-
- September
26, 2001
-
- George
Stevens
- 202
C Street. M.S. 10-A
- San
Diego, CA 92101
Dear George
I have been thinking about your surprise appearance last evening at the Board of Education meeting and about your remarks to us. I have had time to reflect overnight, and I hope you will take my sincere comments to heart.
First of all, since one of my obligations is to educate the public about public education, allow me to explain to you about the SAT 9 scores. For year 2001 compared to year 2000, scores for all grades but two are slightly down or flat in reading and math and there is a bigger gap in both subject areas between the scores of poor children of color and the scores of more affluent white children. These are the true facts about all test scores for this moment in time, and they are the true facts about the "achievement gap" that the expensive "Blueprinit" was designed to address.
Is anyone happy about these results? No. Are we continuing to try to refine educational reform to address these shortcomings? Of course. Should the Superintendent have told the truth about the scores, and then gone on to explain to the public that education is a complex process that is not always marked by a simple upward trajectory in test scores? Yes, he should have, but he didn't. Instead, the Superintendent spent public money producing a campaign-style postcard and fooled around with statistical data to make this year's test results look better than they really are.
I certainly don't need to tell you it is absolutely unacceptable to spin the truth, in these or any other circumstances. You heard a courageous report from Mr. de Beck setting the record straight. It's difficult to do what he did, and it is upsetting then to be demonized and lectured for having done the right thing. John de Beck and I care deeply about good public education for kids, about honesty and the democratic process- three things in woeful short supply in San Diego City Schools at present.
Sincerely,
Frances O'Neill Zimmerman
FOZ:fr
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|
