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March 28, 2024 7:48 am
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No One Asked Me But…

by Dr. Larry Moses


No one asked me but… Let me see if I understand the Clark County School District math crisis of the month. The district developed an end of the semester math test for Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry. Right at ninety percent of the students who took the tests failed them. These tests are not to be mistaken for the ever famous proficiency test needed to graduate with a diploma as versus a certificate of attendance. These tests were designed for the specific purpose of upgrading the state proficiency exam to meet new federal standards that are more rigid than the ones now in place. This was to be a trial run to see how the tests and students would do. The district math geniuses decided to give it to all the students without checking the validity of the test questions. Part of the test was developed by the director of the Southern Nevada Professional Development Center. This is an organization that exists for the purpose of teaching teachers. If students are successful, would there be a need for additional teacher education? Is there no conflict of interest here? I will admit that I retired ten years ago, but I find it hard to believe all of the good competent CCSD Algebra and Geometry teachers have died. Did the district really have to go outsiders to find people who can develop a valid math test? One might question if the district got a valid test by going outside. How valid is a test that has a ninety percent failure rate? A better question might be how much validity is there to a test when only 47 percent of the students at an elite advanced math school can pass it? The students who qualify for A-Tech surely can do fractions.

Bill Hanlon, the director of the Southern Nevada Professional Development Center, who helped develop the test, has indicated that not all students should be allowed to take Algebra and Geometry. I might agree with him if he based this opinion on the student’s lack of basic math skills. However, he seems to imply the student’s lack of ability to do algebra has something to do with the economic and social status of his/her parents. According to an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal, Mr. Hanlon said; “There are those students who simply don’t value education, the offspring of parents that probably go to the Jerry Springer Show”.

Board member Sheila Moulton was upset to find that principals and teachers had taken it upon themselves to make adjustments in the district’s math curriculum when they found students did not have the basic skills to learn Algebra and Geometry. She was reinforced in her attack on teachers and administrators by Mr. Hanlon. He stated that one of the problems was teachers deviated from the curriculum when they found their students were unable to do basic math. He and Ms. Moulton feel it was wrong for teachers not to continue on with the set curriculum despite the fact that the students were not able to learn Algebra because they couldn’t do fractions. Since fractions were supposed to be learned earlier, they feel teachers should ignore the fact that their students could not do them and proceed as though they could. This would be like me going to the doctor with the measles when I was 20 years old and the doctor refusing to treat me because I should have had the measles when I was three. He faulted both the teachers and the administration for catering to the needs of the students rather than the curriculum gurus in the district office.

The reason teachers, with the support of their administrators, deviated from the Holy Grail of the district curriculum guides was to help the students catch up and be ready for the statewide proficiency exam. This plan has actually shown results in the increase of students who are passing these exams the first time around. This is the exam that determines whether or not a student receives a diploma from an accredited high school in the state of Nevada. This has been the criteria on which both the state and federal government has based its evaluation of the educational offerings of each school. It has been the criteria on which the local district has evaluated teachers and administrators. Why in the world would one not expect that teachers and administrators would not take the time necessary to be sure that their students could pass those tests? While Ms. Moulton sees this as a sign of poor administration at the local level, I would think it is just the opposite. Why would you waste your time trying to teach students materials they cannot possible learn if they don’t understand the fundamentals?

Let see if this little story will help Ms. Moulton understand the importance of fundamentals. A man walked past a pet store and in the window he saw what appeared to be two identical parrots. One parrot was priced at $50, the other at $500. He went into the store and asked the manager why one of the parrots cost $50 and the other $500. The manager stated that the $500 parrot could talk. The man had always wanted a talking parrot so he paid the $500 and took the parrot home. Three days later he returned to the shop and told the manager the parrot would not talk. The manager said, “What does that parrot do when he walks up the ladder?” The man said, “Ladder, I have no ladder.” The manager said, “I can sell you one for $10.” The man thought “all right” and took the ladder home. Three days later he returned to the store and told the manager that the parrot does not talk. The manager said: “What does that parrot do when he walks up that ladder and looks in the mirror?’ The man said, “I have no mirror for that parrot”. The manager stated, “I can sell you one for $10.” The man paid for the mirror and went home. Three days later he returned and told the manager that parrot still does not talk. The manager said, “What does that parrot do when he walks up that ladder, looks in the mirror and rings the bell?” The man said, “Bell? What bell? I have no bell”. The manager said, “I can sell you one for $10”. The man took the bell but returned in three days. The manager saw him coming and said to him, “Don’t tell me that parrot did not talk when he walk up that ladder looked in that mirror and rang that bell.” The man said, “Oh, the parrot talked all right. He walked up that ladder, looked in the mirror, rang the bell and just before he died, he said, “Didn’t that dummy sell you any bird seed?” Fundamentals! Fundamentals! Fundamentals! Neglecting the fundamentals can kill you.

Earth to School board and Mr. Hanlon, you are teaching students not curriculum. When covering curriculum becomes the goal, rather than teaching students, education dies. I remember curriculum guides. I helped write them. When they first came out, that is what they were: curriculum guides, not mandates. When I entered education, in the dark ages, we did not have central office administrators with over blown egos to tell us what to teach, when to teach and how to evaluate the success of our students. Upon graduation from college, we had a pretty good idea of what a student needed to be proficient in our subject area. There were a lot of good veteran teachers who made sure we youngsters understood why we were in the business. The administrators we worked with had years of educational experience in the classroom and understood the importance of the individual who stood at the front of the class in the success of the students they interacted with. Excuse me, Ms. Moulton, but the classroom teacher and the local school administrator has a much better idea of what the students they met each day need than some central office curriculum specialist who has fled the classroom.

Thought for the week… Theories and goals of education don’t matter a whit if you don’t consider your students to be human beings. Lou Ann Walker

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