CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Educators met in Camden on Thursday for a symposium dedicated to exploring ways to improve math and reading test scores for children.
The symposium happened on the campus of Rutgers-Camden, where Dr. Gloria Bonilla-Santiago is the director of the Community Leadership Center. She led educators to consider the question of if math and reading were taught differently, would test scores improve?
"When I say ‘fix,’ I'm talking about training and retraining adults. Because we have an adult problem in education, not a children problem," said Bonilla-Santiago.
She invited keynote speaker Nick Tasler to discuss the psychology of dealing with change. Tasler is an organizational psychologist and speaker.
"Every great achievement, every meaningful thing that we've ever done in our lives started with a period of change that we didn't like, we didn't want, that was uncomfortable," he said.
Bonilla-Santiago said having a psychologist's perspective was important to encourage educators to embrace change.
"You have a bunch of kids that get, supposedly, the good grades, but they cannot think, they cannot write, they cannot comprehend," said Bonilla-Santiago.
She said change is also necessary because fewer than half of area students tested were proficient in English and math.
