Math
lies at the root of failures on HSPA
State sees weakness in remediation effort
Thursday, October 07, 2004 • BY BEV McCARRON •
Star-Ledger Staff
New Jersey is planning to take a hard look at math
lessons after a pilot remediation program for students who
failed the high school exit exam showed troubling
results.
At the state Board of Education yesterday, Commissioner
William Librera said the state must cut back on the numbers
of students who annually fail the High School Proficiency
Assessment -- now about 15,000. Those students are able to
get diplomas through an alternative test widely criticized
as too easy.
Librera also wants to give students more chances to pass
the HSPA and suggested it could be given as early as spring
of sophomore year. Now, students take it at the end of their
junior year and can retake the test as seniors.
One step Librera firmly said he will not consider is
making the high school test easier to pass.
"I take the position that we should change nothing in
the standards," he said, adding that, if anything, the test
in the future will become more rigorous.
New concern about math skills grew out of a five-week
pilot program this summer. After failing the graduation test
in the spring, 232 students in five districts were selected
for tutoring in math and language arts. Of the 212 students
who retook the math portion of the exam in August, 36
percent failed.
Librera said the summer program served as a "laboratory"
to explore what was holding students back from succeeding on
the test. "What we have concluded is that math is the real
root of the problem," he said.
Students did far better in language arts. Of 137 taking
that section, three-quarters passed.
If the students couldn't pass the exam after intensive
summer lessons -- given by teachers chosen as the best in
their districts -- it is because their problems with math
are too deep to be fixed in a single summer, said
Librera.
He proposed a task force be created to examine the math
curriculum and look at how math is taught from the upper
elementary level through high school. He said he expected to
see some changes implemented by next fall.
Librera advocated teaching algebra in eighth grade, an
idea that has taken hold nationwide and is already being
implemented in some school districts in the state.
Without that change, students will continue to struggle
to pass the high school proficiency test, he said.
"A lot of kids who don't do well ... have never been
taught what's on the test," he said.
Librera said he was not faulting teachers, but said they
need more support. He also said the pilot remediation would
be continued next summer.
The state launched a literacy drive a few years ago to
improve reading and writing, and it has paid off in better
test scores, the commissioner said. He envisions the same
for math.
Librera also said the state needs to offer students more
chances to take the high school proficiency test.
In Massachusetts, where the exam is given in the 10th
grade, the number of students failing the state's high
school proficiency test is less than 1,000, he said.
He said students may do better at the end of 10th grade,
after nine months of instruction, than they would at the
start of 11th grade, when they've had the summer off.
In other business yesterday, the board approved new
standards for social studies that spell out the curriculum,
grade by grade.
It was the end of a lengthy process, in which all sorts
of groups weighed in with their ideas on which historic,
social and cultural events should be included.
Standards were set in six areas: social studies skills,
civics, world history, United States/New Jersey history,
economics and geography.
Bev McCarron covers education. She can be reached at
(908) 429-3018 or bmccarron@starledger.com.
© 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
|