Thanks for the opportunity to respond to these questions, although I did have a conflict with the event I took the time to record my responses to the questions presented to the other school committee candidates. These responses are below – If you have questions PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out
Do standardized tests have problems? Sure. However, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research – standardized test scores, particularly how well you do on them correlate very strongly to your first year performance in college – even more so than GPA.
Second, in contrast with standardized test scores, high school GPA has relatively little predictive power for academic success during a student’s first year. Comparing students with a perfect 4.0 high school GPA to those with a 3.2 GPA – a gap of the same magnitude in the distribution of applicants as the test score gap discussed above – predicts a difference in first-year college GPA of less than 0.1.
I find this fascinating, and I think the move to test-optional admissions policies in college actually does a great amount of damage to the quality of student at an institution. I also find that High Schools who do not emphasize and assist in preparation for doing well on these standardized tests do great damage to their Seniors. We need to provide our children with every opportunity to succeed as they look toward college, and doing well on standardized testing is part of this, it’s common sense.
The cost of college is increasingly becoming too much of a burden for students to bear. In order to help students succeed many High Schools in Massachusetts have partnered with state and community colleges to offer dual enrollment programs. The Commonwealth Dual Enrollment Partnership (CDEP) allows high school students to take college level courses at low to NO cost – and the best part is students receive credit in high school AND college level course credits. These programs have existed and expanded since 2017.
Students in Sutton should be aware of this program and the opportunities it affords with the many colleges (private or community) in the area or, with the Commonwealth Collegiate Academy, any of the UMass System universities. In FY25 the commonwealth provided funding of about $5 million dollars for these partnership programs through a program called CDEP. This funding helps cover the costs to the district for textbooks and transportation. In my research I’ve noticed a few schools in the area offer this specifically as a dual enrollment option.
I believe that early college partnerships like this are critical to helping our Sutton High School students succeed and might be able to fill some of the gaps in programing that we might not be able to offer.
Sutton needs to focus on its core Math/English/Science needs. With underperformance as a District on our MCAS for Math/English/Science our system needs to make tough choices about where we are focusing our valuable educational resources. The school and school committee need to take a look at our course offerings and help refocus the curriculum to create opportunities where our students can succeed in these critical areas. Where there are resource gaps we need to partner with organizations and institutions to create pathways for our students to excel in these areas.
Please note that this is actual material from a homework assignment in the Sutton Schools. I write this as an example of where we need some common sense in our school systems. It remains unclear to me how this lesson gives our kids critical thinking skills or equips them to be independent thinkers and learners in the 21st century.
Children need to be equipped with the skills to search out and learn for themselves. They need to be taught how to learn and not simply what to learn. I was somewhat concerned when I read an article for an english class and came across this excerpt from the book:
The context of this was around diversity and stereotypes with the author making the point “When diversity is not valued, or when people are not allowed to share their own point of view, stereotypes show up instead.” To be clear I believe diversity is very important, but I object to the limited nature of Diversity portrayed in this excerpt. Notice that all the examples are based on a gender, ethnic or disability scenario. The clincher from the author goes on “Another way to challenge stereotypes is to care about representation. That means making sure that all perspectives get shared and people get to tell their own stories, especially people who haven’t had those opportunities in the past.”
As a parent I don’t see any evidence of the other side; rather there’s a single focus on reducing diversity to a simple equation “If you think this way, you are making a stereotype, stereotypes are bad, therefore you are bad.”
Going further kids are introduced to questions like this
As a parent, I encourage questions however I find the authors singular focus somewhat disturbing: “What’s ASMR?”, “What’s a refugee?”, “What do the letters in LGBTQ+ stand for?” Again I see diversity being reduced here from diversity of thought to a focus on certain subjects that, rather than tilting to the center, shift left. I highlight these examples to show that our kids are being fed material that encourages them to think a certain way rather than teaching them how to think.
As a parent, I would have loved to see some antithetical points – so for example an antithetical point to the question of “what is a refugee?” might be a countervailing question like “what are some challenges posed by mass migration?” Bringing an alternative thesis, even difficult ones help kids arrive at their own thoughts and help in the critical thinking process. It also helps provide a framework for people to think about all sides of an issue.
As a parent and if elected to the school committee I want to make sure all viewpoints are represented.
In hindsight and in thinking about this particular lesson common sense would dictate that it might have been better to present a lesson with less charged questions…
