District 51 works to boost achievement

As a seven-year member of the District 51 Board of Education, having served four years as president, I am glad to note the editors of The Daily Sentinel are interested in chievement scores in the district. We all are.

I can assure you no one takes measures of progress more seriously than the school board, district administration and the rest of our staff. All 3,000 employees in every department are committed to, and take responsibility for, the success of every student.

Yet the real story of student success can’t be boiled down to sound bites, headlines or test scores. There are many examples of success around the district. We are committed to building a district of excellence.

Our district is engaged in massive systemic change that is affecting instruction from preschool to graduation. We are making significant changes with high expectations. However, high expectations alone are not enough. High expectations with clearly identified support systems will bring about the change required. We are not just “tweaking” things. Systemic change takes time; there are no shortcuts to sustained improvement.

There have been and may continue to be bumps and disappointing test scores along the way, but we are confident that the research-based, proven systems and strategies we are putting into place will pay off.

Useful information from the recent CSAP results is being processed to plan for each student’s continuous improvement. We have not and will not give up on those students who have not reached proficiency. CSAP will continue to be an important measure for us to use. Yet it is irresponsible to make sweeping generalizations about results without an understanding of their intended use.

We believe all students can learn and are expanding ways to see that every student, every teacher and every principal has access to the tools they need for success. We are making the necessary changes in a fiscally responsible way, even though our 21,000 students are funded at the lowest rate in the state of Colorado.

Reform? Yes! Accountability? Absolutely! Change? Continuous! District 51 is committed to working with the community on the substantive changes that will make a real difference, not those that ensure short-term gains benefiting only those who seek political gain.

RON ROWLEY, memberSchool District 51
Board of Education
Clifton

Look to Arizonafor highway leadership

Arizona lawmakers are using a gutsy approach to solve mounting problems with financing road and street improvements. They are placing a proposal on the November ballot for a 1-cent statewide sales tax to pay the cost of improving city streets, county roads, state highways and transit.

They estimate $40 billion would be raised over 20 years through the sales tax.

Too bad nobody in Colorado has the intestinal fortitude to make a similar proposal. Our leaders’ approach seems to be to let everything deteriorate to the point the citizens demand a solution. So much for our brave leaders who seem to worry more about getting re-elected.

DICK PROSENCE
Meeker

Diseased rodentsare not endangered

I do not believe that the U.S. government is really considering placing plague-carrying rodents — prairie dogs — on the Endangered Species List. What’s next, sewer rats? Or maybe termites, but only after they invade and destroy a home? How about cockroaches?

I am more than willing to go out and capture a few thousand of these little critters and set them loose in government offices. Then they can see how cute and furry these little, diseased rodents are in real life.

TIM VRONAY
Clifton

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 8:36 am and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.