ALEKS $24,528.00 Purchase: Choice or Mandate?

Someone rightly asked yesterday, twice, why was the focus on Washington's school purchasing proposal of a $22,560 licence to use a reading program and not on the other program, ALEKS, which is also part of last Tuesday's BOE agenda.

The main reason is because there was a salesman presentation on the $22,560 reading program. The next reason is because a school board member raised questions and shared the concern about not having been presented with a document that showed how the program will be implemented at Washington school. This is a very valid concern that should be resolved before the school board is requested to vote on this, and any other item that lacks documentation on how the plan was selected, what is the purpose of it, what data was taken into consideration and a whole lot more.

As for ALEKS goes, there was no real discussion of the item. No one raised questions of concern. And to be perfectly honest this is the first time that I witness a school board member asking questions on implementation and requesting to have the information in writing. And aside from Genesis, it never occurred to me that the school board was voting on oral information on instructional programs. Now we know.

But let's look at ALEKS, which also should had come with an implementation plan and a full report on how and why the Bilingual Department selected this program. Did it?

ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces) – Online Mathematics Solutions is also a one-year license to access ALEKS on line. The price is $24,528.00. The program, as per the agenda (p.24), will be targeted to students from 3 to 12 grades at 10 schools, access seems to be limited to ESL students as the agenda says the access will be granted to 584 students.

The number of students raised a question in my mind:

Is ALEKS part of the district's response to the Civil Rights's complaint that was filed against the district for not providing adequate education to ESL students to an specific number of students last year?

If you have not read the Civil Rights Settlement between the Plainfield school district and the federal Office of Civil Rights you can read it HERE.

With this said, if this the case, and I am just speculating, then this is the reason why ALEKS is purchased for just 584 students. The purchase of ALEKS then is not a choice, but a mandate.

If a mandate, then ALEKS would have to had been approved by the Office of Civil Rights as part of the settlement between the district and the Office of Civil Rights. (We will know what was approved or not once documents arrive via a FOIA, not an OPRA:-)

If not a mandate, then hopefully the school board knows why only 584 students will receive access to this program. And hopefully there is more than an empty resolution to explain this purchase. To learn more about ALEKS click HERE.