Candidate emphasizes personalized learning, special education alignment and 'data to action' literacy strategies

When board members pressed instructional priorities, Dr. Virgen described a system that tightly integrates special education services with teaching and learning and relies on learning analytics and protected instructional time to lift student outcomes.

On special education, he said he currently directly supervises special services and has organized a personalized-learning framework with five dimensions—partnerships, responsiveness, rigor, authenticity and learning environment—so that special services and curriculum teams share data and aligned goals. "One size doesn't fit all," he said, calling special education the "first example of personalized learning."

He sketched a learning-analytics approach that moves beyond descriptive annual reporting to lead indicators that allow teachers and interventionists to change practice on a Tuesday morning. He described a "data to action to growth" cycle and said he has reallocated staff and resources in past districts to create a learning-analytics capacity.

On literacy, he recommended marshaling resources, protecting professional-development and intervention time, sustaining steady strategies (not random acts of PD), and using community partnerships and additional adults in classrooms to accelerate gains. He cited an elementary principal who used large numbers of student teachers and community volunteers to lift literacy outcomes.

Dr. Virgen described teacher relations as rooted in visibility and shared instructional practice: he begins his day in a school rather than his office and models instructional frameworks he asks staff to use. He also said he teaches counseling and instructional leadership in higher education and draws on that practice to stay current with instruction.