—By Carmine Festa
I have been a supporter of the Mineola School District both when my sons attended school and after they graduated.
I have supported school consolidation and have been impressed reading about the iPad program, expanded college level courses, early introduction of Spanish language, new science labs and other enhancements.
Yet, when the test results for Common Core came out, the Mineola School District results were sorely lacking compared to other Nassau County school districts.
For years I heard that in Mineola, there were too many first generation families, there was a lack of parent involvement and we are not looking at the whole picture, etc.
Yet, recently the Charter School Success Academies in New York City scored seven out of the top 15 results in New York State.
Most of the children in these schools come from poor families, one-parent families and parents whose education background is not high.
Too me, this nullifies all the previous arguments I have heard concerning lower results for the Mineola schools.
Well, what is to be done? I would recommend that the school administration and school board visit the Success Academies and review there teaching programs that have produced these remarkable results just like our school district is the model for iPad learning for other school districts.
