Editorial: Achieving our education goals requires a lot more work | - MLive.com

Editorial: Achieving our education goals requires a lot more work | - MLive.com

Editorial: Achieving our education goals requires a lot more work

By Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board

June 06, 2010, 7:00AM

With all that’s at stake, communities can’t be willing to settle

Some might be tempted to view Monday’s visit by President Barack Obama as the culmination of tremendous effort to improve education in our community.

But don’t, because it’s not the culmination.

No, the appearance by the president of the United States to call attention to Kalamazoo Central High School and its achievements is just one step in a long journey toward excellence in education for our entire region.

Certainly, we all can be proud that KCHS was selected as winner of the president’s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, and we can celebrate that it therefore has the honor of having the nation’s chief executive address its graduates on Monday.

But we also can — and should — be proud when any one of our schools produces great results. That includes improving test scores, winning awards, excelling in contests or simply graduating a high percentage of students and sending a large number of graduates to university, if that’s their dream.

There’s a lot of talk about education across our collective communities these days. We can’t find a single district that’s content with everything it’s doing. We don’t see many parents willing to accept mediocrity. And we aren’t aware of any community ready to accept the status quo as good enough.

In fact, what we see happening in schools here is worth shining a spotlight on. Despite all the challenges we face as a community, as a state and a nation, the accomplishments of the students and teachers in our schools