My name is Walt Cook and I will be running for a seat on the Troy School Board in November 2026!

If you are interested in education policy within Troy, please consider following this blog for my thoughts on events as they happen as well as my priorities for helping the District improve if I am elected. Professionally, I try to objectively analyze data and make data-informed policy recommendations and that is exactly what I intend to do in this space.

Out the outset, I want to say that I love the Troy School District. Our 7-year old is a 1st grader at Hamilton and two years prior they were in the Troy School District’s Pre-K program (aka, Early 5’s, Transitional Kindergarten, etc.). Everyone with whom I have interacted–from my child’s teachers to Dr. Machesky and other senior district leaders–could not have been kinder to our family and supportive of our child. I am incredibly grateful for the privilege for our child to be educated in Troy.

Why am I running for Troy School Board?

I have a unique combination of education and experience that I think would be helpful to have on the Board of Education. Please read the About Walt page to get to better know my educational and professional backgrounds. Suffice to say, I am an education policy nerd at heart and want to apply my knowledge and analytical skills to make a positive impact in our community.

As great as the Troy School District is today, I honestly think that we can do a bit better. Why do I say that? Because not too long ago we were. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened and, simply put, Troy has not fully recovered. That is not meant as personal criticism of the current board or staff; rather, I just think we can do better and want to contribute what I can to fully realize our potential.

Here is some data from MISchoolData.org, a state of Michigan website: back in 2018-19, Troy ranked 7th in the state on 3rd grade ELA, 4th on 8th grade Math, and 5th on 11th grade College Readiness among traditional public school districts in the state with 50 or more assessed students. As of 2024-25, Troy is now ranked 13th, 11th, and 9th, respectively. Educational research has identified 3rd grade ELA, 8th grade Math, and 11th grade College Readiness as key milestones for student success and these measures have been selected by the Michigan Department of Education to measure the progress of “at-risk” students. See Tables 1, 2, and 3 for a quick comparison of Troy to other peer districts in Oakland County.

Table 1: 3rd Grade ELA, 2018-19 vs 2024-25

	2018-19		2024-25		Change
District	3rd Grade ELA Proficiency	3rd Grade ELA Rank	3rd Grade ELA Proficiency	3rd Grade ELA Rank	Change Proficiency	Change Rank
Troy	74.0%	7	67.9%	12	-6.1	-5
Birmingham	70.3%	19	66.6%	15	-3.7	+4
Bloomfield Hills	68.9%	33	65.6%	17	-3.3	+16
Novi	70.1%	20	63.1%	23	-7.0	-3
Rochester	66.6%	44	61.6%	27	-5.0	+17

This table compares Troy to peer districts on 3rd grade ELA proficiency in 2018-19 versus 2024-25, including both the proficiency rates and the state rankings among traditional public schools with at least 50 assessed students.

Source: MISchoolData.org

Table 2: 8th Grade Math, 2018-19 vs 2024-25

	2018-19		2024-25		Change
District	8th Grade Math Proficiency	8th Grade Math Rank	8th Grade Math Proficiency	8th Grade Math Rank	Change Proficiency	Change Rank
Troy	75.1%	4	64.3%	11	-10.8	-7
Birmingham	67.7%	19	64.3%	10	-3.4	+9
Bloomfield Hills	68.1%	17	69.8%	5	+1.7	+12
Novi	75.9%	3	63.3%	14	-12.6	-11
Rochester	68.9%	15	60.4%	18	-8.5	-3

This table compares Troy to peer districts on 8th grade Math proficiency in 2018-19 versus 2024-25, including both the proficiency rates and the state rankings among traditional public schools with at least 50 assessed students.

Source: MISchoolData.org

Table 3: 11th Grade College Readiness, 2018-19 vs 2024-25

	2018-19		2024-25		Change
District	11th Grade Readiness Rate	11th Grade Readiness Rank	11th Grade Readiness Rate	11th Grade Readiness Rank	Change Readiness Rate	Change Rank
Troy	69.8%	4	59.3%	9	-10.5	-5
Birmingham	66.7%	7	57.9%	10	-8.8	-3
Bloomfield Hills	58.7%	24	55.7%	13	-3.0	+11
Novi	73.2%	1	62.7%	4	-10.5	-3
Rochester	64.7%	11	55.6%	14	-9.1	-3

This table compares Troy to peer districts on 11th grade College Readiness in 2018-19 versus 2024-25, including both the readiness rates and the state rankings among traditional public schools with at least 50 assessed students. College Readiness is defined by the state of Michigan as scoring a 480 or higher on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and a 530 or higher on the Mathematics sections of the SAT exam.

Source: MISchoolData.org

To be clear, I still consider Troy to be an elite school district and have no regrets about moving here. But Troy’s performance metrics have declined since the pandemic to a greater extent than our peer districts. While it is certainly true that learning was disrupted because of COVID during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 schools year, most of our peer districts have recovered or are well on the road to recovery. Troy continues to struggle to return to its pre-COVID levels of excellence. I will do what I can to help get us back on track–because that’s what our children deserve.

What can be done to address these achievement declines in Troy?

I have some ideas about what I think is behind these declines and what can be done to address them. So please stay tuned to this blog for that analysis for analyses on these and other issues.

In addition to blog posts, I will occasionally share “Research Briefs” that I have prepared for the board and other key stakeholders. These are original, independent deeper dives into issues than can fit in a blog post. Utilizing econometrics and other statistics as well as my domain knowledge to analyze educational data to inform the community and local leaders is what I do for a living, so I actually have some fun putting them together to inform my own thinking and support the board and district leadership’s decision-making.

Why am I launching this site now, so many months before the November 2026 election?

School board elections can be incredibly expensive. I frankly do not have $10,000 or more of my own money to spend on mailers, social media ads, yard signs, etc. So I am trying to generate name recognition for myself through expressing my thoughts on this site so that readers can get a chance to know me.

One of the challenges with electing people to office is that you never quite know what to expect if they do not have a track record as an elected official. I am trying to remove some of that uncertainty by providing my candid, real-time reactions to the events from now until the election as they happen in real-time. If you choose to read these posts, then you can get better acquainted with my approach to problems of practice and thought process for developing solutions.

What can you do to help?

At this point, if you are interested in supporting my campaign, please Like and Follow my campaign’s Facebook Page and follow me on Twitter (@walt4tsd). Or share word of this blog with your family and friends. And if you feel like I could be an asset to the Troy School Board, please consider a donation to help later this year with campaign literature, mailers, newspaper ads, social media ads, and yard signs. And if you do not want to think about a November 2026 race until later this year, I totally get it. This site and all its content will still be here when you are ready to do some research on the Troy School Board race.

If you would like to connect for any reason, I can be reached at walt4tsd@gmail.com. Please reach out if there is anyway I can help with educational data analysis, particularly when it comes to navigating MISchoolData.org or acquiring other public use educational data sets.

Thanks for your time,

Walt