BrigantineNOW Letter to the Editor. \u00a0Brigantine Taxpayers Association Misrepresenting Schools,\u00a0by Veronica McEvoy….\u00a0As a mother of six who presently has four children enrolled in the Brigantine School system, and as a Brigantine taxpayer, I was quite dismayed at the Brigantine Taxpayers Association\u2019s advertisement in the Jan. 31 The Beachcomber News.<\/p>\n
The question they asked is \u201cAre Brigantine\u2019s schools failing their students?\u201d\u00a0I knew right there and then that they were not intimately knowledgeable with what really goes on, day in and day out, in our beloved Brigantine Schools.<\/p>\n
I firmly do not believe our \u201cproperty-tax dollars and the students\u2019 time are wasted\u201d by our school system. The factors are many that influence how well students do on standardized tests. They include students\u2019 outside and after-school experiences, students\u2019 innate intellectual ability, socioeconomic factors, parental involvement and students\u2019 motivation. This is according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development cited work by Freeman and Associates at Michigan State University.<\/p>\n
A student\u2019s report card, homework grades, and good character is much more credible evidence of overall achievement than the ASK test taken once a year. Test scores are a rough estimate of a student\u2019s status with respect to the content domain represented by the test. See \u201cWhy Standardized Tests Don’t Measure Educational Quality,\u201d by W. James Popham.<\/p>\n
For over 10 years the BTA\u2019s President Anne Phillips has been berating the test scores of our schools. But in that same time frame, many hundreds of Brigantine students have been going on to do wonderful things with their lives and in the lives of others. Many were in the top 10 percent of the high schools they attended, and then on the dean\u2019s lists in college in many prestigious colleges and universities all over this nation.<\/p>\n
They have gone off to study in different parts of this world; they have gone off to careers in engineering, science, medicine, acting, teaching, travel and tourism, accounting, aviation, the arts and the military, including our service academies, basic training facilities and Army and Navy ROTC programs. That is the true measure of success of our schools here in Brigantine.<\/p>\n
I ask members of the Brigantine Taxpayers Association, when was the last time you attended a winter or spring concert, the school\u2019s nationally acclaimed Arts Night, or Student Awards night? The door was always open for you. Were you afraid to look in?<\/p>\n
Parents with children seek out and move to Brigantine just so they can send their children to our schools. They are not fooled. They are grateful for our education system, and so are my children and I.<\/p>\n
Please stop playing politics with our children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
Veronica McEvoy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BrigantineNOW Letter to the Editor. \u00a0Brigantine Taxpayers Association Misrepresenting Schools,\u00a0by Veronica McEvoy….\u00a0As a mother of six who presently has four children enrolled in the Brigantine School system, and as a Brigantine taxpayer, I was quite dismayed at the Brigantine Taxpayers Association\u2019s advertisement in the Jan. 31 The Beachcomber News. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[314,215,31],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n