LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- April 10, 2007
To The Editor;
Parents of students in Grades 4 and 7 may be aware of the government's bureaucratic Foundation Skills Assessment plan. These tests are administered over a two-week period in May. The results are unfortunately used by the privately funded Fraser Institute to rank schools. Parents are sent their child's results the following school year.
Teachers are concerned about FSAs for the following reasons: 1) Valuable time is taken away from teaching a rich curriculum and is instead used to "teach to the test." More and more school districts expect teachers to prepare their students for the FSAs in order to achieve better results. Teachers and parents know the good work going on in schools to benefit their students cannot be measured by a standardized test.
2) The cost of administering FSAs is approximately $60 million annually. Compare this to the $10 million spent on textbooks for schools already struggling with stretched resources.
3) The government does not provide additional resources to schools whose rankings are low thereby making the process futile, and hindering real efforts to improve student progress.
Teachers are not alone in their thinking. UBC Dean of Education Rob Tierney, and SFU Dean of Education Paul Shaker, have spoken out on the futility, unfairness, and harm of standardized testing such as the FSAs.
Shaker says, "It's unprecedented that you can see such a simplistic kind of ranking used to such an extent."
Teachers believe in authentic assessment. They believe:
a) a wide variety of assessment tools such as quizzes, homework, tests, reports, and oral presentations are examples of real and authentic assessment that truly measure student progress.
b) reporting to parents formally through report cards, and informally through meetings and conversations, is the best way to report on student progress.
c) in a fully funded quality public education where every student can fulfill their individual promise and aspirations.
Finally, consider this. Countries who properly fund public education, and who do not focus on standardized testing, traditionally rank in the top 10 internationally. Finland and Sweden are examples of two of the top-ranking countries according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. Compare this to countries who use standardized tests as a way of measuring student progress.
The United States stresses standardized testing and punishes poorer performing schools by taking away funding. It traditionally ranks around 35th in the world.
Teachers ask: why would our provincial government follow the United States model, which is failing its public education system and thereby its students, rather than a successful model like Finland's?
Below are listed several web links providing more information:
www.bctf.ca/IssuesInEducation.aspx?id=5528 - www.educ.sfu.ca/news_item/a-great-debate. Scroll down and read "BC's worst
school just may be its best," by Gary Mason:
http://www.educ.sfu.ca/news_item/BC_School.pdf
www.cbc.ca/news/media/seven.html (this segment features a CBC story on BC's lowest- ranked school).
- Jinny Sims, President BCTF
To The Editor;
Recent statistics state that one in four BC children live in poverty. BC's rate of child poverty is the highest in Canada.
How does the accountability scheme and standardized testing Foundation Skills Assessments affect the students we have in our classrooms that are living in poverty? Roosevelt Park Elementary School in Prince Rupert, which has a high poverty rate and is consistently ranked as the lowest academic school in BC, has numerous examples of quality programs as reported by a recent CBC television program.
The results of FSA tests do not assess the learning ability of students living in poverty. They simply sort out the most vulnerable students who will more likely be judged as failures based on the test results.
The BC School Trustees Association states on their website that public education is the great equalizer. It is the means by which people of diverse languages, cultures, and socio-economic circumstances come together as a society. In Canada, our commitment to public education open and available to all is a key element in shaping the way our society has evolved and will continue to evolve.
This is contrary to what is happening in BC schools with the accountability scheme and FSAs. Our students living in poverty are at a definite disadvantage and the education system is not a great equalizer for them.
By withdrawing their students from the Foundation Skills Assessments, parents can stop the accountability scheme, so all students can get back to learning and teachers can get back to teaching.
Making students accountable for test scores works well on a bumper sticker and it allow many politicians to look good by saying they will not tolerate failure. But it represents a hollow promise. Far from improving education, high stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality, and from equity. - Senator Paul Wellstore (1944-2002).
- Robert Tarswell, Princeton
To The Editor;
I would like to thank the Princeton community for their generous support to our thrift shop. The money made from your donations helped the auxiliary to purchase new beds for the Princeton hospital.
Please continue to donate your used items to our thrift shops.
We now have spring and summer fashions in the store. Please come by for a visit.
