Convictions

Just got done with my meeting with our staff to kick off the new school year and had to start by apologizing to them for not having the guts to follow through with my convictions.

Two years ago I told our Commissioner of Education at a conference that we needed to scrape our state assessment testing and go with the ACT or something else where we can compare apples to apples outside of Kansas. Well McPherson, Kansas, has had enough guts to tell the state they are no longer giving the state assessments since they don't have relevance. The state school board has given their blessing to doing this, McPherson is now seeing how it will effect their federal funding. They will MAPP test lower elementary, give the ACT Explore to the upper elementary, ACT Plan to junior high, and ACT to high school.

Bully for them and I guarantee I will not sit back any longer and do nothing, the subject we are talking about is to important: young people's education. We are in the student learning business, not the the teaching business and I am going to let my feelings known.