Ann Marie Banfield

Families and companies all around the country are cutting expenses in these tough economic times.  Surprisingly, many state governments are doing the same.  I guess they figured out that spending like there’s no tomorrow gets us in a financial mess. 
 
I’m wondering if our New Hampshire schools will be doing the same? 

Taxes have increased in many towns and now many residents are cutting their expenses.  It would only be reasonable for our school districts to do the same. 
 
Next year Bedford implements a new program in the high school called The International Baccalaureate Program (IB).  Other schools in New Hampshire are also considering the adoption of this program too.  IB comes at an extremely high cost to the tax payers and may benefit a small number of students.
 
Some schools report an annual expenditure of over $100,000 for this program while other schools have reported over $500,000 as their annual expense which includes hiring additional staff like an IB Coordinator. 
 
The Bow school district is considering this program right now, and hosted a meeting with the parents and taxpayers to determine whether or not they should go forward and adopt the program.  The community was invited and many expressed genuine concerns on whether or not this program was a good idea for the students given it’s high cost and controversial political nature.  
 
The Concord Monitor reported in April that Bow had suspended the application after hearing from the "outraged" community.
 
Outside New Hampshire at www.Cherryhill.com in the article titled Debate Heats Up, the Superintendent is recommending phasing out the expensive program. Their annual expense is over $500,000.00 per year. The article goes on to report only 19% of the residents support it. 
 
In an article titled "Broughton’s IB program to end soon",  the Wake County School district in North Carolina voted to also phase out the $500,000 plus program citing they could offer a quality education without the extravagant price tag.
 

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I wonder how many parents are sitting around the kitchen table trying to  help their children with their math homework.  It used to be that children in elementary school could come home and if they needed help, they could turn to their parents.  With the infusion of New or Fuzzy mathematics in many of the New Hampshire classrooms, many parents have no idea how to help their kids.  
 
First let’s look at WHY this seems to be sweeping this state like the plague.  For those who do not know how the No Child Left Behind Act works, essentially schools are now held accountable to state standards.  Not a bad idea to have accountability among our public schools.  The problem is that many of our states have set poor academic standards, mathematics included.  The NH assessment (NECAP) is based on poor math standards per the Mathematicians at the Fordham Foundation.    
 
New Hampshire set the math standards and geared them in a New/Fuzzy direction.  Another name for this approach to learning is: Constructivism.  This is an ideology where the student essentially is left to discover math rather than giving them direct instruction.  In addition to believing children can discover math on their own, these programs introduce children to confusing and time consuming algorithms that many parents never learned.  There was no need to learn them, the traditional algorithm worked well.  What changed?  Some people think that learning four different ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide is a good idea. 
 
The problem is, many students become confused and often times, never fully master one of those concepts, leaving them deficient in basic math skills.  In addition to these common problems and because this is so time consuming, these student begin falling behind their peers who use a more traditional systematic approach to learning math.  Of course you also have the issue of parents who are unable to help their children with their homework.  This is even more of an issue for children who maybe in a situation where parental involvement is lacking or simply not there. 

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Should students be able to graduate after completing 10th grade?  That is now being discussed in the New Hampshire Dept of Ed, as reported by some of the NH papers.  I sit here amazed that anyone would ask that question.  What’s more bothersome is that we have adults, paid by NH residents, who think this is a good idea. 

NH Education Commissioner Lionel Tracy is now floating the idea of graduating some students upon completion of 10th grade.  He says that the test, which has not been produced yet, would be a difficult test modeled after the AP or IB tests and that 10th graders would have to pass this exam in order to graduate early.  Isn’t the NH Education Department the same branch of government that thinks the NECAP is a good indicator of proficiency in math and science?  Yet we have some of the top mathematicians and scientists who have given their expert analysis indicating our standards are some of the worst in the country.  How can we trust the validity of this test when our own standards lack substance? Thomas B. Fordham Institute – Publication Detail

The article goes on to say that those who want to go on to prestigious universities can still graduate after 12th grade and take an even tougher exam.  That translates to lower expectations and standards for the graduating 10th graders.  On one hand Tracy says these 10th grade students who graduate would be held to high standards and have to pass a rigorous exam.  Then he goes on to say that the bar is higher for those graduating 12th grade.  If the bar is set higher for 12th graders with a more difficult test, logic dictates it’s lowered for 10th graders because less would be required of them.

Why would parents want to subject their child to missing out on two years of education?  Especially since it is their taxes that have paid for it?  I did not notice anything about Tracy saying taxpayers would get a refund on those tax dollars saved.

This sounds like a cost cutting measure that once again, does nothing to help the students of NH.  It does sound wonderful for companies out there looking for full-time, unskilled workers making one wonder who Governor Lynch is working for:  the New Hampshire students and parents or simply trying to meet the needs of a global workforce.

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