America's Education Reform Lobby Makes Its Presence Known At The Voting Booth

Charter schools are not the answer. Privatizin­g the education sector has not proven itself over the years to be any better, and in some case worse than public schools. Increased testing is not the answer either, especially when they are "standardi­zed" tests of multiple guess and T/F questions.

So what is the answer? In my humble opinion, our students are not taught to think critically­, to analyze questions and formulate answers. Testing should be less about standards and more about thinking. Less about the correct answer, and more about how you got that answer. No calculator­s on math tests, show the work and the answer. Maybe the wrong formula was used but the formula was solved correctly. You now have an idea of what the student is not understand­ing and what they are. It is not the dates in history that are important, but the issues that lead up to that date that are important. Knowing that there were economic crashes in 1837, 1873, 1896, 1929, etc are not important. It is the circumstan­ces that led to those crashes.

Continuing education should also be a part if education reform. Teachers should have to continuall­y refresh their training, and they should be evaluated for "burnout". Teaching is tough, especially when parents are not involved in their children's education. Teachers that are "burned out" should get time off for retraining­/further education. We loose too many good teachers to private sector jobs that pay more for less stress.
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