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Aug. 11, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SCHOOL DISTRICT: Math test challenges spur effort

Tough exam helps takers meet federal benchmarks

By JAMES HAUG
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Clark County School District students overwhelmingly failed their end-of-semester math exams, but scored high enough on state standardized tests to meet the benchmarks of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Tim Kanold, a math textbook author and president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, sees no contradiction.

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    • "You want the local test to be harder than the state test," said Kanold, a former school superintendent for a suburban Chicago district.

    Kanold was in Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday to advise a local education committee on ways to improve student performance on math tests.

    He's not for a dumbed-down approach.

    "You always want to aim high," he said. "You don't want to lower the bar."

    The idea is that a challenging local test will better prepare students when the stakes are high, as they are for the No Child Left Behind exams, the state proficiency tests required for high school graduation, and for college entrance exams.

    District officials said the poor showing on district exams has reinforced the need to increase the rigor of math in the early grades, to better coordinate the sequence of math instruction from K-12 and to increase communication across the district.

    Kanold gave Clark County some credit for giving a districtwide math test. He said it's such a big undertaking for a school system with 47 high schools and more than 300,000 students.

    Districtwide tests are "much easier when you only have three high schools," he said.

    While it's tough love, district officials said they want a challenging test.

    "We can no longer allow students to leave our system requiring college remediation," Clark County Superintendent Walt Rulffes said. "So, rather than take the easy road of preserving the status quo, we created and administered a common test for the purpose of measuring the rigor and quality of math instruction across the district."

    Rulffes said the results were disappointing, "but they told us what we needed to know, which will put us on the road to improvement."

    Judging by results of the spring semester exams, the road to improvement looks long and steep.

    Results did not dramatically improve over results of the fall semester exams.

    For instance, about 89 percent of high school students failed the Algebra 1 exam in the spring, compared with the 91 percent failure rate on the fall exam.

    In Algebra 2, 78 percent of high school students failed the test, compared with the 86 percent failure rate on the fall exam.

    High school students made more noticeable gains in geometry. Only 56 percent of students failed the spring exam, while 88 percent failed the fall exam.

    In middle school, failing grades also declined in algebra. The failure rate on the spring exam was 44 percent, compared with the 53 percent of students who failed the fall exam.

    Middle school students also did better in pre-algebra, with 71 percent of students failing the spring test, compared with 78 percent failing the fall test.

    Students who fared poorly on those exams still could have passed their math classes because the test was just one part of the overall grade.

    "This was just one measure," said Jhone Ebert, assistant superintendent for curriculum.

    On the state No Child Left Behind exam, about 62 percent of high school students showed proficiency in math. That was a steady gain from 2003, when 43 percent were proficient in math.

    Expectations in math education have increased dramatically in the past few years, said Kanold, the national math education expert.

    Unlike the premise of the No Child Left Behind Act, it used to be taken for granted that not everybody was going to enroll in algebra or geometry.

    Nationally, the trend in math education is to make it "relevant to the YouTube generation" by using more visual cues or concrete examples whenever possible, Kanold said.

    Instruction has become more social, too.

    Rather than just listening to a classroom lecture, students also are breaking into small groups to work on math problems in collaboration, Kanold said.

    Ruffles said he felt validated about the approach Clark County is taking to math education after recently attending a national convention in Oregon for school district chiefs.

    He said Clark County is ahead of the curve in adopting the 21st Century Course of Study, which recommends that all high school students enroll in a fourth year of mathematics and a third year of science.

    Instead of the usual trigonometry and calculus classes, new fourth-year classes have been developed to give students more options, such as Mathematics of Personal Finance and Topics of Modern Mathematics.

    Parents are allowed to opt their child out of the fourth-year requirement but are advised by a school counselor on the necessity of math for their child's future.

    Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-799-2922.



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    sydney wrote on August 13, 2008 10:09 AM: That was so cool! I could read it over and over again!


    Daddy wrote on August 11, 2008 04:01 PM: My daughter got an A+ in HS honors Algebra. Can't you fools make smart kids like me? LOL


    Dan May wrote on August 11, 2008 10:53 AM: To sell the public on a need for more federal control of education, the feds, led by W Bush, said that "No Child Left Behind" would give people more choice by allowing parents to choose a different school if their school proved lacking, as determined by (you guessed it) federal testing.

    Well, surprise, surprise. Even though the local testing proved the schools all became worse, other tests to determine the effectiveness of NCLB proved all is well.

    The feds told another lie and nobody cares.

    The American people have to learn to learn how to use their powers of discernment. Here's a clue. When someone tells you they are going to take more of your money from you to fund another govt program and that program will give you more freedom, it's a lie. The truth is, when you have less money, you have less freedom. You have less ability to choose how to spend that money. You have less ability to choose how your children are educated. It is how you decide to spend your money on the education of your choice that allows you to exercise your freedom in education.

    Contrary to what most of today's Americans believe, freedom is not turning your money and your life over to your govt. And the results also prove freedom is a superior form of govt.


    Cynical Observer wrote on August 11, 2008 10:14 AM: Having done very well on all of my mathematics classes, through college calculus, I do not have an ax to grind against mathematics teaching.

    However, if you talked to 100 employers in Las Vegas, I believe you would find that no more than any one or two of them have any practical use for employees who can do Freshman level college mathematics. Yet that is what the CCSD seems to be trying to accomplish. As a result, the practical question: What life skill teaching is the CCSD sacrificing to pander to the math dweebs?

    Why isn't the CCSD pandering to the English literature dweebs or History dweebs? In my book, creating an articulate, informed citizenry is better accomplished by focusing on English and History, than useless advanced mathematics.

    But then, why should I expect anything appropriate from the CCSD? They are the most expensive, ineffective, useless bureaucracy in the State of Nevada.


    Brian wrote on August 11, 2008 09:49 AM: You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

    Same with teaching. Some kids, who have parents who just don't care, just won't drink.

    No matter what changes are made, nothing will get better until you hold the student responsible also--and the parents.


    Common Sense wrote on August 11, 2008 08:39 AM: Yes Mimi, ATAC scored well, but unfortunately schools like Green Valley, Centennial, Basic, Palo Verde, Coronado, and Boulder City did not have all of the math students take the test. Let's not base everything on NCLB, since absenteeism contributes to AYP.
    Look at scholarship monies awarded to students from prestigious universities that attend these schools. Surely they would contrivbute higher scores to increase the average. I am not saying that All the high achieving schools didn't participate. There were high achieving schools that did, just not enough to impact the averages.


    Wade Barnes - not a single teacher is participating in this. You should read the article again. It references the union officials are doing this. The teachers are in the trenches teaching.


    Mimi wrote on August 11, 2008 07:34 AM: To which high achieving schools are you referring? A-Tech used the test for their semester final in the fall and spring. The majority passed both times.


    Wade Barnes wrote on August 11, 2008 06:32 AM: If the Teachers would teach instead of filing petitions to raise gaming taxes, maybe, just maybe our students might pass their exams. Duhhh!!!!!


    Common Sense wrote on August 11, 2008 06:00 AM: Most of the high achieving schools didn't even use the test. Their scores counted as zeros, bringing down the averages. Of course the RJ doesn't talk about this because that would make the system look a little better.

    I would offer a challenge to the RJ staff.....I would bet 1 out of 10 would not even pass the math or science proficiency exam. I would bet that the district wide final exam would see similar results. So my challenge is for you to take the test...BP