Kip Ping Answers Questions

Candidate for
Board Member; Loveland City School District

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Hamilton County and asked of all candidates for this office.

Read the answers from all candidates.

Questions & Answers

1. What effect would the community (charter) schools have on the public schools in your district?

Charter schools can have a positive influence by providing "competition for the public schools and by providing new ideas on everything from how to manage the schools to how to teach the children. I believe, however, that we do not necessarily need charter schools to accomplish this. Educators who strive for excellence already look to other schools for new ideas and approaches. A proactive school board can also benefit by viewing other schools as its "competition" and apply policies accordingly.

2. Evaluate the adequacy of support services, beyond state standards, presently provided for special-needs students in your district.

I believe that for the most part these services are adequate, but there is room for improvement. Our teachers need more specialized training with regard to methods and techniques that they can employ to assist these students. We also need more input from the parents of these students on what the individual needs are.

3. Has the use of proficiency tests in your school improved the education of students?

Yes, to a certain degree, they have. The tests, however, can only demonstrate where our teaching is lacking and how we stack up to other school systems. The value of these tests in improving education lies not in these statistics, but in the use of the statistics as tools to revise our past practices. I believe that we have made some progress in this regard, but in areas such as math and science, we are still lacking and have a desperate need for further change.