Evaluating Public Schools

Re “Can Public Schools Keep Up With Skill Requirements?” Opinion, Oct. 6:

It is virtually impossible to expect a useful result if parents and teachers are asked to evaluate their own schools. That is why Phi Delta Kappa’s annual poll of attitudes about public schools always results in a paradox (generally showing that parents rate U.S. public schools as relative failures and their child’s school a relative success). Parents and teachers can’t evaluate schools without an abstract standard of success. And, given the undeniable existence of a global economy, that standard would have to be international.

I have taught in Irvine schools for 20 years. Irvine does well on all the standardized tests and ranks near the top in college placement. Nevertheless, despite the fact that I have been involved in many attempts to assess educational progress, I have virtually no idea how the skills of our graduates compare with graduates of secondary schools in Japan, Germany, China or France. And isn’t that the essential question?

The stimulus for reform cannot come from local efforts to collect information. It will come when the U.S. adopts a system of national standards and examinations for promotion and graduation within American schools.

JIM MAMER

Modjeska Canyon