Hairston a good leader for Baltimore County schools

I was upset to see your editorial questioning Superintendent Joe Hairston's leadership of Baltimore County Public Schools ("Too much information," Jan. 11). As a parent of a child in Baltimore County Public Schools, I have been impressed with the system's efforts to continue improving how it tracks student achievement against the curriculum and state standards. Previously, you didn't know if your child was struggling until it was too late. With the testing and tracking system in place, it is possible to not only track an individual student's achievement but also an individual teacher's success compared to other teachers across the system. Students, teachers, schools, minorities can all be tracked so that decisions can be made to improve achievement before it is too late. There is time for intervention to take place that really makes a difference.

Although I'm not an expert on the Articulated Instruction Module program that is being criticized, I do know that under the leadership of Joe Hairston, Baltimore County has a school system we should all be proud of.

Cheryl Knauer, Parkville

Hairston does right by Baltimore County's kids

I was disappointed to read the criticism of Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston's leadership ("Too much information," Jan. 11). I have had three children go through the system, and I believe that the efforts to track students' progress should be commended.

Our county school system takes in such a widely diverse population that any standardized evaluation system will undoubtedly leave out many that stay under the radar. Mr. Hairston's willingness to try innovative systems and not stay with the comfortable status quo should be commended. Whether this program will ultimately prove to be the best choice or not, our children deserve leadership that is willing to take a chance for them.

Our school system remains one of the best in the nation and an asset to the community. This is not an accident but rather the result of hard work and tough choices. The leadership of Mr. Hairston will continue to keep our school system yet another reason to stay in Baltimore County.

Judi DiGioia, Timonium

Take a stand against AIM

Teaching is more than merely a job or even a profession, it's a passion. That's exactly why I started teaching seven years ago. There's no greater joy than to share the power of learning, thinking and knowledge with a child. It's not always easy, but I can't imagine doing anything else.

Most evenings I have three or four hours of work to do at home. There is always grading and lesson planning, and don't forget about creating and coordinating differentiation for my 29 students, including five students with individual education plans and a non-English-speaking student. Contacting parents is also a regular weekly occurrence. The grading, recording and analyzing of assessments and similar tools are taking more and more of my time. This is all work that I do each night without compensation or recognition.

Before I get home each night, I usually spend an hour or two at school working in my classroom, communicating with parents and tutoring students. There just never seem to be enough hours in a day to complete everything that's needed to be a good teacher.

I cherish my job and the children I teach. This afternoon I stayed after school and helped a student conduct his science fair project. Without my help, the assignment wouldn't be completed because of the student's home situation. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to make a difference in this capacity.

Baltimore County's proposed Articulated Instruction Module threatens to limit my availability to tutor and help students after school. If AIM is mandated, my regular personal communication with parents will be traded for a quarterly, tedious, jargon-filled report. The confusion of the scoring system used by AIM is going to hinder parent communication, not improve it. The opportunities to create engaging, rigorous lessons will become rarer and rarer. Less and less of my time will be able to be spent on class preparation. The bottom line is that students will suffer as a result.

Please support Baltimore County teachers, parents and students by taking a stand against the AIM initiative.

A Baltimore County fifth-grade teacher

There are plenty of other reasons for Reid to resign

Sen. Harry Reid should not resign because of his racially insensitive comments about our dialect-free president. Hey, if he managed to bribe Al Sharpton into accepting his apology, that's good enough for me.

Senator Reid should resign, however, because he has a sub-30 percent job approval rating, because he refuses to listen to his constituents, because he's saddling our children with mountains of debt, because he's using backroom deals and bribes to push through a health reform bill that two-thirds of the American public finds objectionable, and because he, like our president, has broken campaign promise after campaign promise regarding transparency and openness in government.

My only hope from this pathetic scandal is that Senator Reid is sufficiently distracted to the point that he's rendered ineffective in pushing through legislation that further damages our nation.

Michael P. DeCicco, Severn