COMMENTARY: Academics is clearly not a priority in the Clark County School District

As reported in the Review-Journal last month, only 26 percent of Clark County School District students are proficient in math. That statistic should not shock anyone. The last three superintendents (Dwight Jones, Pat Skorkowsky and Jesus Jara) have done virtually nothing to improve math instruction.

Walt Rulffes was the last superintendent to emphasize academics. He required content professional development and testing and required his superintendents and school administrators to attend so the message was prioritized and uniform. As a result, the district was recognized back then as the fastest-improving in the nation.

Rather than focus on core academic subjects such as math, the district’s current concerns seem to be scheduling community meetings, equity, diversity, social-emotional learning, discipline policies (restorative discipline), grading, testing new report cards and the pandemic. These issues, while important, are secondary and tertiary in terms of priority. School Board President Linda Cavazos needs to change the narrative to address public education’s primary mission.

One might ask, where’s the beef? Who is actually looking at public education’s primary mission? You know … reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.

The trustees should schedule a meeting to discuss student performance on first-quarter grades in classes such as algebra. Wouldn’t board members want principals to collect grade distributions on the first tests of the quarter to determine who needs help? Or do we wait for failure?

Teachers — rather than enrolling in professional development based on what they teach and how they teach it and rather than being provided resources to support that instruction and learning how to fairly assess student achievement of that knowledge — are now required to enroll Mr. Jara’s big issues, which apparently take precedence over students’ academic learning.

Do math teachers in the district need content professional development in math? Again, the headlines tell us we have experienced a math teacher shortage since 1985. Too many of our students are being taught by less-than-qualified math teachers. We have daily substitutes, long-term substitutes, alternative route teachers and teachers with education degrees with a math emphasis teaching our students. There are few actual math majors.

I’m not sure many of them would know enough math to show students how well math is linked — that the Pythagorean theorem, distance formula, equation of a circle or trig identify cos2x + sin2x = 1 are all the same formula, just written differently because they are being used in different contexts. Or, as students ask, when will I ever use this? Would these less-than-qualified teachers be able to create interest or enthusiasm in teaching math by explaining how math is used? For instance, the properties of a parabola are used for amphitheaters, satellite dishes, flashlights and headlights, etc.

The governor, the Legislature and the Nevada Department of Education have all emphasized the need for concentration on STEM subjects. Without success in math, students certainly won’t be successful in science, engineering or technology.

Mr. Jara was quoted in the RJ’s article saying the district will do everything in its power to provide students the support they need to get back on track and succeed academically. I know that is not true. Math help has been offered to the district at no cost. The reply from district officials? They didn’t need help at this time.

Academics is clearly not a district priority.

Bill Hanlon, a former member of the Nevada State Board of Education, previously served as the director of the Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program and as coordinator of the Clark County School District’s Math/Science Institute.