Issues Statement

By Justin Blake

Testing: Currently, five full weeks are taken from the English curriculum for student testing. Although some tests are mandated on the federal and state level, those originating at the district level must be streamlined or eliminated completely. Tests do not teach. Information can be shared among governmental bodies.

Hold to Standards: Over the past few years California has adopted new standards based curricula and instituted a high school exit exam, which was to have applied to the graduating class of 2004. When preliminary testing demonstrated only about 30% of today's seniors can pass the exit exam, Sacramento opted to suspend the requirement. Recent federal legislation echoes California pledges to hold teachers and individual schools responsible for student achievement. I propose that parents and students share equally in that responsibility; that students have a right to fail and teachers must be free from pressure to pass students who do not master curriculum standards.

Parental Involvement: Software has been in place district wide which allows teachers to post assignments, class notes, grades, schedules, etc. to a password protected web site for parental access. To date the program is under utilized. I believe that with continued teacher training and incentive, combined with information campaigns targeted to parents, regular communication between the classroom and the home will prove to be one of the districts' greatest uses of technology.

School to Work Programs: The ultimate purpose of education is to give our youth every advantage when they enter the work force and take their places within the community, and to likewise furnish local business and industry with a qualified work force. Programs such as Fine Arts, Industrial Arts, Job Training, The California Partnership Academies and Partners in Education are equal in every way to the "three R's" (only one of which begins with R, by the way). Without ever taking away from the solid disciplines, I believe it is in the best interest of our children that we strengthen and expand those programs that equip them to make smooth transitions into society and career.