Alicia McClung

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Alicia McClung

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Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Austin College, 2013

Personal

Birthplace

Athens, Texas

Profession

Reading intervention specialist

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Personal LinkedIn

Alicia McClung ran for election to the Dallas Independent School District to represent District 8 in Texas. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

McClung completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

McClung's professional experience includes working as a reading intervention specialist. She earned a bachelor's degree from Austin College in 2013.

McClung has been affiliated with the following organizations:

• Texas Organizing Project
• American Federation of Teachers
• Leadership For Educational Equity
• Run For Something
• Texas Working Families Party

Elections

2020

See also: Dallas Independent School District, Texas, elections (2020)

General election

General election for Dallas Independent School District, District 8

Joe Carreon defeated Alicia McClung in the general election for Dallas Independent School District, District 8 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Joe Carreon (Nonpartisan)	52.3	12,647
	Submit photo	Alicia McClung (Nonpartisan)	47.7	11,555

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 24,202
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

To view McClung's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Alicia McClung completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McClung's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was born Alicia Rodriguez in Athens, Texas. I came to Dallas at a young age to live with my grandma and started school at the Dallas ISD elementary school where my grandma taught. I attended my neighborhood DISD school growing up and graduated valedictorian of my senior class.

After graduating college, I taught kindergarten and first grade before becoming a Reading Intervention Specialist, working specifically with students with dyslexia. I am now in my eighth year in the classroom with students.

I'm not hypothesizing when I say we need to improve the educational conditions of our students. Every day my job is to think about education and to be ready and prepared to help students.

Right now, I get to impact 20 young students and their incredible lives every single day when I go to work. I feel the responsibility to take my experience, knowledge and lessons learned to a bigger level on the school board where I can impact 10s of thousands of students across our city. Because I can and because I care.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• As of June 2020, 7 out of every 10 white students in the district are proficient in 9th grade English language arts, while only 3 out of every 10 Black students and 4 out of every 10 Latinx students are proficient. For the past 3 years, Black students continue to be disproportionately over-represented in out-of-school suspensions - despite only making up 20% of the student population, Black students account for over 40% of these suspensions, a critical indicator in the school-to-prison pipeline. To reach our full potential as a district, we must become more transparent and prioritize fixing our core issues, beginning with a persistent lack of racial equity in our schools.
• The conditions that teachers and support staff work in is our students' learning environment. I would work with Trustees and Administration to address community concerns over district employees that are struggling to make ends meet and have proper healthcare coverage. If we want to foster happy and healthy children, we need to make sure that those supporting them are taken care of.
• e must ensure our families and stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process. Though there are 230 campuses in DISD, only 50 of those campuses have Community Liaisons. We must expand these roles so that they are at every campus, establishing the community partnership our students need.​ I would also work to expand participatory budgeting, a grassroots and democratic process that allows for students and community members to have a direct say in how our money is spent in their schools and neighborhoods.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am most passionate about educational policy. With over 10,000 hours of classroom experience, I have a direct understanding of how educational policy impacts student outcomes.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

It's the role education played in my grandma's life that inspired me to enter the classroom as an educator. She didn't earn her GED until she was a single, working-mother. Like many of our families in the district, she had to work her way through school. She became the first in our family to earn a bachelor's degree and then became a teacher in Dallas ISD.

​Coming from my background, it is clear to me that education can provide students with the resources they need to build a better life for themselves and future generations.

I know that to expand opportunities, lift people out of poverty, and create a better world, we need the best educational conditions for our students.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I am an informed professional who understands education to advocate on the behalf of students. I am a Dallas ISD graduate and now an educator who not only understands the value of a quality education for all students but what it takes to deliver one. I have a thorough understanding of budgets, quality professional development and well researched and evidence-based educational programs that work. I can analyze budgets to ensure our tax dollars are spent effectively. I am honest, clear-minded and fearless. I have all the qualities it takes to fulfill the trustee position with integrity and dedication.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Let's Dance by David Bowie

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

School board trustees are people who are passionate about quality education and commit much of their time to this crucial public service. They work with others on the school board and administration humbly and transparently, constantly ask what is best for students, set ambitious goals that they help hold everyone accountable to achieve, and work with a deep sense of urgency. Additionally, they hire and evaluate the superintendent, adopt a budget and tax rate, and communicate with their community, reflecting their values and best interests.

How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?

Every campus has a Site-Based Decision Making (SBDM) Committee that focuses on the inner workings of the schools, staff concerns, budgetary goals, and instructional leadership. However, not every campus in DISD has robust involvement in these committees by parents and community members. As a Trustee, I would organize and enable my community block by block to join these SBDM committees as Trustee-appointed members at all District 8 schools.

What issues get in the way of quality education? How would you address these obstacles?

DISD must ensure that ALL students are successful and thriving in our schools. As of June 2020, 7 out of every 10 white students in the district are proficient in 9th grade English language arts, while only 3 out of every 10 Black students and 4 out of every 10 Latinx students are proficient. For the past 3 years, Black students continue to be disproportionately over-represented in out-of-school suspensions - despite only making up 20% of the student population, Black students account for over 40% of these suspensions, a critical indicator in the school-to-prison pipeline. These and other insights lay hidden within an overabundance of reports provided by DISD. Instead of simply bombarding the public with hundreds of pages of graphs and tables, DISD must interrogate the data, derive meaningful insights, highlight these insights openly, and then act decisively upon its findings.

The district's Racial Equity Office should collect, study, and publish data on spending per student, student performance, curriculum quality, discipline infractions, parent and community engagement, and college and career readiness for every DISD school so that gaps between race, gender, language and socio-economic status can be identified. To reach our full potential as a district, we must become more transparent and prioritize fixing our core issues, beginning with a persistent lack of racial equity in our schools.

The Racial Equity Data collected should be easily accessible and easy to manipulate via a publicly accessible dashboard.

The core of my work in the classroom is achieving equity by finding gaps in services for students. After collaborating with my community, I would bring forth recommendations to the Superintendent, Administration and Board of Trustees.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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