About Walt – FAQ
FAQ – Personal
Why did you choose Troy when you moved to the Detroit Metro area?
Like most Troy families, we prioritized public safety, school quality, and raising our child in a multicultural community when searching for a house. We were fortunate to find a house that was perfect for us in Troy.
What did you do before educational research?
Halfway through college, I took a break from my studies to better figure out what I wanted to do professionally before committing more time and money into my higher education. I joined a small educational company called the Institute of Reading Development in Novato, CA as an Accounts Payable Administrator.
After returning to college to finish my Bachelor’s, I got a job as a Purchasing Agent for an electrical contractor in Sacramento, CA where I worked for a little over three years before the Great Recession.
Why didn’t you finish your PhD Education Policy?
When I left MSU in Spring 2015, it was because I was really attracted to Excellent Schools Detroit (ESD)’s mission to improving the city’s educational ecosystem. By that time, I had decided that I wanted to not stay in academia and being Data and Research Manager for ESD allowed me an opportunity to make a career pivot to the non-profit sector.
While I value educational credentials, my experience has shown I do not need a PhD credential to make an impact on improving education, which is really what I went to MSU as a doctoral student to learn how to do.
What is your experience in research of early literacy?
My first foray into early literacy data and research was about 10 years ago and it involved helping a (then) small local nonprofit startup establish an assessment and data system that could be used to monitor progress and demonstrate effectiveness to funders. On the recommendation of a friend from graduate school who was literacy expert, we landed on an assessment called DIBELS, which is primarily used as a dyslexia screener. So not exactly the benchmark assessment that we wanted, but it served useful purposes. We could not use a more sophisticated tool because of resource constraints and also volunteers needed to be able to administer it with fidelity without a lot of training. This nonprofit grew from a budget of $150,000 in 2015 to a $11,000,000 organization today.
While I was working at what became known as Detroit PEER at Wayne State University’s College of Education (2019-22), I helped design and conduct a program evaluation for a different local nonprofit dedicated to improving early literacy in Detroit. That provided insight into how curricula could be adapted and implemented in a variety of ways that differed from design.
Finally, at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, I designed, conducted, and managed several major program evaluations of various literacy initiatives. These include leveraging advanced econometric techniques to yield causal estimates so that you can go beyond correlation and evaluation causation. And generally what I’ve found is that the Science of Reading improves early literacy outcomes.
FAQ – Local Policies
What was your position on the “Keep Troy Honors” recall in Summer 2023?
I am in favor of restoring Middle School Honors. Specifically, I believe that differentiated instruction in mathematics at middle school and above is in the best interests of all students. A school system should close achievement gaps by raising floors, not lowering ceilings. Research has found that engagement requires a match of challenge and skill. While it may have been well-intentioned, the policy to eliminate middle school math honors does not serve the best interests of our students and should be reversed.
Personally, I did not sign the recall position. In my view, it is possible for two things to be simultaneously true:
- Elimination of Middle School Math Honors was the wrong curricular policy decision; however,
- The board members who voted for it should not be recalled as the time to hold them accountable for their decisions is their next election.
I will discuss my position on de-tracking in a future research brief. But very briefly, my interpretation of the academic literature is that differentiated instruction helps students at both ends of the ability spectrum (i.e., no one is made worse off); however, differentiated instruction benefits high-performing students to a greater extent than lower-performing students.
What was your position on the Attendance Area Review Committee in Fall 2024?
While I appreciate the board taking strong community feedback into consideration, at the end of the day they failed to actually achieve two of their three goals, which were:
- Goal 1: Right-size middle school with equal ratios (not achieved);
- Goal 2: Resolve double-splits (not achieved); and
- Goal 3: No impact on high schools (achieved).
I fully support TSD’s ambitions to reform feeder patterns to achieve greater operational efficiency. I suspect that this issue will need to be revisited again within the next six years and tough decisions will need to be made at that time. I do not have a specific counterproposal to share at this time, but if elected I will apply my education and experience to developing an actual solution to this problem rather than kicking the can down the road.
