Why not try another company?

Re: Testing the limits, May 2. 

               If it isn't "easy hiring hundreds of college-educated people to
               read answer sheets day in and day out for modest pay," why
               not solve the problem by offering a salary that is
               commensurate with the education requirements of the
               position? 

               I guess the logic of the state of Florida is that as teachers are
               not paid what they're worth, why pay FCAT scorers a fair
               salary? 

               In Michigan, retired teachers are hired at a fair salary to
               score state tests, and that state has no problems. In Florida,
               officials are talking about changing the school calendar and
               making all sorts of drastic changes to accommodate a
               scoring company that doesn't want to pay a fair salary. 

               Why not try another company? 
               -- Bill Sutschek, New Port Richey 

Playing politics with schoolchildren

Re: Bush school reforms get mixed grades, Oct. 11.

Gov. George W. Bush makes much of his educational achievements in Texas. I'm glad Diane Rado has pointed out some of the truths about his program:

Although Texas schoolchildren have improved on state tests, the nationwide test that really counts, - the SAT - shows no improvement. In fact, average scores are lower.

Donna Haschke, vice president of the Texas State Teachers Association, pointed out that even though Gov. Bush approved a $3,000 raise for teachers, the union is supporting Vice President Al Gore.

The conclusion is obvious: Teaching to the test may give politicians paper grades to help their campaigns, but the children are still being shortchanged. They are not learning.

And when I read about cutting out some of the harder questions on the FCAT, making it easier for kids and thus raising their scores, I wonder about Gov. Jeb Bush's plans for Florida. Are our children a political tool, too?

William F. Sutschek, New Port Richey
 

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 29. 2000:

Misplacing the dunce cap

Congratulations to the writer for an excellent letter reminding us that students are responsible for their education and that paying attention, behavior and hard work are requirements for that education. 

A hundred years ago, students who failed to do their work in school were made to wear dunce caps and sit in the corner.

Today, when a child fails to work, the bureaucrats want to put a dunce cap on the teachers! 
  -- Wm. F. Sutschek, New Port Richey 

Don't tie the teacher's hands

There is so much emphasis on rating teachers, I have to agree with Jade Moore's comment about "low-performing students." It is not necessarily the teacher's fault when students fail to meet standards.

Here is an almost hypothetical situation: Joey has been getting low C's in Mr. Standard's English class all year. On Florida Writes and FCAT, he earns the equivalent of a low C. Mary has been getting A's in Mrs. Friendly's English class all year. On Florida Writes and FCAT, she earns the equivalent of a low C. Which child has the better teacher?

We are trying, you know. We are trying very hard. Unfortunately, not all the children try as hard as we do. That teacher giving the lower grades is the teacher who is honestly assessing his students based on their achievement. Don't tie his hands. Give him the tools he needs to improve those grades: fewer students per class so he can give his students more individual attention; and the right to retain those students who don't meet his standards.

The rest is bureaucratic hogwash.
-- William F. Sutschek (a teacher with 30 years' experience),
New Port Richey

Focusing on FCAT scores shortsighted

Re: School teaches art of writing, music of math, Nov. 28

Well, I see that the teachers of Fox Hollow have obediently joined the rest of us in the statewide effort to "Teach to the Test." As we all focus on the almighty FCAT in our classrooms, one question nags at my mind: what part of our curriculum, the one that used to focus on well-rounded education, note-taking, organizing, appreciation of the arts, discussion of moral issues, etc., has been put aside?

Are we graduating educated children with broad and varied insights and vistas, with an appreciation of the humanities, or robot test-takers? Support the governor and pass the Ritalin, please.
-- Bill Sutschek, New Port Richey

Practice of inflating grades is insulting to teachers and students

Your wonderful article describes a problem I have been fighting as a teacher for nearly 30 years in two states. Articles such as yours, no matter how accurate, are usually ignored by administrators. When Pasco County School Board Chairwoman Kathleen Wolf choked back tears and pointed out that neither social promotion nor failure is acceptable, I have to ask, then what's left? Obviously, inflated grades. We are encouraged at every turn to give children undeserved grades. The latest stunt, I am told, is to make us file reports and individual plans for any student who is failing. Guess what? Already overburdened teachers will react by failing even fewer kids to avoid the paperwork.

