Consider the special kind of misery that visits kids who look at the work in front of them and know that they are expected — because of the age they are and the grade they’re in — to understand it and complete it.

And they can’t. They are looking at numbers and symbols and they might as well be looking at cave drawings. They simply don’t have the tools to make the connections, to know that special sense of satisfaction and excitement that comes with figuring it all out and making it all work.

So they stare and scribble and scratch and fail. It might be that their only real failing was being born into lousy circumstances, and their score on that test only reinforces the feeling that they were never meant to make it.

Yesterday, they made headlines. They are part of this year’s proof by numbers that Rhode Island’s public schools are a study in inequality and a sad reflection of a mind-sapping culture.

Probably the best thing that can be said for the results of the statewide math proficiency test is that they provide such a brutally revealing picture of failure that they have to force serious, drastic change. The only other choice is to concede that a substantial number of students will be tracked to go nowhere.

Just 22 percent of Rhode Island high school juniors scored proficient on the math portion of the New England Common Assessment Program taken in October. It is an abysmal and compelling figure. And not surprisingly, the scores seem to rise or fall according to affluence and location.

It is not a new story. Test scores have become an annual check on plunging performance. Selected quotes of Peter McWalters, state commissioner for elementary and secondary education, provide a guide through the tumbling numbers:

“We don’t have any time to waste. If we really want rapid change, we have to work with teachers to make sure they understand what they need to do.” (September 2007)

“If they miss again on the tests this year, they will be in need of improvement. We are at an important time to improve our school system. We must stay the course.” (September 2006)

“Our suburbs are in the top 20 percent of the country and our cities are in the bottom 20 percent, which is why we always look completely average. Until we move up the cities, we cannot move up the state scores as a whole.” (November 2005)

Governor Carcieri is talking about holding a “math summit” to come up with solutions. He is also talking about a rigorous test for all teachers in their subjects.

But at the heart of it all, as always, is the man or woman who prepares a classroom in the morning to welcome students who carry a full load of electronic distractions and social problems through the door.

There will be calls now, letters to the editor, demanding that teachers be held accountable and fired if they can’t reverse the trend. But that is pointless howling.

Until we know what it’s like to work in an environment where eager participation in class by a student can bring ridicule or worse — where text messaging claims more attention than the mathematical equations on the board — we will only look silly rushing to judgment.

No summits, no rigorous testing of teachers, can restore what has been lost in too many schools — the basic respect for learning and for the place a teacher holds in making good things possible.

Until we can reverse the damage done before some kids even show up for the first day of class, there is little chance that equal opportunity will be the rule in Rhode Island schools.

bkerr@projo.com