By the numbers
The national push to get kids to learn algebra in the eighth grade -- championed in Clark County by former school superintendent Carlos Garcia -- has failed miserably across the country.
A study released this week by the Brookings Institution finds that many kids taking algebra at that age are unprepared to do the work.
The result is a fraud on taxpayers who support the public schools.
"Unless a kid is ready for a real algebra course, you do one of two things: either you give the kid a low grade, which means you're admitting the kid wasn't prepared, or you make the course watered-down," Vern Williams, a nationally recognized math teacher in Fairfax County, Va., told The Associated Press.
The situation highlights a problem plaguing schools from Miami to Seattle -- and including Las Vegas: Kids are being passed on through the early grades even if they lack basic math skills.
When they get to the eighth grade and are expected to take "algebra," many still don't even have a firm grasp of their multiplication tables, let alone long division. They have no chance.
The fact that this obvious shortcoming with math instruction at the elementary school level is only now attracting attention speaks volumes about the efficiency of our public school bureaucracy.
