{"id":435504,"date":"2010-03-16T17:40:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011361043_consolidatingfederaleducationstandardslocalschooldistricts.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-03-16T17:40:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T21:40:06","slug":"consolidating-federal-education-standards-local-school-districts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/435504","title":{"rendered":"Consolidating federal education standards, local school districts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spur American progress through standards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Upon reading the article in The Times about nationwide academic standards, I found myself disturbed that an issue as important as this had been on hold for some time now [\u201cObama would dismantle No Child Left Behind law,\u201d News, March 14]. By unifying the standards of schools around the country, the overall status of our schools would rise. I feel that because of this program we would see improvements in the development of the youth of this generation in regions of America where academic standards have fallen.<\/p>\n

While reading this article I could not stop myself from comparing this program to the surge of math and science during the apex of the Cold War in the 1950s. During that time, our leaders understood that in order to beat the Soviets in the space race, the nation needed to jump-start America at its roots: the children.<\/p>\n

The same applies today. Simply speaking, if we want our future to be prosperous as a nation, we must give the children of America a rigorous curriculum that puts them on the path for high academic achievements in the future.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Andrew Laskowski, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Labeling schools as \u2018failing\u2019 deters teacher\u2019s dedication<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year I was working in a school with \u201cacademically successful\u201d students and felt the need for a new challenge. I asked my school district for a transfer and happily agreed to move to our district\u2019s only dual-language school.<\/p>\n

Based on student assessments, my new school is considered a \u201cfailing\u201d school, but I\u2019m glad I\u2019ve moved here. I\u2019ve never worked with a staff that was more dedicated or competent. Walking through this school\u2019s halls is magic \u2014 one hears Spanish, children\u2019s voices singing along with a teacher\u2019s guitar and staff members in the hall working with groups of students learning how to speak a second language.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a wonderful energy here; it\u2019s a dynamic place, alive with the celebration of learning. There are a lot of factors that affect students\u2019 test scores, which teachers have no control over. But the things that my new school\u2019s teachers can control \u2014 the instruction that they provide their students at school \u2014 is as good as it gets.<\/p>\n

It would be a shame for teachers and students if experienced teachers had to think twice before moving from a \u201csuccessful\u201d school to a \u201cfailing\u201d one because their pay depended on their students\u2019 success on state assessments.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Karen M. Terrell, Bow, Skagit County<\/em><\/p>\n

Consolidating districts means smaller class sizes, overhead costs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Times\u2019 recent editorial \u201cConsolidate smaller school districts\u201d [Opinion, March 14] was spot on. In the online edition [comments section] I see that many readers are missing the point. This is not about consolidating schools but rather about consolidating school districts.<\/p>\n

I grew up on Whidbey Island where there are three school districts. Why on one small island do we need three districts? One consolidated district would eliminate countless administrative overhead costs and could translate to smaller class sizes.<\/p>\n

In the Coupeville School District alone there are 14 administrative and supervisory positions for just over 1,000 students. That is one staff \u2014 not teachers, custodians or cooks \u2014 for every 71 students.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gerald Shepherd, Bellevue<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spur American progress through standards Upon reading the article in The Times about nationwide academic standards, I found myself disturbed that an issue as important as this had been on hold for some time now [\u201cObama would dismantle No Child Left Behind law,\u201d News, March 14]. By unifying the standards of schools around the country, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}