LETTERS: LIRR lateness report, Race to Top funds, other

LIRR's on-time report is filled with excuses

For your article, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority furnished information regarding the lateness of Long Island Rail Road trains ["Running late more often," News, Oct. 6]. Some valid reasons were weather and emergency-related delays, train breakdowns, and track and switch problems.

Others reasons I consider excuses, such as reverse-commute trains being especially vulnerable because of the number of eastbound trains in the evening, and trains traveling over areas that only have one track servicing both directions. Aren't there dispatchers and scheduling personnel whose primary responsibility is to prevent these delays?

Jack Curcuruto

Roslyn Heights

Race to Top funds are well-placed

Let's not be so cavalier with regard to Race to the Top allocations given to Long Island school districts ["Crumbs for some schools," Editorial, Oct. 6]. The school districts that received the largest slices from the Race to the Top pie were by all accounts those in greatest need. These are districts with high poverty levels, along with countless other adverse societal variables that can hurt student achievement.

When these districts are given the proper resources to do the job, they then have the opportunity to begin leveling the playing field for their students. If students from these struggling districts can achieve and become contributing members of society, we all win.

Philip Cicero

North Bellmore

A poor measure of school quality

As a parent of a middle school student in the North Shore School District, I've seen firsthand the damage standardized tests can do. In response to lower test scores, the district has increased test preparation, drilling and practice exams. These are proven methods for increasing test scores. But at what cost?

Teaching to these tests encourages students to memorize superficial facts, produce them for the tests and promptly forget what they were taught. There is no critical thinking, in-depth analysis or real learning involved.

Standardized tests were never designed to measure a district's performance. They were developed to identify students who need extra help. Now, they are published in the newspaper as the primary way of identifying the "best" schools. But it is not the test scores that make great schools. Better measures may be class size, teachers' credentials, educational programs and innovative leadership.

Excessive use of these teaching methods will result in classrooms where boredom and frustration dominate. This is not the type of education I expect from a quality school district.

Dale J. Tyminski

Sea Cliff