Letter: Math exam an unfair standard for diploma

Sunday, June 10, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

As an educator for more than three decades in the Clark County School District, I am deeply saddened to see how our state is abusing its children. The form of abuse the state afflicts is the Nevada State Proficiency Examination in Mathematics. This is an exit exam that all Nevada students must pass to receive a state high school diploma.

With the original concept of requiring students to pass a minimum proficiency mathematics exam to receive a high school diploma in the 1980s, I was 100 percent behind the requirement. Students do have a need for basic mathematical knowledge to survive in our highly technical society. But unfortunately what was originally conceived and the current permutation of the concept has made this exit exam a travesty for the future of Nevada children.

No longer does the exam test a student's ability to perform basic types of mathematical computations. Today's exam requires students to factor polynomials, differentiate between obscure geometric angles and perform matrix operations as well as other types of advanced mathematical concepts that average citizens have little or no need for in their everyday lives.

Whether a student plans to become a writer/journalist or a scientist, all - with no regard for student need - must pass the same mathematics exam. A student who has the creative ability to write a poem or to write a great composition can be denied a basic high school diploma simply because he is unable to pass a complex mathematics exam.

Some students will receive a meaningless Certificate of Attendance and we will all turn a blind eye and allow this travesty continue to damage or completely ruin the future of some of our children. How sad.

Jim Hayes, Las Vegas