Letters: TESTING A CHARTER

Letters to the Editor, LA Times | http://lat.ms/KYoE9Q

Re "When a charter is failing," Editorial, May 11

May 15, 2012  ::  The Times' editorial on Academia Semillas del Pueblo in El Sereno underscores the primacy of standardized testing and its reputed ability to measure student learning.

Presumably, standardized tests measure what educational bureaucrats deem as knowledge and learning. But many Mexican American and Latino educators understand that test scores have never accurately measured student knowledge, creativity and potential.

The Times ignores internationally recognized and certified educational specialists, such as the staff of the International Baccalaureate, and community members in El Sereno who acknowledge impressive student learning at Semillas. The editorial affirms the logic of the status quo of education: an unquestioning adherence to standardized learning, standardized testing and standardized appraisals by pro-corporate educational interests.

Semillas is successful because the school holds students to a higher set of comprehensive and international standards.

Irene Vasquez

Albuquerque

• The writer is an associate professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico.
• 4LAKids agrees with Dr. Vásquez premise, but, in the interest of full disclosure - from her UNM bio: Irene Vásquez has served as a co-founder and Council of Trustees member for Academia Semillas del Pueblo, a public charter school located in El Sereno, California. In 2005, she was appointed to the Mayor’s Education Advisory Council for the City of Los Angeles.