Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Every politician and appointee seems to have all the answers to our public schools problems. It amazes me how few of these people have actually taught in those schools.

A challenge to President-elect Barack Obama and Education Secretary-designate Arne Duncan [front page, Dec. 17]: Take the entire staff from the worst-performing D.C. school and swap it with the one at the best-performing school. Then see what happens to test scores.

This would be a cheap way to find out whether school reform is worth everything being invested in it. If teachers really are the difference, scores will go up at the bad school and down at the good one. But I think you will find, as most teachers already know, that socioeconomic status affects scores far more than teaching methods.

ROBERT SHELVOCK

Weed, Calif.

The writer is a math teacher with the Department of Defense Education Activity program.