Letters: Low school test scores spark debate
U.S. public education is undergoing pressure to better prepare students for college, trades and careers. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
The school test results present a challenge that needs to be reckoned with, and we can do it if we wish to ["Not making the grade," News, Aug. 8]. The new Common Core standards are clearly difficult. Our children must learn to analyze problems. A bottom-to-top overhaul of how and what we teach our children must be implemented in a well-considered and expeditious manner. We all want our children and grandchildren to live successful lives. The future of Long Island and our country is in our hands.
Ira H. Leibowitz, Mount Sinai
Anyone working with or hiring newly graduated students can verify that education has gone downhill. Our system works great for the teachers, but not the students. I went to school with 45 in a class and one teacher. Now we have 19 in a class, a teacher and two assistants, and the children can't do simple math or even spell.
Please explain why "teaching to the test" is such a problem. I was taught to take the test and pass the test. That's what you are supposed to do in school.
Diana Weir, Wainscott
Editor's note: The writer is commissioner of housing and human services for the Town of Brookhaven
Newsday's editorial board demonstrates a lack of understanding of children and education ["Harsh realities of tougher tests," Editorial, Aug. 8]. The assumption seems to be that the tests are fine, and that the answer is more and better preparation.
As a fifth-grade teacher with 20 years of experience and two master's degrees, I can tell you that many questions were developmentally beyond the ability of most of my students. Also, to expect 10- and 11-year-old children to concentrate on highly complex material for 90 minutes three days in a row is patently ridiculous. College students perhaps, but not youngsters. It is even worse for third- and fourth-graders. While the efficacy of high-stakes testing for elementary school children can be debated, what is not being debated is the suitably of these particular tests.
Robert Gerhardt, Huntington Station
We have known for many years that U.S. students were comparing poorly to those in many advanced countries. Teachers, unions and even some shortsighted parents have blamed everyone but themselves. The tests are too tough, we need more time, and we don't like the teacher evaluation system. Sound familiar?
We pay 60 percent of our tax bill for this type of excuse-making? Our students do not know what to expect, and I suggest that this is the responsibility of our teachers.
Our school year is too short, but the union and the teachers fight more classroom training. Schools have more than enough money if it is managed properly. Now is the time for teachers to step up and tell their unions that students come first.
Rich Adrian, Huntington
News about the low-performing public schools prompts me to suggest that New Yorkers be given the right to send children to the school of their choice.
By law, our children must receive an education. If parents have the wherewithal, they can choose a private school, secular or otherwise. If a parent does not have that advantage, they must send a child to the local public school, like it or not.
With a voucher system, the government would provide the same amount of funding for a child's education at a public or private school. This system has been found to be lawful and successful in several other states.
Peter Kelly, Medford
The problem is not the schools, but poverty. Low-income families predominate in the districts with the lowest math scores. High-income families live in the districts with the highest scores. The answer is integration and substantial state aid to overcome this income handicap.
Joe Malone, Syosset
As a New York City public schools teacher and a parent, I am not surprised that the test scores fell so drastically. We should have high standards, and the Common Core is very workable in the classroom, but there has to be a better way to assess students.
Standardized testing is unreliable and archaic. From an educational standpoint, these tests were set up and written for students to fail. In the English test, questions did not directly state what they were looking for; students had to infer how to answer the questions and pray it was the right way.
The math exam asked questions about curricula that many teachers had not even gotten to teach yet, due to pacing calendars our districts require us to follow. We educators often were not given the materials or information needed to prepare our students for these rigorous exams.
As a parent, I will be opting my child out of these exams when the time comes. These tests do not predict my child's future academic or career success. All they do is cause unwarranted stress and anxiety. Growing up is hard enough.
Elizabeth Hirsch, North Merrick
