Accountability for Student Achievement

The greatest limit to turning schools into businesses (Opinion, Dec. 14) is establishing an accountability standard. Businesses have it easy. Profit provides a mathematically precise standard. But standards for public education are culturally derived, and vary among ethnic, political and age groups.

We can apply the methods of business to processes for efficiency in the functional areas of facilities, financial management and record keeping. But we should not take the standards of quality control that were developed to judge the profitability of manufacturing widgets and apply them to the development of able students.

PENNY YORK

Pasadena

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Re “Flawed Effort by Wilson to Fix State’s School Woes,” editorial, Dec. 12: A recent poll indicated that the average American watches 4.5 hours of TV a day while only spending 37 minutes reading. When people become passive receivers of information, there is no educational system in the world that can transform them into active participants in their own education. Accordingly, it is futile to blame teachers, school boards and progressive education for the decline in literacy and mathematical comprehension.

Until parents either eliminate TVs from their homes, or limit the hours of viewing, all the efforts by politicians will amount to nothing more than useless scapegoating.

BAILLIE KRIVEL

Rancho Mirage

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Re the “chicken fight” between the state Board of Education and the math standards commission:

Both sides say that the standards will be nonbinding, there will be no test based on them and the curriculum bought by the schools will probably not meet them. Why are we spending tax money to support state and county education bureaucracies that seem to cause confusion and upset?

LARRY L. SEVERSON

Fountain Valley

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Re “Getting Teachers Up to Speed,” Commentary, Dec. 11:

Carol Barnes perpetuates an unquestioned presumption about credentialed teachers. The efficacy of teacher education and credentials is stated as fact and never questioned. I suggest that the foremost qualification for a teacher is that he or she be an expert in the subject(s) taught. I further suggest that learning to “teach” requires very few formal “education” courses and lots of mentoring by principals and experienced teachers. Thousands of private schools across America prove that this approach works.

HANK GARRETSON

Littlerock, Calif.