Committee to figure out students’ math problems

Superintendent Walt Rulffes on Tuesday called for the formation of a committee of experts to examine poor math performance in the Clark County School District.

His decision is a response to last week's devastating findings on end-of-semester high school math exams. The tests -- developed to assess whether students are being taught required first-semester curriculum -- were failed by an overwhelming majority of students districtwide: The Algebra 1 failure rate was 91 percent; the Algebra 2 failure rate was 87 percent; the Geometry failure rate was 88 percent.

Rulffes said he isn't interested in playing the blame game. Instead, he's focused on uncovering and addressing the reasons students did so poorly.

"The important thing at this point is to learn, improve, and move forward," Rulffes said in an e-mail to district staff. "But first, the many questions that have been raised regarding this matter need to be clarified and answered."

Rulffes said school staff have questioned whether the tests -- developed by math teachers, district curriculum staff and personnel from the Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Center for teacher training -- are an accurate measure of district standards.

It's also become clear that not all regions and schools approached the test the same way, Rulffes said. Although central administration mandated the test, some schools approached it as optional, or elected not to give it at all. Some teachers also apparently merged part of the end-of-semester exams with questions of their own.

"There's a lot of evidence that schools didn't take it seriously," Rulffes said. "They didn't see it as a high-stakes test."

If that's the case, Rulffes said, he's going to seek a higher level of accountability from region and school administrators.

Most importantly, Rulffes said, the committee will need to examine what needs to change in district classrooms to make math instruction more effective. Once formed, the committee will be charged with making recommendations for improvement to the district's instruction unit.

That goes to the heart of the original purpose of the tests, Rulffes said. In 2006, when he approved development of the tests, no one expected stellar results. But getting that data was vital to building a better math student, one capable of passing the Nevada proficiency exam, which is a diploma requirement, and one able to enter college without the need for remediation.

"It's all about math proficiency and being responsive to what the demands are in the real world," Rulffes said.

Jaime Purdy, who teaches mathematics at Henderson's Basic High School, said she welcomes the scrutiny her subject is now getting. The public needs to discuss math education and student performance, she said.

Purdy and her colleagues do so on a regular basis around the lunchroom table. They talk about the students who come to them for algebra who have yet to memorize the multiplication tables. They discuss the class sizes that often exceed 40 students. They talk about students who become behavior problems because they've been put into classes they aren't prepared to take.

"No one cares more about students being successful in math than we do," Purdy said.

Purdy has been a math teacher for seven years. Her suggestions for improving math performance would start with focusing more intensely on basic math skills at the elementary school level and increasing parent involvement.

"Teachers at any level don't have enough opportunity to spend one-on-one time with students," Purdy said. "Parents have to help students with their homework and make sure that it gets done."

Other facets of the end-of-semester exams that should be looked at are the performance of English language learners and the impact of giving the same test to classes of all ability levels, from basic Algebra to Honors Algebra.

Bruce Vogeli, professor of mathematics education for the Teachers College of Columbia University, concurs. He reviewed the algebra practice test and said the math vocabulary would be very challenging to a student with limited English skills.

The Clark County School District has 88,155 students identified as limited English speakers, a population increasing by about 8 percent a year.

Vogeli also said enrolling students in higher math classes when they lack basic skills will certainly show negatively on any assessment, especially one as rigorous as the end-of-semester practice test he reviewed.

"You can't solve equations, unless you have the arithmetic skills to deal with the coefficients that have to be manipulated," Vogeli said.

Vogeli suggested the committee examine textbook use. The district has an approved list of math texts for each class and allows site-based decisions on which book to use. That can be an issue, Vogeli said, if the textbook presents information in a way that's out of sequence with district benchmarks. You can't test a student on material that hasn't been taught, he said.

Bill Hanlon, director of the Regional Professional Development Center, this week plans to post the actual tests that were given to math students on his group's Web site at www.rpdp.net.

Hanlon, who oversaw development of the test, has received complaints about whether it fairly represents what students should know.

"I want people to see the tests," Hanlon said. "We're hearing complaints that there were questions with multiple answers. That's not the case on the actual tests."

Hanlon said district math staff had multiple opportunities for input on the tests, from the creation of questions, to review of the skeleton tests, to review of the practice exams sent to every school in August.

"I feel very confident in the tests," he said. "They're accurate reflections of the district's curriculum and benchmarks."

Rulffes already has started looking at ways to help students. On Tuesday, he charged all region superintendents to speak with leadership at each of their schools to identify the reasons student performance was so dismal.

"I have great faith in our teachers and school leadership to rise to the challenge."

Contact reporter Lisa Kim Bach at lbach@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0287.