School tests ‘measuring poverty’ rather than student ability

Regarding “Test scores are down in NC public schools. What needs to change?” (Sept. 5): The public does not know the actual formula that is used to calculate school grades. This secrecy is problematic because schools do not know exactly how to improve upon unknown metrics.

What we do know is that the grading system correlates strongly with the socioeconomics of the school, as the article states. As long as the test scores are measuring poverty instead of the ability of students, teachers and schools, the system is inequitable.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson and the General Assembly need to reveal the formula for calculating school grades. Then they need to adjust the formula to account for socioeconomics of the schools. If this cannot be done, then it is time to do away with the school grades system. We need to find a more equitable way to measure students potential and growth.

We also need to fully fund public education so that the socioeconomics of the students in the school do not determine the outcomes. We can and must do better.

Push envelope

I couldn’t agree more with the letter to the editor ‘Wrong foot’ (Sept. 5) concerning efforts to refurbish Dix Hospital as a hotel. The buildings on the Dix campus should be evaluated by professionals for historic value, but their preservation should not be stipulated as part of the park plan.

My hunch is that the buildings are not historically valuable nor can they be refurbished economically. If there is a need for buildings in the park, invite a world-class architect to design a building that pushes the envelope for design and architectural beauty, a building that can be a proud emblem of Raleigh and the Triangle.

I’ve often joked that the prevailing architectural style in the Triangle is “low-bid,” with a few rare exceptions. PNC Arena, that green wedding cake seen from Wade Avenue, is a prime example.

Elegant architecture can change the perception of a city, for both residents and visitors. Dix Park could be the right place to assert a new style for the 21st-century Triangle.

‘What’s the rush?’

Regarding “Gerrymandered districts stay for 2018 election” (Sept. 5): How can an election using congressional districts that have been ruled unconstitutional possibly be legitimate? How can any representative elected in this way be considered a legal legislator? The decision to go forward in this manner just boggles the mind.

What’s the rush? Would it be so terrible to redraw the districts and move the election back a month? North Carolina politics are already a morass of pettiness, divisiveness and eternal lawsuits. But this decision moves us into new territory. We are about to become like a corrupt third-world country, holding elections that are totally meaningless.

‘Heritage?’

May I offer some perspective on how I imagine many black Americans feel about monuments honoring Confederates?

Think about how you would feel if a mosque erected a monument to celebrate the 9/11 hijackers who gave their lives as defenders of religious freedom for persecuted Muslims.

Would you call that “honoring their heritage?”

Remember Carr

Following the recent toppling of Silent Sam on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill due in part to hateful words uttered by Julian Carr at the statue’s unveiling, there is now a call to change the name of the town for which Carr is named – Carrboro. But as Rob Christensen recently noted in “Profs ignore Duke’s past to shun Carr” (Sept. 2), Julian Shakespeare Carr was indeed a man of many dimensions.

A wealthy industrialist, he donated enough land to Trinity College to save it from bankruptcy, allowing its renamed successor Duke University to prosper. He donated most of his wealth to local universities; he was a pioneer in hiring blacks at his textile mills and helped launch the career of the man who then founded NC Mutual Life, which became one of the nation’s most successful black-owned businesses.

In short, there was a lot of good in the man to offset the ugliness of some of his words. To that end, may I suggest a compromise between those who think Carrboro should be renamed and those who think Julian Carr, for better or worse, deserves to be remembered: Carrville.

This story was originally published September 6, 2018 at 12:16 PM.