{"id":51998,"date":"2009-11-23T18:51:45","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T23:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010339782_educationissuesrainontheemeraldcityevergreenstate.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2009-11-23T18:51:45","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T23:51:45","slug":"education-issues-rain-on-the-emerald-city-evergreen-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/51998","title":{"rendered":"Education issues rain on the Emerald City, Evergreen State"},"content":{"rendered":"

B minus warrants a bonus in Seattle Public Schools<\/strong><\/p>\n

One can\u2019t fault Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson [\u201cBonus for supe with a B minus?,\u201d NWSunday, Nov. 22], the contract and job evaluation is the doing of the board. The voters who elected them are ultimately responsible.<\/p>\n

The superintendent\u2019s job is an impossible one. She must be crazy, as she must know that an enterprise cannot be managed when the workers union is in charge.<\/p>\n

Columnist Danny Westneat was right, in part \u2014teachers aren\u2019t in it just for the money but for the security, tenure, the right to sit on their butts and complain.<\/p>\n

The only way out of this mess is to give parents and their children choice \u2014what school to attend. People have a choice in where to worship or not where to shop, whom to love. Why not a choice of an environment that makes it possible to learn?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jim Ewins, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Lower standards, scores, expectations. What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see. The achievement standards have been lowered to suit the scores of the students. Teachers can\u2019t even teach to the test. And now we\u2019re giving students even longer to learn how to add and what an animal is [\u201cFinally getting it right on math and science,\u201d Opinion, Randy Dorn guest commentary, Nov. 19].<\/p>\n

Could our standards and expectations get any lower? So far, when in doubt, we make the test fit our scores.<\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t we just give the kids the answers in the back of the test and see if they can find them?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Lucy Stimmel, Kirkland<\/em><\/p>\n

State\u2019s superintendent of instruction weighed in<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nov. 19 Seattle Times had two articles, by and about State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, in which we find a proposed way to continue to delay meeting the required level of student learning [\u201cState school chief seeks later dates for passing tests,\u201d NWThursday].<\/p>\n

Dorn says he is concerned about how few students are passing state tests in math and science.<\/p>\n

His solution is to do the same thing that the education system has been doing, then wait a couple years and things will be better.<\/p>\n

It sometimes is forgotten that the education-reform bill was passed in 1993, and by now they should have their act together. The object was to define the knowledge and skills required of our high-school graduates, then tune the teaching and testing accordingly.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t satisfactory to have them almost good enough by using a second-tier test. If the WASL can be considered to be the filter that students go through to show they have the knowledge and skills for success in life, then use it.<\/p>\n

Our students and our nation are at risk. <\/span><\/p>\n

The change needs to be in the education system. Students can learn math and science and they must. No excuses.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Robert J. Feutz, Redmond<\/em><\/p>\n

Bullying, violence must stop in Seattle high schools<\/strong><\/p>\n

My nephew is mentally handicapped, socially. He has been diagnosed with Asperger\u2019s syndrome, a form of Autism. He is now 16 years old, and although my sister repeatedly begged for assistance from the state for this disease of the mind, her cries for help fell on deaf ears.<\/p>\n

He is now a sophomore at a Seattle high school and has been bullied, laughed at, taunted and even teased by older girls at his school, so that others would laugh at him. My sister had argued repeatedly to the school officials to have her son transferred, but they would not accommodate her wishes. Recently, a female senior at this high school played a prank on him, teasing him into thinking she wanted to be his girlfriend. Naturally he reacted, and she then charged him with assault.<\/p>\n

If we are dealing with a normal sophomore, a case can be made for bullying, since this not only involved her, but a large group of kids at this high school. Since this was done to a mentally handicapped kid, with school officials ignoring repeated requests for special treatment and\/or transferring from this school, we are looking at possible criminal charges being filed at the Seattle school district.<\/p>\n

Sarah Palin has a mentally handicapped son, Jim Carrey is helping raised Jenny McCarthy\u2019s autistic son. Many families have children who are potential victims to bullies at school.<\/p>\n

When will we recognize that this violent behavior must end, and that special attention be paid to those who are mentally handicapped and therefore prone to a type of bullying children without mental handicaps could or could not overcome?<\/p>\n

\u2014 David Martin, Lynnwood<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

B minus warrants a bonus in Seattle Public Schools One can\u2019t fault Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson [\u201cBonus for supe with a B minus?,\u201d NWSunday, Nov. 22], the contract and job evaluation is the doing of the board. The voters who elected them are ultimately responsible. The superintendent\u2019s job is an impossible one. She must be crazy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51998","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}