The much-anticipated K-12 mathematics program review in the WW-P school district is running behind schedule. The review, originally scheduled to take place during the current school year, will into next year. In May, The district released a second request for proposals (RFP) for a consultant on the project, seven months after the first was issued.##M:[more]##
“The status of the math review is something of a sore point right now,” said Katz. “Some people complain that it was given deliberate short shrift by the administration, while others believe that the consultants who bid on the project were unacceptable for what the district needs, both in terms of price and quality, and that the review will ultimately get back on track. I’m not sure who I believe.”
High School South principal Charles Rudnick, chairman of the program review committee, says the unfulfilled RFP is the reason for the stalling of the program. “I was suprprised at the difficulty we had getting someone interested in this. Eight or Nine consultants responded and said it was the timing.”
Rudnick believes it will be easier to get a qualified consultant to conduct the review in the fall. The timeline in the latest RFP states that the contract will be awarded by July 31 and will have an initial meeting with the in-house program review committee in September. The district’s policy is to have an outside consultant work on each program review.
The public presentation is now tentatively scheduled for the fall. The date could change depending on the consultant hired. According to multiple sources, the presentation is likely to happen in 2008.
The district has changed the terms RFP for its re-issue. According to Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Victoria Kniewel, who will become Superintendent of Schools in August, the district has changed the role of the consultants in the process. “We have changed the focus to be less about focusing on a survey, and more about an overall program evaluation,” Said Kniewel. “The review will follow the same pattern, with school visitations and focus groups. The expert will work closely with our in-house team.”
The in-house team has taken over the responsibility of the survey. According to High School Mathematics Supervisor Christopher Herte, the committee has formulate questions for students at many grade levels, their parents, and their teachers. The faculty surveys are due to go online this month. The students and parents will answer questions in the fall.
The committee includes Rudnick, math supervisors, and school board member Richard Kaye. Supervisors Bob Kretch and Barbara Braverman, gave one mid-review presentation to the school board. The presentation featured no recommendations. It focused on information gathering techniques used by the program review committee.
Herte says the school district should not rush something as important as this review. “Haste makes waste,” says Herte, who started at the beginning of the current school year. “This is an important process, and there are many students involved. We’ve been doing what we can on a district level.”
The controversy over the mathematics program review dates to a debate leading up to the 2006 school board election. Brett Boal was challenging Katz for his seat on the board. He campaigned on the notion that the school’s math program holds high-achieving students back from reaching their full potential. Katz, who won the election, essentially agreed with Boal’s claims.
“According to the results of standardized tests, most of our kids show they are capable of taking pre-algebra in seventh grade, but we limit it to 50 percent,” said Katz last year.
During the campaign, Boal quoted statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) to support his argument that some students in the district are victims of WW-P’s success. “Our median sixth grader tested in the 93rd percentile nationally. This means all the kids in WW-P who tested in the national 71st to 92nd percentiles would have been placed into the pre-algebra/ algebra track in an average district, but WW-P holds them back,” said Boal, who also lost to incumbents Hemant Marathe and Robert Johnson in the 2007 school board election.
Both Katz and Boal suggested a simple solution to the perceived problem.
“All of the teachers currently teaching math in seventh grade teach both pre-Algebra and Math 7,” said Katz. “If they all teach two sessions of each now, there’s no reason they can’t change to three pre-algebra and one regular math. It wouldn’t cost anything to make more advanced classes available.”
Kniewel refuted Boal’s claims, and that the changes aren’t so simple and, moreover, may not be necessary. “A lot of the numbers that were shared publicly during the campaign were not necessarily true or applicable to this system. Different districts have different titles for math courses, and what we cover in pre-algebra might be what another district teaches in algebra. Overall, 40.4 percent of WW-P high school students take calculus, whereas according to the NCES, only 23 percent of students had taken a calculus course. We continue to use data to look for patterns and plan for improvement and growth. We do not believe we’re holding students back.”
The districts other program reviews, of K-12 World Languages and of Middle School Exceptionality, are reportedly on schedule. The results of those reviews will be presented to the school board in June.
Meanwhile, the other two program reviews are on schedule. The program review committee for the middle school exceptionality program will make a presentation to the school board on June 12. The outside consultant selected for that program is the Summer Institute for the Gifted. The World Languages review, which has also been a controversial topic, will be presented on June 26 by consultant Gregory Duncan and an in-house committee. The World Languages review may or may not determine whether Hindi will be taught in WW-P schools, as many have requested in recent years.
