All Teacher Wants Is a Realistic Yardstick

Re “Attacks on School Reform Send Dean, Kerry to Back of the Class,” Nov. 24:

I am a teacher at a low-performing school. When I began teaching at Wilson School six years ago, 12 of my 20 second-grade students were non-readers. Today I have only one. Six years ago we had no PTA. At our most recent meeting there were 40 parents in attendance.

Our test scores have risen every year, some more dramatically than others. Yet after all our successes, we have not met our “annual yearly progress” goal as dictated by No Child Left Behind. The idea of annual goals or accountability is not what educators dislike about this badly written bill.

NCLB says that all students must meet its goals, including severely handicapped students, immigrants who have been in the country only two years, and poor children whose parents move to a new neighborhood every six months, not to mention children of drug-addicted parents.

NCLB’s goals increase every year. If you make 20 points of progress this year, you must make 30 points next year. With the intense problems of public education, we are making real progress. For you to sit behind your desk wielding uninformed influence is insulting.

Get away from your computer, Ronald Brownstein, and go out to see what is happening. California began making systemic changes years before NCLB. Our state standards drive the consistent instruction of the state’s students. We have expanded after-school programs to reach the most troubled students. It is a very difficult job, and there are legions of dedicated teachers who deserve more encouragement than you are giving us. Education has become the domain of federal bean counters.

We are making progress. We would just appreciate a realistic yardstick.

Brownstein’s logic -- if teachers hate NCLB, it must be good -- is ridiculous. If non-journalists wanted to restructure your newsroom and tell you to write an ever-increasing number of articles annually, it must be good, right? What if they, at the same time, paint you as lazy?

“Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand, wrong answers.”

Sandra Kaszynski

Costa Mesa