Letter: Schools have poverty, parenting problems
This is a first-grade classroom at Branch Brook Elementary School in Smithtown at the end of the day Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
As a recently retired fifth-grade teacher, I'm not surprised that math scores have declined .
Many teachers knew that would result from the haphazard way math instruction has been "reformed" since the Regents and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo decided they knew more about education than educators. Rather than recruit the best minds in education to write the teaching modules, they selected mediocre talent.
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has resigned, and state Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch plans to step down in March. Neither has taken responsibility for the havoc they wreaked on students, teachers and families in New York. Both arrogantly defend their records. Tisch said she "disrupted stagnation" and "complacency."
Oh really, then she didn't grasp what was happening in classrooms all over the state.
As a society, we don't have an education problem, we have parenting and poverty problems. Without support at home and regular attendance, educational success is difficult to achieve. Long before testing season, most teachers know which students are in danger of failing.
Perhaps more teachers will be involved in the next wave of reform. My question is, who is going to repair the damage done by Tisch and Duncan -- not to mention Bill Gates, who funded a good part of the reform?
Suzanne Prenderville, Amityville
