In response to Bob Roszak's letter ("Let's evaluate education leaders," April 26), allow me to say: "Way to go, Bob."
Mr. Roszak has found the answer to the problem: Let's evaluate the state Department of Education the same way it has decided to evaluate teachers. It is obvious to me the people responsible for creating these tests have never set foot in a classroom. They have never met a third-, fourth- or fifth-grader. If they had, they would never ask them to sit for 70 minutes and read and write with no break. By the end of the third day of the English Language Arts tests, the better students were struggling and the struggling students were done. We had tears, stomachaches and kids that just stopped doing their best.
No child should be made to feel like a failure. If you want kids to be ready for college and have the stamina to read and write for 70 minutes with no break, ease them into it and be sure they are actually developmentally ready.
Finally, why not ask for teacher input when creating these tests? Someone may find we are actually quite good at what we do, and we know kids.
Susan Lynch
Cohoes