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Questions
The League of Women Voters has made every effort to present accurately the candidates' responses as they were submitted.
1. What are the major issues facing the State School Board today?
1. Make public education in our state more consumer-friendly.
2. Address the issue of class size reduction.
3. Balance accountability with meaningful testing - do we test too much?
4. Increase student participation rates in higher education - address drop outs
5. Preserving & growing our Trustlands permanent fund so that it can make a vital contribution to funding the education of our children and our children's children.
2. What is your position on these issues?
1. One size fits all education needs to be changed to personalized solutions for every student.
2. Class size reduction funding should be awarded on a need basis and should be adjusted annually to reflect K-8 enrollment changes.
3. Change from a system of assessment OF learning to assessment FOR learning. Our end-of-year tests are essentially autopsies of what has happened in a student's education. Results aren't known to the student, parent & teacher until the next school year. I support an investment in technology that would allow student to be tested online throughout the year as part of their class curriculum and give immediate feedback to the student, teacher & parents. This "test as you go" philosophy would enable our teachers to address student needs on the spot and end-of course testing exams could be eliminated.
3. Fewer and fewer Utah seniors are going on into higher education. This adversely effects their future earnings capability and our State's overall economy. Utah's exit exam (UBSCT) should be replaced by the ACT college-entrance test. This would give every Utah student a ticket into higher ed with an adequate score; students and parents would no longer have to pay additional fees for this required entrance test, every student would know if college was an option, students with disabilities would need appropriate or alternative accommodations for testing. One of every 10 Utah students is Hispanic. The Utah dropout rate for Hispanics is about 50%. ELL and academic help is desperately needed throughout our system to help these students succeed.
5. In the last 7 years the amount of Trustlands money given to every school has grown from 5 million to 20 million dollars. These dollars are expended by each local school to address that school's most pressing academic need as determined by parents and staff. This asset must be protected and allowed to grow. Parents should retain their power in saying how these funds are spent at the local level.
Opponent:
Trent E. Kaufman
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