How do we prepare all students for college and challenging, rewarding careers? That wasn't the specific question the state Board of Education considered recently when, in an emotionally charged chamber room in Sacramento, it reaffirmed Algebra I as the eighth-grade math standard for California students.
But by establishing that the state will now test all eighth-graders on real algebra – not pre-algebra, general math or anything else – the state board took an important step on behalf of all of the young children in our state's public schools.
To say the board's vote was controversial in the education community is an understatement. Many outstanding teachers and administrators correctly point out that a majority of our elementary students are nowhere near prepared for the rigors of eighth-grade algebra. They cite the funding challenges our schools face now and seemingly every year, and the folly of raising standards at the same time resources are reduced.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who urged the state board to adopt the new, tougher standard, has pledged to provide schools with the resources they need. The governor's record is uneven, to put it kindly, when it comes to pledges on public education, but he has made an explicit commitment to provide the support, and he must be held to it.
What does that mean? First, we need to acknowledge that this is not an issue solely for eighth-graders and their parents, teachers and schools. The first students to face the new standards are now in fifth grade, so the state board's action has significant implications for them. And it just as surely has implications for the earlier elementary grades. Math achievement builds to increasing levels of complexity only when the base is solid, and that base is formed from the earliest days of elementary school.
That is one of several areas where the governor must fulfill his pledge. Too many elementary school teachers, strong in other subjects and talented in connecting with children, lack the math background needed to prepare students for algebra by the eighth-grade.
Additional research-based training, targeted at the specific skills needed for effective algebra instruction, will be critical and costly. Training for elementary administrators will also be important, to effectively monitor their teachers' instruction.
Just as important as the teaching and administrative skills, perhaps even more important, will be the changes in attitudes and expectations that must take place. And these changes are not limited to our school systems.
They need to start in our homes. Parents need to make it clear that they have high, non-negotiable expectations for their children. Children are expected to behave. They're expected to be attentive in class. And they're expected to work hard.
There are expectations for parents, too: to establish standards of behavior; to send children to school rested and ready to learn; to provide homes that are conducive to learning. And that has nothing to do with the ZIP code.
The attitudes and expectations of many school personnel need to change, too. I have been on campuses and in classrooms throughout the state, and it is consistent from one end to the other: certain students are seen as algebra-ready, and certain students are not. It's no mystery: Asian and white students on one hand; Latino, African-American and poor students of all ethnicities on the other. “But they're not ready!” is the common and perfectly honest explanation. But it is our job to make them ready. It is the work we have chosen. It is our responsibility.
More than 25 years ago, an English teacher at Clairemont High faced a similar challenge. Mary Catherine Swanson was troubled by the fact that none of the African-American or Latino students bused to Clairemont every morning were enrolled in her college-prep classes. They came to Clairemont as part of the school district's effort to integrate, but that wasn't enough for Swanson. She wanted them to have access to the same rigorous curriculum as the white, neighborhood students.
Thus was born the remarkable AVID program, Advancement Via Individual Determination, which has since grown to perhaps the most successful program in the nation at preparing underrepresented students for enrollment, and success, in four-year universities.
Teachers and administrators face the same challenges today. Many of our students aren't ready for eighth-grade algebra, but we cannot compromise the future of any student, just as Swanson would not. She fought and persevered, as we must now, for the right of all students to have access to the courses that would qualify them for college.
That is what the state Board of Education's action represents: the right of every student, regardless of race or creed, to achieve their greatest potential, to succeed at their highest level. To imagine and dream, and realize those dreams: for college, for careers, and for the happiness and satisfaction that we all would want for our very own children.
Ward is San Diego County superintendent of schools.
