Education
I'm a product of public schools (in West Springfield, MA), and I have three children (a toddler, first grader and third grader), all of whom will go to Portsmouth public schools. I'm as strong a believer in - and supporter of - public education as you'll ever find. But supporting public education has to mean more than just spending a lot of money on it. We have to demand that our elected School Committee and School Administrators work at measuring, documenting, and reporting to the community how they're doing, how our students are doing - their successes, where they can improve, and how they're going to do it. Portsmouth currently ranks near the top in the state of NH on spending per student - but our student achievement is closer to average. I also know there's far more to measuring educational success than test scores. I'm looking for our School Committee, and the conversation between the School Committee, Administrators, and parents, to move toward how we are judging and measuring our success, tracking our progress from year to year, and shifting effort and targeting resources (including new resources) to ensure continuous improvement.