Due to recent theft and vandalism, we are asking if you would drop off your contributions during store hours. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. You may also drop off your donations on Monday to Tuesday from 9:00 AM to 12 Noon and on weekends from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
On behalf of the hospital auxiliary members, we wish you had a Happy Easter!
- June Manning, President Princeton Hospital Auxiliary
To The Editor;
RE: Snow Golf
Ron and I entered the Snow Golf Tournament that was held in Tulameen on March 3rd with some of our friends. It was a fundraiser for breast cancer.
We would like to congratulate the "Sweater Kittens" and all volunteer helpers that worked very hard to create this successful and very enjoyable event.
We had a great time and enjoyed ourselves very much as I am sure did all others who participated.
Keep up the good work - we're looking forward to next year!
- Anne Jones, Coalmont
To The Editor;
It is amazing to learn that by use of the chem trails which I have been writing about that the lives of humans worldwide have been test subjects.
In the last week I have witnessed the spraying of the powdered chemicals over the Princeton area on a daily basis.
When the sun is setting there is a spectacular florescent hue visible in the clouded areas from those chemicals that are admittedly part of the ground cover for our so-called protection.
It is hard to believe that the medical profession is not aware of the cause of so many serious illnesses and deaths of those whose immune systems have been compromised. A few years ago the majority of the herd of about 240 Big White Horned Sheep in the South Okanagan were found dead. An autopsy revealed that they had succumbed to the same bacterial pneumonia that many humans had died from that same winter. Friends in Oliver had observed the daily thick and constant aerosol spraying above them with many tanker planes involved in the attack of germ warfare.
The laboratory created RNA, aluminum oxide, ethylene bromide, barium salts, polymer fibres, etc. hold a plethora of risk for humans as well as all animals, birds, fish, insects, etc. There are less bees now to pollinate the agricultural needs for our very own food supply. The classified technology of giant corporations like Monsanto is obtained in conjunction with the attempt to lock down food and water. The electro-sensitivity of the soil itself will eventually only allow genetically modified crops to grow.
Ionization of these sprayed particles also causes many forms of radiation to rain down upon the unsuspecting populace of the world as well as lensing programs to dehydrate land and dry up water supplies. The big lie of the New World Order is that a shield is needed because the atmosphere has been depleted.
So we find that the High Frequency Active Auroral Towers Project which has opened up the ozone layer the size of our continent is involved with creating that need within all life on the surface of the planet by spraying conductive materials which inevitably ends up in the soil, water, food and the air we breath.
So much for Harper's Clean Air Act!
The chemical porridge being dumped on us causes neurological imbalances as well as heart and lung problems which critics claim allows our DNA to be infiltrated and re-arranged by acting like a vaccination program upon the entire global population. There will never be enough educated doctors to treat the people with these increased cases of flu-like symptoms because antibiotics won't help but will in fact weaken ones own immune system.
On top of the realization that the main goal of the NWO is control of food and water through weather modification, a TV news item warns us about an excessive number of storms that will be hitting the East Coast this summer according to the Atmospheric (HAARP) Groups.
The invisible Money Masters also brag about the great inroads that have been made concerning electronic coercion through thought entrainment and other electronic stimulus that preceded the spraying of conductive materials with the widespread use of cell phones. It is the contention of researchers that cell phones are just a cover for the deployment of broadcast towers
which is a necessary adjunct to mind control and automated law enforcement.
These are the means planned to control the masses.
Will the Save Our Similkameen Organization be instrumental in stopping the weapons of mass destruction and jet fuels from permeating our atmosphere by U.N. and U.S. planes flying over our sovereign air space bombarding us since 1995?
Will the masses in our South Okanagan and Similkameen area join forces with others to protest the illegal use of chemical warfare that causes us to become electro-sensitive creatures for the unsolicited testing for control by the NWO or death by starvation?
- Kay Hardy, Princeton
To The Editor;
I would like to commend Monty Raine's excellent letter to the editor in the March 27th News Leader "Raine has his say."
It was certainly the best letter that I have read in a long time. He pointed out the true facts of the situation that Princeton faces unless we can bring industry or business to create jobs for young people with families.
I don't recall that the fancy brochure put out by our council had that priority.
- Ruby Cappos, Princeton
