To get our blog started, I’m sharing this letter I just sent to the Cleveland Plain Dealer in response to an editorial that appeared on Sept. 17, which you can read at: http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/09/ohio_school_districts_have_to.html. Since there are always so many points that could be made but since there are also space limits, I would love to hear your thoughts to fill out the picture. See the “Instructions” page on how to reply. Any of you who would like to post an article on another topic are welcome to send your submissions to me.
Sept. 19, 2013
To the editor:
Your chastise-everyone editorial about public education (Sept. 18) omitted the group that has been shown to have the greatest impact on educational success–parents. Long time, unexplained neglect of this important fact is why I cheered when the Washington Post ‘s Esther Cepeda recently wrote a column entitled: “Needed: A Report card on parents” (http://syndication.washingtonpost.com/esther-cepeda).
While I think the current blame approach is highly counter productive, we really have to ask why politicians have focused on it rather than seeking guidance from the research that has been done on how parents impact student performance, why they do or don’t get involved, and how schools and teachers can promote greater involvement.
Instead, for years they have enacted one high stakes testing approach after another, and the results have been dismal. It has become clear to me that their motive is not to improve but to diminish public education to the point that they achieve a case for privatizing it, another issue that has been insufficiently covered in the media.
Parents nationwide are recognizing that the only way to get back to a more positive approach to educating our children is to change the politicians. Sadly, since politicians of both parties have participated in this charade, voters must take the time to learn about the exact position of each politician on high stakes testing and education funding before voting.
Jackie Evangelista
Concord, OH
I wonder if the distraction of ever-changing targets required of teachers has focused teachers’ attention away from the children and families they serve and too much onto their own challenge to meet moving testing targets. [I say this not in criticism of the teaching individuals themselves but rather to start a discussion on how to help ALL our teachers do their best.] I think forcing teachers to teach a curriculum thrust upon them engenders their personal dissatisfaction, and that in turn strains interactions with parents. It takes a village to raise our children, someone once said. We desperately need students, parents, teachers, school administrators and communities to work together to reach excellence.
I think everyone should be supporting only public education. Those who choose to pay extra for their children’s private education may have that right, but not to the detriment of all children. Schools that choose to attract outstanding academic achievers may devise methods to attract and support them. We all benefit from an educated work force.
I agree that current type high-stakes testing is a recipe for failure of the public schools because it breeds poor teaching activities and frightens students, parents, and teachers.
For years, public schools have written good curricula often to have it ignored. The only benefit I have seen as a result of these tests that are supposedly aligned with the curriculum is that we now can expect teachers to teach the prescribed curriculum. But they should understand teach the curriculum, not the test question and answer technique.