Recent responses to Richard Sabine’s column (Feb. 15) have been a welcome defense to educators. Most, however, have fallen short of addressing the deeper issue at stake.

Unfortunately, Sabine is far from alone in his belief that teachers and school systems are failing the students. Instead, that misguided belief continues to dominate the national discussion about public schools.

How has the public been so misled?

The culprit is standardized tests, which paint a false picture of what takes place in schools.

Students who begin the year speaking little to no English rapidly learn to read and write fluently, yet often fall short of the mark of “proficiency” set by those tests. Meanwhile, research has proven, time and again, the effect of poverty on academic achievement.

In Lewiston, teachers must work tirelessly to compensate for the fact that so many of their students arrive at school at a disadvantage to their peers in more affluent communities. By most measures, our students make tremendous progress. Nevertheless, the state, which accounts only for results on standardized tests, reports to the public that schools such as Montello, where I teach fourth grade, are failing.

With yet another set of time-consuming standardized tests about to roll out across the state this spring, it is time for the public to look closely at the beliefs held about schools and teachers, to question the measures of success we rely on, and to begin a more honest discussion about the challenges educators face in communities such as Lewiston.

Emily Talmage, Auburn