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Everyone, not just kids, is being tested

Durango School District 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger made a gallant attempt at a forum Jan. 22 to roll out the realities of assessment facing 9-R as it tries to board the train carrying the state and national education standards. It is the right thing to do, and make no mistake, it is not easy. It is not easy on the students, teachers or the administrators trying to make it happen.

Building capacity never is. People, not just kids, are being tested at a rate unprecedented in history. They are being tested on learning a new skill set sometimes every five years just to keep employed, tested to figure out the complexities of their finances, their health care, their ability to survive in a social structure we see evolving daily.

Gas and oil will not always be here to bring the good-paying jobs we are lucky to have. As the fire chief at Upper Pine, I have had a firefighter/paramedic position open for almost a year with a livable wage and great bunch of people to work with. Too many are hampered by the shortage of paramedics because of a lack of education on basic skills needed to achieve that career and produce a pool to choose from. Those basic skills include being able to reduce a medication by a fractional amount to administer the right dose in a life-threatening emergency under stress or being able to read and comprehend training manuals written at a 12th-grade reading level. As an employer holding the public trust, I am not willing to settle for a lesser standard that would compromise public safety.

The implementation of state and national standards is a heavy lift, but when did we quit wanting the best education for kids? I want my kid’s education to make him competitive with the kid from Singapore on critical thinking, competitive with the kid from the Indian subcontinent on math and science, and competitive with the kids from the Front Range for a spot in a Colorado university.

Bruce Evans

Bayfield



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