Grading Lawmakers on Education Reform

* Re “A Test for Lawmakers Too,” editorial, March 5: What a confusing editorial--or, maybe, what a confusing law. If current ninth-graders can take the test now, which, if passed, exempts them from further testing and presumably qualifies them for a high school diploma, on what do they waste their time for the remaining 3 1/2 years? I would assume that such a qualifying exam would test a comprehension of four years of accumulated wisdom. This truly is “a test for lawmakers,” and those legislators who conceived and approved such a stupid law have flunked!

Are there no standards for high school learning achievement? If the test difficulty is adjusted so that a certain percentage of the student population gets a passing grade, how does education ever improve?

JEROME E. JACOBS

Los Angeles

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* Anyone who thinks that just the threat of testing will suddenly inspire new and better learning is living in a fantasy land. We need smaller classes in all grades, more support for struggling students and families and effective materials aligned with reasonable standards. (Did you graph linear equations in fourth grade?) Educational reform requires foresight, at least a little understanding of child development and the patience to realize that change doesn’t occur overnight.

KURT PAGE

Laguna Niguel