Superintendent of Lake Forest school districts Matthew Montgomery said “ if we just do drill and kill on ‘can we increase our scores on the SAT or the ACT,’ we're missing out on a whole bunch of other things that are really important for overall well-being.”
“I think teaching to the test is an elusive statement,” Montgomery told host Pete Jansons on the Lake Forest podcast. “because what I want is to give them the core skills that they need to do well on a test.”
“There are some schools that are solely test prep schools, and I think that you lose the overarching objective of what education is and educating the whole child,” Montgomery said. “And I would argue that we have seen, historically, people who are really good at that test not be able to survive in the real world.”
Montgomery was a guest alongside Lake Forest High school district board president John Noble on a recent episode of the Lake Forest podcast. Montgomery serves as superintendent for district 67 and 115, covering both the Lake Forest elementary schools and Lake Forest high school.
This full episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The Nov. 18th edition of the podcast focused on a variety of challenges faced by administrators in the local Lake Forest School District, including financial decisions and student mental health
The Lake Forest podcast is hosted by Pete Jansons, an entrepreneur with a background in neuroscience, Rick Lesser, an attorney and former village trustee, and Joe Weiss, who has experience in multiple government and public service positions. The podcast covers topics and politics impacting the area around the city of Lake Forest, according to the Lake Forest podcast website.
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