You quoted Oscar Robinson as saying we need "better-trained teachers." That is the usual remark from pompous, foolish administrators who let education get where it is today.

Better-trained teachers are in the front lines, fighting the battle with kids and with supervisors whose only interest is good publicity. It's hard enough to make our lessons work in today's society, but harder yet when principles and ideals are destroyed by self-serving principals and idles who just want their schools to look good.

A good teacher should have honest grades. In my field, language arts, I have always tried to be honest with the children. A child who gets a 3 of 6 on the Florida Writes test is a C student and a good teacher should grade him accordingly. An A student who scores less than 5 on Florida Writes is not an A student and the teacher who gave him an A and put him on the honor roll is a liar, who cheated him into thinking he would do better on standardized tests.

Some years ago, in New York, I had a student who disliked me because I was the only teacher who didn't give him straights A's. He was above average, but in that school district, average was extremely low. Because those grades had given him an inflated image of himself, he applied for admission to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He was turned down by all three, and it broke his heart.

How many students do you know who were sent to college expecting to be doctors and lawyers, only to find out they couldn't hack it? I know several.

Inflated grades are a lie. They hurt students. We need to flunk kids who don't make the grade. All we have to do is flunk them once, show them we will not back down and most kids will do the required work to improve. Most don't do the work because they don't have to. And why should they?

William F. Sutschek, New Port Richey

Smaller class size is the key to a better education

wice recently you printed letters from erudite but misinformed people who said class size here in Florida averaged in the low 20s. That figure is the published propaganda of school administrations who include all kinds of special teachers with tiny or even no classes to bring down the ratio and make it look good. 

The true figure in the average classroom is 30 students or more. 

And that is what is wrong with education today. Politicians can leave all kinds of paper trails trying to prove they are helping, administrators can develop all kinds of standardized tests trying to prove that they are helping, but the thing that would help the most is simply to hire more teachers and lower class size. 

In the past six years, I've watched the size of my middle school language arts class go up slightly, a few kids each year, until now, at above 30, we have reached the point where our time is wasted on discipline, individualized work with students is almost impossible and writing cannot be properly taught. 

Florida Writes requires a properly organized essay of about 400 words. With 150 students, that means the writing teacher has to read and comment on 6,000 words with each assignment. How many teachers have the time to thoroughly grade 150 essays when they have so many other assignments to grade as well? It just can't be done well without cutting corners. 

And too many corners have been cut for too many years in public education. Schools need to publish the true class sizes. Then we need to make them smaller! 
-- William F. Sutschek, New Port Richey

Setting standards for children will help them learn
e: Promoting failure, June 1 and 2. 

Your editorials, in which you suggest that retention is no reason to assume success the second time around, are well-taken and compassionate, but you forget that this is an age of grade inflation as well as social promotion. 

In 30 years of teaching, I have never met a student who failed because he couldn't learn the concepts. He failed because he chose not to do the work! 

All teachers offer remediation to children who have difficulty understanding material in class. That's what teaching is all about. The problem is not a student's inability to learn; it's about the student's apathy, his inability to care if he succeeds in school. He knows he's going to be promoted anyway, so why should he bother to work hard? 

Today, a child can earn a passing grade simply by copying a friend's homework papers every night, but even that -- even that -- is more effort than some of these children are willing to make. 

If we set standards, and enforce them, children will learn that there are consequences for laziness, and do their work. Why is it so difficult for the educational hierarchy to understand this simple psychological concept? 
-- Bill Sutschek, New Port Richey