Our School Board apparently does not believe it has a role in curriculum or schedule and defers to the Administration. This is counterintuitive. The School Board employs the administration and should have total oversight to all facets of local education. It is the School Board that is accountable to the parents and citizens/taxpayers comprising RSU1. School Board members must do their own research, assessment and discussions regarding every aspect of education without regard to the preferences of the administration. If current policies and processes are in place that prevent such scrutiny of the administration and curriculum by the board then those policies and processes must be overturned and replaced.
The local curriculum is not preparing our students adequately. We have students in high school that cannot read, write or perform basic math functions. Our high school has failed to meet AYP again this year and has not met it for several years. This is alarming and it didn't start in high school -- we need to look at our total curriculum and the review must include teachers, parents and the public not a handful of administrators. This meeting, we focused on math:
Are our students better prepared for high school and college math, like Algebra I, II, Geometry and Calculus, by NOT being taught basic algorithms, long division, rote multiplication and the like?
How can a student audit their work if they don't understand how to break complex mathematical statements into smaller components and troubleshoot logical errors?
Is educational excellence obtained by starting in the middle of the math book because the schedule (4x4) doesn't allow time to refresh last years' lessons after a summer vacation or a summer vacation plus a semester?
The high school teachers didn't create these constraints but they are working very hard to overcome them. Is that the best we can offer our students? It is something to consider.
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