the DPI has supported legislative changes to the teacher licensure system to better recognize private school teaching experience.
As the Superintendent and the WCRIS Board looked to the future, they identified several areas of potential improvement.
One of them was internet access for rural schools. Both public and private school children need online access and can’t get it. They agreed to look for opportunities to work together to encourage improvement in that area.
