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 AIM program that is being criticized, I do know that under the leadership of Joe Hairston, Baltimore County has a school systsem we should all be proud of.

Cheryl Knauer, Parkville

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