Why are WBCSD students scoring so low?

Since I am interested in young kids' education and learning, I requested a meeting with West Bonner County School District Superintendent Jackie Branum. She told me to come to a CCC meeting. I what that was. To me, CCC stands for Civilian Conservation Corps from the Great Depression in the 1930s.

I imagine nowadays in school, I wonder if they even teach about that. Anyway, she said some about CCC standing for critical, community, concerns. Anyway, I went to the meeting. Jackie Branum was very nice but started talking about something called quantitative learning or something like that. Again, I asked what the heck that was. After a long explanation, I still didn’t know what she was talking about. I said all I would like to know is how our kids in WBCSD stand compared to guidelines in the state of Idaho for reading, writing, and arithmetic. She said she didn’t have those figures in front of her, but would get them for me. When she did. I was shocked at how low we are scoring — way below Idaho standards. But so are most schools in Idaho. I don’t know what is going on to cause that.

Anyway, it seems that when you get involved with school stuff, nothing is simple, it is a bunch of words going around and around and figures all over the place, so a simple person like me just leaves with my head spinning. It seems it is too complicated for the average individual.

I know we have good teachers who know their stuff, but what is going wrong? That is the question. 

Roger Gregory

Priest River