Just ask Amy Mackin, whose two children attend Parkwood Elementary. Says Amy, "Our family has been extremely pleased with our experience there."

Or talk to the parents whose children go to E.K. Powe. They are so enthusiastic about the school that they hold potluck suppers to tell new neighbors about it.

Or ask parent Nancy Cox what she thinks about the recent science fair at Githens Middle School, a collaborative effort involving local businesses, Duke, the PTA, teachers and students. Nancy's take? "This [fair] is a great example of school, home and community partnering on behalf of our students, our future scientists."

These parents aren't unique. Ask any parent whose child attends a Durham public school and you will hear the occasional criticism, but mostly you will hear positive stories. As you know, we have choices in Durham. There are plenty of outstanding private and charter schools available, and yet thousands of families who are deeply invested in their children's education choose Durham Public Schools and are happy with their choice.

If you are a parent happy with your child's education, if you are a teacher and love your job, or if you are a student or alumnus and think your school is excellent, join me in promoting Strong Durham Schools.

Strong Durham Schools is a project begun by members of Durham Allies for Responsive Education ( http://www.wedare.info),a community group formed to support and strengthen the Durham Public Schools.

The end result of Strong Durham Schools will be a Web site containing stories from parents, teachers, students, alumni, and staff from every school in DPS. The site will go live in May. I need your story to make the site complete! To participate and tell what you appreciate about your school, go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y6WDFNN.

So why isn't the word about success in Durham's schools getting out to the larger community? Part of the reason is that standardized test scores are low in many of the schools.

For those of us accustomed to the 100-point scale, interpreting the scores is misleading. Consider a school in which 70 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading. On the 100-point scale, this looks like a terrible school. After all, students are only performing at the C- level, right? That's not actually what the score means.

The score tells us nothing about how individual students are doing. We don't know how the 70 percent of students passing the tests actually performed. It could be that 70 percent of the students in this particular school scored in the 95th percentile. And of the 30 percent failing the test, how many missed a passing score by one point? What score did each student achieve on the equivalent test in the third grade? My point is that there is no way to know the answers to these questions without visiting the school in question. I encourage any of you worried about scores to visit the schools and see for yourself what the children can do. Certainly many students in Durham are struggling and need extra help, but many more than you might expect are thriving.

Together we can let others in on the secret about the good things happening in our school system.