School district deserves the bird over math test — and a chance to improve

Kids rarely flip the bird anymore. Have you noticed?

They sometimes flash gang signs, real and improvised, and occasionally posture like the pals of Scarface Al, but you don't often see them flash the middle-finger salute. Who knows, maybe they text message the bird these days.

It used to be common, the bird. Now you generally only see it in your rearview mirror while driving in traffic. In Southern Nevada, the bird is an official part of the Department of Motor Vehicles driver's license examination section on hand signals: left turn, right turn, the bird. Go ahead, look it up.

When I was young, the bird had meaning. It was to the heated epithet what the peace sign was to the dream of nonviolence. The symbol of rebellion was rarely flipped capriciously and often brandished with great passion.

After seeing recent news of the massive failure of an algebra test by Clark County School District high school students, I've concluded it's probably a good thing the bird has fallen out of style.

If it were still in vogue, it would be in the faces of several local institutions and officials. Past and present bosses within the state's edu-political arena would deserve to receive the bird with both barrels.

Let's start with the superintendent. Not the current punching bag, Walt Rulffes, but his predecessor, Carlos Garcia, who nearly a decade ago came to town with a vision that all public school students would enroll in algebra by eighth grade.

Like most of his big ideas, Garcia was around for conception, but didn't raise the baby.

Who suffered?

Thousands of students whose curriculum had shifted, once again, on the edu-political winds. Garcia deserves the bird.

Not that Rulffes should skate. He's in charge. He should have done a much better job communicating the importance of the January test and its place in his larger plan for public education in Clark County. (Notice how I'm crediting him with having a larger plan.)

Next to Rulffes is math expert Bill Hanlon, director of the Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Center. He helped design the exam that so many students confidentially failed before being humiliated en masse in the press.

Hanlon says he made it clear to high school math department chairs that the test was coming. He asserts he solicited their help in developing the test and issued practice tests with sample questions. In an interview, Hanlon made a very strong argument that Rulffes and the development center worked hard to change the course of math instruction in the right direction.

Some district department chairs say they weren't given a direct indication of the test's importance. Some reports have stated the chairs weren't given clear marching orders. That led to teachers failing to take the test seriously and students who weren't properly prepared.

A lot of high school students are behind -- teachers work to feed them refresher material while juggling the approved curriculum -- and aren't ready to pass an algebra exam. Approximately 8,000 students endured a steady parade of substitutes this year. From overcrowded classrooms to the lack of one approved text, the potholes are plentiful.

But Rulffes and Hanlon should have been unmistakably clear. And any principal who actually told his department chair "not to worry" about a test coming down from the top of the district needs a remedial course in edu-political science.

Birds all around, boys and girls.

You tanked the math test and failed Communication 101, too.

Then there's the press. For every article that's attempted to keep the test results in context, there have been twice as many breathless palpitations about the sorry state of public education. Sensational sound bites add nothing, but they do deserve a middle-finger salute.

"In my experience, Rulffes is very available, open, honest and candid," Hanlon says. "He wants his administration to have transparency, that what the school district says and does are consistent. He is apparently not willing to run away from a problem and leave the students in Clark County unprepared for their individual futures. For that he should be saluted -- not criticized."

Frankly, I'll cheer Rulffes when the test scores improve.

Meanwhile, a follow-up exam is scheduled before the end of the school year.

We'll see what kind of salute the district deserves then.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295.