In a rather ironic way, the rejection of the comprehensive math
plan by the board of trustees marks progress for the Gilroy Unified
School District
A breath of fresh air is blowing through Gilroy Unified School District: a little sanity, a gleam of hope. The district’s proposed math plan was not rubberstamped by the Board of Trustees. Instead, the Board unanimously voted to reschedule the item for the Aug. 3 meeting.
The plan should have been circular filed at once, but two board members, Jaime Rosso and David McRae, were ready to approve it last week. McRae’s allegory was: “We have a building that’s on fire and we need to do something.”
True, O king. Something must be done. Fewer than half of GUSD’s elementary students, 30 percent of middle school students, and 11 percent of high schoolers score proficient or better in math.
But doing nothing is better than doing something wrong. Holding a rain dance around a burning building would not put out the fire. Pouring gasoline on the flames would make it worse.
And this math plan looks a lot more like a rain dance than a fire extinguisher. The district’s plan calls for more professional development, consultants, experts and math coaches. But let’s not just throw resources – i.e. money – at the problem without a reasonable plan.
It calls for more rigor and curriculum development and alignment with standards. These are magic words, but why not just buy good textbooks, and use them vigorously?
It calls for more algebra readiness in K-8 and having all 9th graders take algebra, but as Gilroy High School math teacher Wayne Scott notes, students who have not mastered their multiplication tables will not succeed in algebra.
Scott’s remarks were one of the bright points of the evening.
Another bright point were the remarks of Valerie Kelly, award winning Ascencion Solorsano Middle School math teacher, when she asked, “Where’s the accountability?” and “How are we going to measure success?”
These remarks indicate that a consensus is building, a diagnosis is being formulated. The needs for accountability, measurement of outcomes and step-by-step acquisition of mathematical skills are now acknowledged, at least among the math teachers and most of the board.
We strongly suggest that math teachers be primary contributors to the writing of revision 2 of the math plan. This work is too important to leave to district office employees.
