Most Santa Fe students get lost in the numbers

Tests show only a fraction of those attending local public schools are proficient at math

Students in Santa Fe Public Schools are struggling in math, district administrators and educators told the school board this week. And despite efforts to address the issue through a math curriculum advisory council and teacher training, challenges persist — from limited funds to a communication logjam about students’ needs as they move on to new schools.

Just 16.5 percent of the 8,606 district students in grades 3-11 who took statewide proficiency exams last spring earned passing scores, according to data from the state Public Education Department. That compares with 28.3 percent of students who demonstrated proficiency on English language exams — a dismal rate, but still significantly higher than the math results.

Board members expressed concern during Tuesday’s presentation that students aren’t grasping basic math concepts at the elementary and middle school levels and are advancing without these skills.

If students make it into high school without learning the basics, board member Maureen Cashmon said, “We have already failed them.”

Math proficiency lags behind literacy at the local, state and national levels, though the problem seems to receive less attention than a need to boost reading skills.

Of the students across New Mexico who took the 2017 PARCC tests — online math and language exams administered by a consortium of states called the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — 19.7 percent scored proficient or better in math and 28.6 percent in reading.

National proficiency rates across grade levels are more difficult to compare because students in other states take different types of exams. But according to the results of exams given to a selection of eighth-graders nationwide in 2015, 33 percent of those who took the National Assessment of Education Progress showed proficiency in math.

The lower scores in the local school district may help explain a high rate of

students enrolled at Santa Fe Community College who aren’t prepared for college-level math courses — 76 percent — and require at least one remediation class to help them catch up.

examined the costly issue in a story published earlier this week.

Santa Fe Superintendent Veronica García told board members Tuesday that the district has been trying to address its math problem. One initiative involves a math advisory council tasked with ensuring all schools follow the same curriculum. Another calls for more professional development and coaching for teachers who need help teaching math.

The district also would like to hire a math coordinator to oversee reforms, García said.

But school officials have faced some roadblocks. For instance, García said, the district has limited funds for professional development and new hires. Teachers and students sometimes move from school to school within the district, she added, disrupting continuity in lessons.

And students leaving middle schools are going into high school unprepared for higherlevel math, she said.

High school math teachers are unprepared, as well, Capital High School teacher Jason Ware told García and the school board, because they are not able to review their incoming freshman students’ middle school math class transcripts. They don’t know where students stand.

“Right away, that freshman class we get, we don’t have the data on that class,” he said.

García said she was not even aware of that problem.

Students take the statewide PARCC exam in the spring, Ware said, but the scores don’t return to districts until late summer or early fall, when students are already enrolled in new math classes.

“Our Algebra 1 kid takes the PARCC exam in April,” he said. “We don’t get the results until September, and now those kids are in geometry.”

When the district updates its five-year plan, García told the school board, it plans to incorporate new strategies to improve students’ math scores. When board member Rudy Garcia asked for details on those initiatives, however, the superintendent said she wasn’t prepared to discuss them.

The board member is no relation to the superintendent.

Contact Robert Nott at 505-9863021 or rnott@sfnewmexican. com.