Travis Manning

The career ladder and tiered licensure plan is not the answer. The bill makes teachers accountable for conditions over which they have little or no control. Tying student test scores to teacher pay is flat out unethical.

We have reached a testing crisis in Idaho and Common Core hasn’t helped. As a current high school English teacher, I know. We are over-testing children, including the new eight-hour Common Core test: the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

IDVA may have violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) which protects student work and private information.

While Idaho Education News does a decent job allowing for a diverse cadre of op-eds, it has much work to do regarding selection of news topics and the angle and trajectory from which it reports on these topics.

Conflicts of interest abound when education corporations like Teach For America get involved in the “business” of education.”

Bipartisan support for improving schools with Common Core State Standards hasn’t come without criticism, and the naysayers are growing. Ask Idaho educators what they think.

Lawmakers should share data results or not use that data to justify their decisions.

The Idaho Legislature needs to follow its constitutional mandate and take responsibility for making sure districts have all the necessary operational funds.