Teaching trends may account for lower test scores

Teresa Hinds

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Failed teaching trends and demographic changes in the student population may account for declines in reading, language and math scores in Clark County.

According to school-by-school test scores released by the Clark County School District for 1995-96, a majority posted lower scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills than they did on the same test given during the 1994-95 school year.

Judy Costa, head of testing and evaluation for the district, said part of the blame for the lower test scores rests with the district for following the national whole-language reading trend.

The whole-language teaching strategy uses children's literature as the basis for teaching reading, incorporating creative or invented spelling and journal writings and guided discussions about the book the students are reading.

Phonics aren't stressed in the whole-language approach.

Basic math facts and procedures were officially taken out of the state Board of Education curriculum recommendations during the 1994-95 school year after a panel of math experts in 1991 recommended the facts be deleted.

The state board officially voted to put the basic math facts and procedures, or algorhythms, back into the curriculum in October of last year.

Bill Hanlon, a member of the state board and director of the school district's Math Institute, said getting the math facts back into the curriculum was a tough fight and came at the behest of school district Superintendent Brian Cram.

Cram, unhappy with the declining math test scores, directed Hanlon to do a math audit throughout the school district to determine if schools are teaching concept development and proper use of vocabulary and notation, knowledge of basic facts and algorhythms, relationships between math concepts, proper problem solving and the appropriate use of technology.

When Hanlon reported to Cram that these concepts weren't being taught uniformly throughout the school district, Cram worked to get the math curriculum changed at the state level.

"We're not back where we need to be, but I think we're moving back in the right directions," Hanlon said.

One factor in student performance the school district can't control is growth, according to Costa.

Costa said research shows transiency has a negative impact on learning. Moving from state to state has an effect because not all school districts have the same educational standards.

"Each successive year of students is coming in less prepared," Costa said. "There are less stable families, more children coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and there are some whose families are less interested in encouraging their children to go on with formal learning. It's the evolution of Las Vegas."

The accountability report shows a stagnant district average between the 1994-95 school year and the 1995-96 school year in fourth-grade reading scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. The district average was at the 49th percentile.

For fourth-grade math, the district posted a 3-percentage-point decline, from the 59th percentile to the 56th percentile for the same years.

District-average grade-four language scores also dropped, from the 58th percentile to the 56th percentile.

The averages for sixth- and eighth-grade reading scores and sixth-grade math scores also remained stagnant for the two years. The district average for eighth-grade math scores dropped 5 percentage points for the comparison years.

The only increase in scores was recorded for the sixth-grade language skills, with a 2-percentage-point increase. Eighth-grade language test scores remained unchanged.

Copies of the report are available through the school district's public information office.