Angelo casino

The two candidates running for State Board of Education, District 1, are Tim Hughes, who works for an education non-profit, and Angelo Casino, a middle school teacher at a local charter school.

Mr. Hughes is well-spoken and well-versed in education jargon. He believes the state board needs to help &#;create the conditions where districts can adjust to changing and evolving needs of educators.&#; He also would like to tweak Nevada&#;s teacher licensing laws to help increase the number of teachers.

He doesn&#;t support retaining students who have fallen behind academically, even as a stopgap measure to help students who&#;ve lost months of instruction because of the coronavirus. He is somewhat supportive of charter schools, supporting non-profit operators, but not those run by for-profit companies. He expresses skepticism of using testing data in teacher evaluations, calling it a snapshot in time.

The focus of Mr. Casino&#;s campaign is bring the perspective of a teacher to the board. He contends the state board is too often not aware of the impact their directives have in the classroom.

&#;There is no one way to measure student achievement,&#; he said. He believes projects, presentations and videos are acceptable alternatives to measure academic growth for children who struggle with tests. He doesn&#;t want to tie evaluations to student testing &#;until we can find a better way to assess student growth.&#; He believes that &#;charter schools are a good fit in the current model. We have to accept each other&#;s existence.&#;

Mr. Hughes is an eloquent defender of the education establishment&#;s perspective, and Mr. Casino has the passion of a frontline worker. But i&#;s doubtful either would advocate to hold the system accountable or otherwise rock the boat, which continues to run aground. The Review-Journal offers no endorsement in this race.