Letter: Students pay price for fiasco over math test

Saturday, June 7, 2003 | 3:42 a.m.

I can't keep quiet any longer. I have to comment on the math proficiency test issue. It seems that no one in our very large (and highly paid) school district administration -- including the superintendent and the division responsible for curriculum -- pays any attention to laws being passed that affect the school district. They must not even read the local newspapers.

A law was passed in 1996 requiring that a harder math proficiency test to be passed for a student to graduate from high school beginning in 2003. Now, seven years later, the classes that students need to take to be able to pass the test are not included in the classes required for graduation. We have such a large number of students who have met all of the other requirements, including passing all of the required courses, and yet cannot pass the test that we are going give the schools another four years to get it right.

According to the Sun's June 6 article, "Bill lowers passing score on math test," our superintendent says, "Clearly we have some problems to address between the test and the curriculum, and that's what we're moving toward." Moving toward? What have we been doing for the past seven years? The article also says "many schools had not adjusted their curriculum so that students had to take algebra and geometry, subjects reflected on the new test." Why not? Let's hold someone accountable for this fiasco. It shouldn't be the students that pay the price.

DOROTHY WAGNER