Candidates running for the eighth District seat of the Ohio Board of Education told a group of about a dozen citizens there was a "disconnect" between state education standards and the realities that students and schools face.
Speaking at a public forum hosted by the Athens County League of Women Voters on Tuesday night, the candidates differed when it came to who was the most qualified for the seat, but all questioned the accuracy of the state's school report cards, which examine student performance on state tests. The Athens City School District received a ‘D’ on the achievement portion of the report card.
The candidates included State Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Albany; Vickie Briercheck, a retired educator; Kathleen Purdy, a district representative on the East Central Ohio Education Association’s Executive Board; and former governor Nancy Hollister, who serves as the current member from District Eight.
The candidates also agreed that having too many standardized tests could be detrimental for students.
“I believe that our kids need more teaching and less testing,” Phillips said, adding that Ohio does more testing than is federally required.
Purdy called the results of over-testing “crushing for the children.”
Phillips pointed to her time as a state legislator as evidence that she'd be able to facilitate communication between educators and lawmakers. Phillips currently serves on the Ohio House of Representative’s Finance and Education committees.
But Briercheck said conversation alone would not change anything.
“I really am rather tired of conversations. We need some action,” Briercheck said.
Purdy described herself as a “career educator” and not a “career politician.” She said that as the daughter of parents who hadn’t received a high school education, she knew what it was like to grow up with little money and understood how poverty affects educational success. She referred to that relationship as the "achievement gap," a term researchers use to describe the the correlation between poverty-inflicted areas and educational success.
“Funding matters," Phillips said. "It is not everything, but it matters."
Hollister said community members had to be willing to listen to each other when it came to school funding — a process she labelled "a never-ending conversation."
“Too often legislators or citizens walk away from the subject,” Hollister said.
