There is HOPE for quality education (c)
Utica, NY Aug. 11, 2001

The organization is HOPE: Higher Potential for Education. The "O" is a student's happy face in the organization's logo. Members include current and former educators from across the state.

HOPE believes there is a need for increased quality in public education. It believes that what the state Education Department promotes is not achieving real success.

Many government leaders are well-intentioned in wanting to improve the quality of American education. However, too many of their proposals are flawed. HOPE desires to be a conduit for honest, practical programs.

Although a conservative Republican, I find President Bush's "Leave no child behind" slogan nauseating. Government leaders must understand that throwing big bucks at education will not, by itself, solve the problem. National policies may not be effective. Each state and school district has its own set of circumstances which must be addressed.

Read "Standardized Minds, The High Price of American Testing Curriculum and What We Can do to Change it" (1999) by Peter Sacks. Or go on-line to (fairtest.org) and key ARN (Assessment Reform Network). I am not in agreement with all of their notions, however, ones does get enough to generate a desire for questioning.

At the state level, much which passes for innovative change is little more than "mumbo jumbo." The reports indicate that a higher number of students are passing the Regents. Sounds good. But are we getting full disclosure?

In conversations with teachers in five area school districts, I get the impression that the Regents exams are poorly designed and weakly graded.                                                                                    .......................^

An earth science teacher whose students all passed the Regents said: "I don't want any credit for that. The test was a joke, and the grading method was ludicrous. The whole thing was serendipitous."

The 11th: grade English Regents was a two-day fiasco. The scoring key and rating guide for teachers stresses organization and meaning of the essays with minimum requirements for English mechanics such as spelling, vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. A student could get all of the English mechanics questions wrong and still pass with a score of 71.

Most parents are not told the poor level of the tests, the flawed grading system or flawed conversion formulas. Parents only know that their child received a good or passing grade. After all of the grading machinations are completed, what does the final score represent? Are the Regents a valid measurement of the students' command of the course content? Do the taxpayers deserve full disclosure?

Is New York state increasing the quality of public education or playing a public relations game? HOPE hopes to find out.

The next HOPE forum on Oct. 13, 2001 in Saratoga (NY) is for everyone interested in a quality public school for all students. There is a need for interested parents and others to bring their concerns and ideas. All individual views are welcome. This is an opportunity to have: your voice heard. Join us! Please phone (315)737-9317 or (518)561-4966 for further information or to voice concerns.

Thank you to all the generous personal comments, notes and phone calls in support of this column over the past 17 months. Many educators who fear speaking out, get heard though this column.

... Joseph Bottini is a retired social studies teacher who lives in Sauquoit, NY. and a regular guest columnist who contributes much to rationalizing the discourse in the Mohawk Valley and writes cogently concerning national, state, and regional educational issues with a much needed local interpretation and point-of-view from his long & hallowed career as a social studies teacher. He is, apparently a correspondent, this list (Assessment Reform Network, ARN), as well...     Rick Parkany, Teacher

Here, in the complete text above, he cites ARN and the discussions on FairTest's list, concerning Assessment Reform as worthy of notice.

ARN-L (Assessment Reform Network discussion list):
http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/archives.html