Strong Support from His Community

In a recent blog, I shared the testimony of Deer Park City Schools Superintendent Jeff Langdon before Ohio’s Senate Education Committee regarding student testing.  Jeff is one the leaders of the statewide initiative to provide Ohio’s citizens with a stronger voice in shaping education policy in the Buckeye state.  In his written testimony, he stated that “our teachers and students are exhausted from the test prep and test anxiety.  Our parents are growing more and more frustrated.  To be very direct, parents have had enough of excessive, state-mandated testing and they want their children to receive an education that is innovative, creative and engaging, not one that requires them to take a barrage of assessments to appease state mandates.”  When Jeff returned to his district, he shared his testimony with his school staff, posted it on his district’s website, Facebook and twitter, and emailed it to 1,500 email addresses in his district’s database and to every business in his community.  “The reaction to my testimony was phenomenal,” he said.  “We had nearly 4,000 responses from my community and throughout the state, and they were overwhelmingly supportive of the need to put the breaks on student testing and restore local control of our schools.”