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Friday
March 29th, 2024
L&T Opinions Page

letter to the editor logoLETTER TO THE EDITOR, Starley Craig, Liberal

 

USD No. 480 plans on spending more than $300,000 on some new programs for next school year. This figure does not include future programs that may catch the staff’s and board’s eyes. This is a list of programs to be adopted for USD No. 480. There are actually more, but this is a good sample:

1. Goalbook toolkit.

2. Tripod survey.

3. Family pulse survey.

4. The 7C Student Perception.

5. Kagan Strategies.

6. MAP skills.

7. MAP accelerator.

purple wave article may

I’ll give you the information supplied by the manufacturer as to the value and purpose of a couple of these new programs. See if you can tell what program is being advertised to the board in the description supplied by the company:

What program promises to “improve student outcomes by increasing teacher effectiveness and efficiency?”

Which one “helps teachers identify student present levels that are data driven and help teachers create goals?”

Which program “provides USD No. 480 to monitor SEL competency, family engagement, student perception and teacher perception?”

I would be willing to bet that members of this board could not name the program they just bought from the blurb that companies provided them within the sales pitch.

I would also bet that not one of you could restate the sales pitch of these programs in concrete terms and/or provide a working definition of those terms.

It has also occurred to me that these programs cannot be evaluated. How does a principal know if a teacher is more “effective and efficient?” Exactly how do you know? Do you get your money back if your teachers are not more effective and efficient? How would you know?

School programs should be purchased Q.E.D. (EDITOR’S NOTE — Q.E.D. is a Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum, meaning “which was to be demonstrated” and literally means “what can be shown.”). We still earned an F rating by using one-size-fits-all, generic materials.

 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Reita Isaacs, Liberal

 

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