I attended the Jan. 29 public hearing at Jackson Liberty High School in Jackson that was held by the Study Commission on the Use of Student Assessments in New Jersey — not as a parent, school administrator or teacher, but just as an observer and a concerned citizen regarding the future education of our children in New Jersey.
We should be allowing our teachers to do what they do best — teach our children, and not teach to take the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test.
More parents should inform themselves and be very concerned. Concentration is no longer on basic skills, creative and critical thinking, science and math. Each student is an individual and not a “cooperative” experimental project. Implementing the Common Core curriculum and the PARCC test will take hours in prep time and cost millions of dollars to implement and maintain while ignoring our students’ potential and love of learning.
Tell our politicians and school administrators that we do not want this experiment and give back the funding to the federal government. Opt out, New Jersey, as other states have. Our children are not science experiments by people who know nothing about education.
Look up Bill Gates and Pearson Education Inc. They do not have the best interest of our children at heart. We do — the people of New Jersey.
Joan Laauser
Millstone Township