What was your position on the K-5 Writing curriculum in Spring 2025?
I have some concerns about Troy’s early literacy curriculum. However, although writing is certainly related to literacy, it is distinct in several key ways from a developmental standpoint. Therefore, while I was initially skeptical, I gradually grew to become agnostic towards the K-5 Writing curriculum. I also have questions about the data critics cited. Specifically, I do not believe that TSD’s 3rd Grade ELA M-STEP scores necessarily provide clear evidence of an ineffective writing curriculum. Please see Research Brief #1 on the subject for further details on why I believe what we are seeing is actually a consequence of higher chronic absenteeism rather than a consequence of bad curriculum.
What was your position on the consolidation of the Theater programs at Athens High School and Troy High School for 2025-26?
I was disappointed on behalf of the students for this outcome. However, master scheduling is squarely in the domain of the administration. Although I privately suggested a compromise to the administration–two casts–I would not have pushed the issue if I had been on the board.
What is your position on the proposed countywide enhancement millage in Summer 2026?
I enthusiastically support the August 2026 1.5 mil enhancement millage.
If passed, the 1.5 mil enhancement millage is projected to an average of $781 per student per year for six according to TSD’s presentation at the Tuesday, 02/03/26 board workshop. This new revenue is absolutely essential for maintaining present levels of programming and staffing. If it does not pass, the cuts will be significant and felt at the school-level. Laying off teachers is the only way to achieve reducing a budget deficit of this scale ($6 million as of January 2026).
In all transparency, I do have some misgivings on equity grounds: if passed, this enhancement millage will provide Oakland County districts with an additional advantage over other counties in the Detroit Metro region. I have devoted my career to promoting equity in educational opportunity in Michigan, specifically Detroit. I would prefer a statewide solution. However, that is not what is on the ballot. Therefore, we must pass this millage and then continue efforts to advocate for adequate and equitable funding.
How will you approach future policy questions such as the K-5 Literacy curriculum review over the next year?
If elected, I am deeply committed to ensuring TSD fully complies with the intent and spirit of Public Act 146 of 2024 (a.k.a., “the Dyslexia Law”). This legislation requires the district to transition to a new early literacy curriculum that is based in the Science of Reading. I will use what I have learned in my experience designing and implementing rigorous program evaluations of literacy interventions to ensure compliance with this important statewide priority of achieving universal literacy.
FAQ – State Policies
What is your position student-weighted funding?
I fully support implementing a student-weighted funding formula for the per pupil foundation allowance as recommended by the School Finance Research Collaborative’s adequacy studies. However, the state must increase the base foundation allowance to those levels.
As of the 2025-26 school year, the state has moved in the direction of student-weighted funding through significantly increasing the amount of a categorical grant based on enrollment of at-risk students (Section 31a). That is a good thing. However, while the base per pupil foundation allowance has increased, it has only kept up with inflation.
TSD is neither adequately or equitably funded. The state actually collects sufficient revenue; however, they allocate a significant portion to higher education, which was not the intent of Proposal A and subsequent amendments to the Michigan constitution to ensure adequate funding of K-12 education. Therefore, a priority for the next governor must be find a way to end encroachment of higher education into the School Aid Fund.
Are you a Democrat or a Republican?
In nearly all elections, I have voted for the Democratic candidates. I self-identify as a center-left moderate and agree with the New Democrat Coalition’s platform on most K-12 educational issues.
On issues of education policy, I am informed primarily by my doctoral training at MSU as an economist of education as well as my many experiences in Detroit over the past decade. I am a tireless advocate for educational equity, with particular focus towards racial justice and I advocate strongly and unapologetically for additional resources for K-12 education. Michigan has a broken K-12 education finance system and it is neither adequate or equitable. If elected to serve on the TSD school board, I will do whatever I can to enact the recommendations of the School Finance Research Collaborative as well as the Michigan Special Education Finance Blueprint.