Letter: Challenge our children, don’t teach to a test

Posted 1/7/19

To the editor:

This letter is in response to Joe Crowley’s letter — ‘RI vs Mass test score comparison invalid and unfair.’

Did you know that Massachusetts was one of the leading states …

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Letter: Challenge our children, don’t teach to a test

Posted

To the editor:

This letter is in response to Joe Crowley’s letter — ‘RI vs Mass test score comparison invalid and unfair.’

Did you know that Massachusetts was one of the leading states in education before Common Core? How? The state of Massachusetts, like Joe said in his op-ed, took the bull by the horns and said we are failing. The standards were worked and reworked and it went out to all the communities for evaluation.

Joe’s point about testing our students with Massachusetts standards is foolhardy is right. What is also foolhardy is that we didn’t take Massachusetts standards lock, stock and barrel and change what is happening in the classroom and what teachers are teaching — forget about using six weeks to teach to the test!

Rhode Island is too small for this task so why not join a state that was winning before they took on Common Core? The solution is simply getting rid of Common Core and let each state teach their children. We have professional educators — let them teach, not read from a script.

Maybe we ought to blow off the dust of our own state standards, and use our standards and blow off Common Core and its testing. Common Core has dumped the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s be honest — we know our children better than any government entity could. Our teachers care about our kids, but have been told this way or the highway. Our principals and superintendents have been tied to all these state (national) mandates and warnings.

We need parents to finally step up as a group, teachers to stand and say yes, I can teach this better, principals and superintendents to work with teachers to develop the best learning possible. Look around — we have fewer kids, more teachers, and poorer outcomes. Why? Stop teaching to the test and teach, challenge kids according to their “abilities.” Not every child is going to learn the same things at the same time — accept it! Some kids will be stars and some kids will be fans.

Quit trying to oversee the lives of our children by bemoaning a lack of test results when the fact is the curricula and standards are off the mark. Bring back our classrooms and let children explore and learn from the obvious. Joe, thanks for writing the letter but my last question is where the heck was the principals’ association when Common Core came? Where was the superintendents’ association when Common Core came in? Rhode Island accepted Common Core in 2008 sight unseen! Even Bill Gates considers Common Core a failure and he spent $2 billion to make it work. Rhode Islanders can change this, but we must all be part of the stake holders. Stand up for our kids and let teachers teach to the kids and not to the test that means nothing in the life of a child.

Peg Bugara

Little Compton

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.