Letters to the Editor

Governor Owens decided that schools needed accountability. Nobody argues with that need. His plan was to develop a test upon which school evaluations would be solely based. The CSAP is excruciatingly difficult. Many adults would score unsatisfactorily. I suspect that Owens's reluctance to divulge his scores reflects his poor performance.

You complain that schools have cut some programs. This is an unfortunate necessity. In order to perform well on the CSAP, a student's literacy skills have to be above average. Even the mathematics portion of the CSAP requires well-developed writing skills. Because the CSAP is the sole test of school performance, schools are forced to spend disproportionate class time on literacy in order to improve their scores.

Imagine that you move to Beijing. You're to attend school and learn in Chinese. Twenty-five percent of DPS students are in a similar situation. They've moved here but aren't English-literate. Many don't have the advantage of being literate in their native language. Somehow you blame the teachers because these students aren't proficient in English, and thus perform poorly on the CSAP.

Some responsibility must be laid upon the students and parents. Many parents dump their children into the schools, forcing teachers to be surrogates. Some parents don't spend time working with their children, reading with them or showing involvement in their education. Instead, students come from bookless homes where the television is never off.

I hope that most don't share your opinions. If they do, you'll find fewer teachers to deal with America's out-of-control and under-parented children. Many teachers will leave to go back to "real" jobs that pay better and are less stressful than teaching. Perhaps you could fill a vacancy. I'd love to see how much success you'd have.

L. Sauer
via the Internet