Lincoln, we have a problem.
Why? Here are the numbers for K-8 Lincoln Public Schools from niche.com: 59% [of students are] proficient in math, 61% proficient in English. What grade do you get with 61% on a report card? You get an F for failure. We spent $13 million a year for our schools and this is what we get.
People with the ability to pay $40,000 a year take their kids out of Lincoln schools and put them in private schools like Fenn. You know many families that have done this.
We are not traditionally rigorous in teaching. One parent told me she “liked that her son was not pushed too hard in school.” This is a poor foundation which is a recipe for failure in future grades and in life.
I have a solution they will not cost any money:
- Written homework every night that is graded and handed back the next morning with a traditional percent grade.
- The final exam every week on what you learned that week.
- A report card every Monday morning with average scores of homework and grades on the final exam with a rank in class.
I experienced this program for three years in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Then I went through Central Catholic high school in Lawrence and it was easy. I graduated with a degree in economics from Georgetown University and felt 100% confident that I could learn anything.
If these ideas makes sense to you, I ask for your vote on March 28 for Lincoln School Committee.
Thank you,
Joseph Dwyer
6 Emerson Rd., Lincoln
jaysp51d@gmail.com
603-560-1787
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Dear Mr. Dwyer,
With respect, I disagree with you completely. Standardized test scores will never measure nor give clarity to the full picture of any child’s proficiencies and capabilities. That you quote them as an assessment of the Lincoln Public Schools is shortsighted.
Please read the body of work detailing how nightly homework does not promote learning. Please read the body of work about assessment strategies which truly highlight children’s knowledge (exams fall short in this regard). If parents are not aware of their children’s progress in school – the whole student experience – then Lincoln Public Schools would be better served in supporting the parents than producing weekly report cards.
My children attended the Lincoln Public Schools and Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School. Both were well prepared for LS.
My son is now at college studying environmental science with a grade point average of 86% in his first year. My daughter has already been accepted at two prestigious universities and we’re waiting to hear from the last few before she has the opportunity to decide which to attend. Both with academic scholarship awards.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Is there room for improvement? Of course! But, for LPS, what you identify are outdated answers for a problem which doesn’t exist. You seem profoundly unaware of what students actually need. Especially after emerging from a global pandemic! Try taking a look at Lexington’s historically high student suicide rate. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/education/edlife/overachievers-student-stress-in-high-school-.html)
Let’s give our students the opportunity to grow, to explore, to question, to wonder, to ponder. Let’s create in them a sense of self and a sense of self worth. Let it be our mission to nurture the whole child – mind, body, and spirit.
Sincerely,
Margit Griffith
9 Oak Knoll Road
Thank you Margit.