LETTERS.

Negroni's View of Courage

Peter Negroni's article, "The Right Badge of Courage" (February 1999), was right on target in identifying an increasing concern with board-superintendent relationships.

Standing up righteously for a principle at the wrong time is obviously a case of winning the battle and losing the war. Such a Pyrrhic victory that ends a superintendent's tenure in a district too often creates a vacuum in leadership at the very time it is needed most. In Hartford, Conn., we now have had six superintendents (appointed and interim) in the last seven years!

While not easily accomplished, board members and superintendents all need to spend more time as Negroni suggests in searching for understanding through thoughtful and extended dialogue. Effective and sincere communication is an essential element in achieving the longevity and continuity critical for long-term educational improvement.

I will be assigning Negroni's article to my educational leadership students for some very timely reading and discussion.

HERNAN LaFONTAINE

Professor of Educational Leadership,

Southern Connecticut State University,

New Haven, Conn.

New Ways of Assessing

After 35 years as a public educator, including the last 15 as superintendent in Kennett Square, Pa., I became the person in charge of marketing and sales for K-12 education for Vantage Technologies in Yardley, Pa. Given my interest in assessment, I found the articles in the December 1998 issue about value-added assessment very interesting.

During those years I always seemed to be chasing better ways to be accountable for the education of children. When I retired I intended to find a way to provide superintendents with better and more effective ways to be accountable for that product. I found as a practicing superintendent there were too many other day-to-day issues that prevented me from doing this.

In my new role, I am working to market a product that is capable of doing student assessment over the Internet. For example, a 300-word essay written by a student can be evaluated in about 20 to 30 seconds. The cost is far more reasonable than having more than one person read and evaluate the essay. The reliability between this process and having two people read the essay is very high.

The College Board is extremely interested in the process and several junior colleges are using the process to assign students to freshman writing classes. This spring we have several pilot school districts on board.

LARRY BOSLEY

Director of Marketing and Sales,

Vantage Technologies,

Yardley, Pa.

Why Religious Instruction?

After reading the January 1999 issue regarding religion in the schools, I was struck by the instinct of the writers to open the public schools to the teaching of religion as long as it is not indoctrination. This is a popular stance, but it calls for school personnel to walk an extremely fine line that can be easily crossed.

Further, if public school people take on as another assignment the topic of religion, they will need to have additional training since most of us only have depth of understanding in one faith and would be hard pressed to adequately present to students the tenets of other beliefs.

Ah, another challenge for public schools, and it is one that is not likely to be tested on the children's annual assessment.

KARL V. HERTZ 

AASA Past President,

Thiensville, Wis.

Worthy Insights on Religion

I would like to commend your magazine for addressing the difficult topic of religion and education in January.

The authors not only demonstrated an excellent understanding of the deeper issues at stake, but also an appreciation of what fairness toward religious perspectives might imply for public education. Warren Nord ("The Relevance of Religion to the Curriculum") in particular displays insight into the relationship between religion and the curriculum that is rare.

Few others in education appear to understand the philosophical assumptions and world view they are imparting to children. Even if they do, they may not understand the need for fairness in their presentation. Hopefully, your magazine's contribution to this topic will help administrators and educators address this issue.

PERRY L. GLANZER

Education and Religious Liberty Analyst, Focus on the Family,

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Good Resource on Common Ground

Our school district in Ojai, Calif., has been training teams on religion in the schools and developing policies similar to what Joe Annicharico Jr. described in his January article ("Common Ground Principles at Work").

Our district's common ground committee, which focused on the role of religion in our schools, evolved out of two teacher mentorships--one on issues of diversity and the other on K-12 conflict resolution programs and peer mediation. In my search for communities that successfully have resolved issues around this topic, I read Annicharico's article about the Ramona, Calif., schools, as well as the piece by Charles Haynes ("Religion in the Public Schools").

Two years ago, our district brought Oliver Thomas, Haynes' partner in much of his writing, to Ojai to address all our teachers and several community members, and we subsequently have had teams of teachers attend the "3 R's" training.

What we learned from our work with mentor teachers, from Ramona's experience and from the writings of Haynes and Thomas is the need for wide community involvement in this topic. All of these efforts have confirmed that outreach is crucial.

GWEN GROSS

Superintendent, Ojai Unified School District,

Ojai, Calif.