Letters

Letters to the Editor: East Rockaway, Lynbrook

Oct. 16-22, 2014

Posted

Kids’ safety should be the main priority

To the Editor:
It’s refreshing that Nassau County politicians are no longer even pretending that the school zone cameras are for the safety of our kids. This is simply an extortion scheme, so that they can proudly announce that they aren’t raising taxes — as if this isn’t a tax.

If they really cared about kids, then cameras and fines would be secondary. The priority would be installing signs and flashing lights at all schools, which they won’t even consider.

We’re not all fools, and we’ll remember this at the polls.

Daryl Altman , Lynbrook

Common misconceptions about Common Core

To the Editor:
I am writing about some of the complaints — some legitimate, some not — regarding the Common Core State Standards. There is a great deal of misinformation being spread regarding the Common Core.  Some of it is being instigated for political reasons — thinly veiled partisan politics. Other concerns are being generated by parents in school districts whose home values are tied to high-stakes tests, which, in my opinion, create unequal education. Other concerns are from teachers who are given another task for which they’re not prepared. Others are confusing the standards with high-stakes tests, which for-profit companies receive millions of dollars for developing, and the over-testing of children and youth. However, the biggest misconception is that the Common Core is a curriculum.  It is not.

The Common Core is a set of standards that all students are expected to meet. They can demonstrate their competency in myriad ways, not always through testing.  A curriculum determines what students learn — the content. The standards only expect that students achieve a set of skills to understand, synthesize and analyze content.  For example, one standard requires that students “Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.”

As a college teacher at a local university, I can say that I would love if my students could demonstrate that core competency.  Many of my students are ill-prepared for much of the college work that is required. I have to do a lot of catch-up and sometimes remedial work with students so that they can participate on the college level.  It would be a great thing for all — students, parents, policy makers and legislators — if we could raise the level of critical thinking skills of the general population, and use them to call out those who are attempting to misinform and misguide us.

Sara Hill, Baldwin