Teachers target math skills

     By Chris Jones
     View staff writer
      Thanks in part to the demands of today's computer-driven society, the need for increased math education at each grade level has become a rallying cry for teachers around the world.
      Fortunately for students in Southern Nevada, two teams of educators have adopted a head-on approach to providing those needs for Clark County School District students.
      Based out of an office on the campus of Wasden Elementary at 2831 Palomino Lane, the district's Math and Science Center works with teachers and their students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Almost a dozen teachers work through the center as teachers on special assignment -- or TOSAs -- to demonstrate a variety of educational tactics to improve math proficiency.
      "We really want to impact student learning and achievement, but we also want to impact teachers and help them to be more effective in their instruction," said Ina Mogensen, who has been teaching in Clark County for 13 years, the past eight as a special assignment teacher. "That's why all of these TOSAs have been hired."
      A separate but similar organization called the Math and Science Institute handles secondary educational concerns, in addition to auditing the performance of math programs and teachers at every grade level throughout the district.
      While each group takes a different approach -- the Center focusing on the development of math skills in parents and teachers; the Institute on providing extended education to professional teachers -- the goals lie along the same path: improved mathematical ability for students in Clark County schools.
      "Math education is really the common umbrella that brings all of us together," Mogensen said.
      That wasn't always the case. After working strictly with students at their own grade levels for several years, the two organizations saw the need to unite beginning in the 1997-98 academic year.
      "Up until then, there was very little interaction between our offices," said Eric Johnson, a TOSA with the Math and Science Institute for the past two years. "Something clicked and we finally realized it was better if we worked together."
      Since math requires a student to build upon prior knowledge as their studies advance, a bad year could form a weak link in a student's educational chain.
      "We were trying to do the same things, but taking different approaches," said Carol Ross, another TOSA with the Institute. "Students may have a really good foundation at the lower level, but one bad year along the way can ruin things."
      To prevent those "bad years," the two groups have worked to establish a uniform pattern of expectations for math students within the district.
      "Our whole community is changing. With an influx of people, it causes new challenges," said Robert Prince, a 32-year educator who has worked as a member of the Institute for the past two years. "It's not unusual to go into schools and have the teacher point out a student whom they've had three times already this year.
      "There are a lot of people who move around a lot here, so the students may leave a class, move back and then leave again. It has forced us to take a harder look at the district as a whole, as opposed to (looking) from school to school."
      One action taken to address this concern was the adoption of benchmark standards for students throughout the district. Regardless of what school a student attends, a number of required concepts must be studied within the first 12 weeks of a grade level.
      "We want to help make those kids' transitions less painful," Mogensen said. "We have a district curriculum in place now, so it doesn't matter which program they're using or which school they're at. A kid won't miss something like long division because they change schools in the middle of the year, which could have happened before."
      Ross said working together is the best way to ensure the student's education doesn't suffer, and those involved feel the combined approach is the only way to go in today's society.
      "Kids don't study as much at home anymore, and we have to make the most of their time in classes," Prince said. "There are all sorts of issues we have to address, and you could never get to them all (by working) on your own."
      Said Ross: "As the city spread out and the district got bigger, we saw that teachers were teaching in isolation. They had their own way of teaching, so all the things we look at now are district-wide to make sure the standards get back to the same level."
      The groups' efforts have already brought about several changes, most notably in the district's high schools.
      "A lot of the math department coordinators at the high schools have gotten together to make sure the courses and prerequisites are the same throughout the valley," Ross said. "That has helped district-wide."
      Said Prince, "As a consequence of that, the middle schools are trying to do the same thing within district guidelines."
      One of the goals shared by the group is to have 85 percent of the district's current sixth graders prepared to enroll in Algebra I classes as high school freshmen. To reach that goal, all involved know education must start early.
      "It's all about trying to get the kids up to standard," Ross said. "If we start in the high school and work back down, we can make sure the students can get through algebra, geometry and the other math classes they'll need throughout their life."
      Said Prince: "In the last two years, elementary has a better idea of what's happening because of their work with secondary, and the opposite is also true. That kind of thing wasn't happening before."