Candidate for
Board Member; La Habra City School District

I believe that public education is the cornerstone of our democratic system. There has been a movement underway to privatize education and create a for profit system much like our failed health care system. This is the wrong way to go. We must put our resources and efforts into making significant changes in our public schools, if our democracy is to survive.

We need to stop meaningless standardized testing of students and focus on giving them the skills they need to be successful in our 21st century economy. Several recent studies by eduational experts have concluded that the current testing system emphasizing "summative assessment" is actually detrimental to student learning. This is the type of testing given at the end of the year, or even the end of a chapter. Assessment should DRIVE learning and teachers must continually evaluate student learning on a minute to minute basis while teaching. This type of "formative assessment" becomes a part of learning because it allows teachers to make immediate instructional adjustments while teaching, so that every student is learning. Critical thinking is a process and we must allow our teachers to utilize their creative talents to take our students through that process.

Only after student assessment becomes meaningful, can we discuss using that assessment as a factor in teacher evaluations. To use invalid test scores to evaluate teacher performance is nonsensical.