Educators getting specific about school standards

Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 10:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Another step on the long road to improving Nevada schools will be taken this weekend by setting standards for how much students should know at each grade level.

"This will define what kids and teachers are expected to do," says Scott Craigie, a member of the state Council on Standards and Assessments.

Writing teams of about 30 members each will convene in Reno to put the finishing touches on standards for math and English language arts which include reading, writing, listening and speaking. Each panel was closeted for three days in January in Las Vegas to begin their work.

Now they must refine it. These standards will list what a student should know by second, third, sixth and eighth grades as well as a senior in high school.

Keith Rheault, deputy state superintendent of public instruction, said the old course of study in the schools had standards but they "were broad in nature." The new standards will be more specific and more rigorous.

For instance, the new standards say a second grader should be able to distinguish between complete and incomplete sentences, use quotation marks correctly, spell high frequency irregular words correctly, and read and follow simple directions to perform a task.

A high senior would be required to analyze how irony, tone, mood, style syntax and sound of language are used for rhetorical and aesthetic purposes and to make a comparison of works from different places and times and how they reflect culture and history.

In math, a second grader might be expected to add sums to 18 and subtract differences from 18, use decimals to show money amounts and to read and write number words from zero to 20.

A senior would be required to use irrational numbers including pi, square roots and cube roots and use order of operations, formulas and algorithms.

These preliminary standards are far from complete, according to Rheault. Once the writing team finishes their work, the council will hold public hearings before the standards are adopted. The state Board of Education must approve, modify or reject them by the end of the year.

Setting standards on what a student must know has been a tortured journey in Nevada.

In 1995, the state Department of Education applied for and received a three-year $800,000 competitive grant from the federal government to develop standards for English studies. "This was new in the nation at that time," Rheault said.

There was a lot of stumbling on the project. Rheault said the committee formed to do the job worked for two years and "snubbed phonics in reading and went with whole language." When the school districts learned about the plan, they revolted which resulted in the resignation of a consultant in the education department who was involved in the program.

The department then hired WestEd of San Francisco for $52,999 to complete the work.

"We took our lumps on this several times," from state legislators who objected to the cost and the time it took for the project, Rheault said. But he said it "wasn't a wasted effort," because some recommendations from that effort are ending up in this report.

Once the standards are finally approved, Rheault said there will be a massive program to educate teachers about what needs to be taught.

Craigie dis-agrees with Rheault, saying the writing groups have done a "major rewrite of what was done in the past by the department of education."

He said the standards council was ordered by the Legislature to get a wide variety of views.

And that's exactly what has happened, Craigie said. "There's been a lot of animated debate (among the writing teams)," he said. "Many have come with strong points of view and I'm very impressed."

But Craigie isn't ready to endorse the product of the writing teams. He wants to see what is developed at the public hearings.

Linda Plattner, who works for the Council for Basic Education, said the math standards when completed must demand that students demonstrate understanding or that they apply these skills in any meaningful way." The council has been hired by the state standards council as a consultant.

Christopher Cross, president of the Council for Basic Education, said the draft standards for reading, writing, listening, speaking and research, "set rigorous and reasonable expectations for student learning."

Craigie said these standards must be in "plain language, not only for the teachers. Parents must be able to read and understand them. And as students get older, they will have something to look at to know what's expected of them."