For the last 35 years, Nevada has experienced a documented shortage of math teachers, resulting in students not receiving the knowledge, skills or understanding of practical application necessary to be successful in math. We really have to stop making math so hard for students to learn. We also need to attract and retain good math teachers. 

But things are probably going to get worse, what with the district forcing math teachers into scripted programs. Good teachers won’t put up with that nonsense and will leave. The sad fact is that school districts, including Clark County, buy books and programs to try to “teacher proof” what is taught — because they have little or no confidence in their teachers. They adopt a program so they can tell the community they are doing something about poor student achievement, but their actions are nothing more than a CYA that might well fool local chambers of commerce ­— but not the students experiencing these shortcomings, or their parents.

While I have never seen a book or program that does everything, CCSD’s newest program is three-pronged and still what I call “math lite.” It is bad, in itself, and the district is also trying to require teachers to use a computerized program and video program along with it. On top of that, teachers being told how much time to spend on each topic per week – regardless of their assessment of student knowledge and understanding — and also are being told to “conference” with each student using a district script about test scores.

Like the principals evaluating and supervising teachers, the central administrators making these decisions have little or no knowledge or understanding of math. Ignorance is bliss, right?

So how does the district’s use of this new set of programs make learning more difficult for students? They leave out concepts and skills students need to know to be successful. For instance, the division algorithm, which used to be taught in 4^th grade and is now taught in 6^th, is used for dividing polynomials, for synthetic division, and for synthetic substitution when graphing, developing patterns, doing mental math or solving higher degree equations using the Rational Root Theorem. That algorithm is now either not being taught at all or is not being properly emphasized.

That's not all. While there are multiple ways of finding common denominators, the Reducing Method is often preferred — and also not being taught in the current programs. It’s the method that should be used when the denominators are larger composite numbers. Why? It makes finding common denominators and adding fractions a lot easier for students. 

The same algorithms that should be emphasized in elementary grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing should be used in initial instruction for those operations in algebra. Where are those linkages? The biggest changes that occur in math from elementary to secondary school math is vocabulary and notation.

Too many math concepts are currently taught in isolation, without linking them. Teachers also are not provided opportunities to review and reinforce topics and are not provided the opportunities to address student deficiencies as they teach their assigned curriculum. Whether linking the solving of equations to the Order of Operations or linking the adding of decimals to fractions — you know, lining up the decimal points, filling in zeros, finding a common denominator, and all that — such things make students a lot more comfortable learning math because they are familiar with the language.

We often see the Pythagorean Theorem, Distance Formula, Equation of a Circle and trig identity cos²x + sin²x = 1 as separate topics, being taught in isolation, so students don’t know they are all the same formula, just written differently because they are being used in different contexts.

Seldom do I see algebraic progressions introduced as just plain skip counting — which would make it so much easier for the students to understand and learn.

In addition to these issues, the new “programs” do not introduce new topics using simple, straight-forward examples that work. Neither do they do a good job of providing scaffolding examples so when there are variations to problems, students can readily see how to address them. Linking and seeing patterns develop just makes math so much easier to learn.

We know the importance of math. Students cannot be successful in science, engineering or technology fields without it. We also now better understand the importance of teachers – programs are only as good as the teachers using them.

Teachers are already experiencing low morale, what with CCSD’s no consequence conduct and behavior policies,  grading system changes, reduced school safety, and poor health insurance. Now they are being told not to use their professional judgment to address the individual needs of your sons and daughters – their students. It will be just another reason why teachers who really know math and how to teach it will leave the district: They do not want to be heavily scripted like they are idiots rather than teaching professionals.

It's well past time to break up this school district and begin again.

Bill Hanlon is the former director of the Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program and is a noted speaker, author, educator, consultant and coach. He served as the coordinator of Clark County School District's Math/Science Institute and was responsible for K-12 math audits. He also served on the Nevada State Board of Education, and as the regional director of the National Association of State Boards of Education and a member of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education States Partnership Board. He also hosted a television series, "Algebra, you can do it!” on Vegas PBS.