Panel Backs Education Board Nominee

Over the objection of an association of math teachers, a state Senate committee voted 5 to 0 Monday to recommend confirmation of a State Board of Education member who has insisted on a reexamination of California’s approved teaching methods.

Members of the Senate Rules Committee questioned the appointee, Sonoma vineyard operator Janet Nicholas, and heard testimony from her supporters and one opponent--the president of the California Mathematics Council--for 2 1/2 hours before recommending her confirmation to the full Senate.

Nicholas still must win the vote of at least two-thirds of the Senate to gain a full four-year term. But Monday’s vote was expected to be her toughest hurdle.

Gov. Pete Wilson named Nicholas, a former Sonoma County supervisor and onetime member of the state parole board, to the education panel a year ago. Appointees may serve for a year before being confirmed by the Senate.

The state’s students have performed poorly compared to those elsewhere for at least seven years. Last week, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that California’s fourth-graders again rank behind those in 40 other states and ahead of their peers only in Mississippi.

During her provisional year on the board, Nicholas raised the ire of organized math teachers when she demanded that a key panel examining ways to improve how the subject is taught be reconstituted to include critics of the status quo. They argue that current teaching methods neglect basic skills in a bid to make math more entertaining.

Before Nicholas’ involvement, most of the members of that panel were among those responsible for developing the state’s current methods. Nicholas’ opponents complained that she personally engineered a takeover of that panel without consulting the public or state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin.

Much of Monday’s hearing was devoted to the process Nicholas followed in October in remaking that panel, which is known as the “framework” committee because it will rewrite the state’s official policy on math and influence how textbooks are selected, teachers are trained and students are tested.

In her testimony Monday, Nicholas said that, in hindsight, she should have consulted with Eastin and others before suggesting the appointments to the math panel.

Marian Bergeson, Wilson’s education advisor, said the pro-Nicholas vote shows “the timing is right . . . for questioning the status quo and how we are educating kids in California.”

Referring to the fact that Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 2 on the Rules Committee, Bergeson said the vote indicates that education “is not a partisan issue. This is an issue that everyone in the state is concerned about.”