Board beefs up high school graduation standards

At a meeting here Saturday, the Board of Education raised the passing score on the graduation exam from 70 percent to 75 percent in reading and from 61 percent to 65 percent in math.

The higher standards will affect students who became juniors this school year. Students still will have five chances to pass.

Nearly 40 percent of students tested in April under the previous standards failed one or both parts of the test.

"The failure rate is absolutely frightening," said board member Gary Waters. "But no student has really failed the test until he's failed the test five times."

The changes in the graduation exam and standards were mandated under the Nevada Education Reform Act passed by the 1997 Legislature.

Several board members said the burden now falls on legislators to provide money for special instruction, such as free summer school, for students who fail the exam.

"It's easy to raise the bar," said member Dave Cook. "But we have to pay for it. Legislators are going to have to step up to the plate."

With tougher standards in place, the need to monitor graduation and dropout rates is even stronger, Cook added.

"If raising the standards raises the dropout rates, that's not serving the public interest," he said. "Just having passing requirements isn't enough. Students need to receive remediation."

State Superintendent Mary Peterson said the Department of Education would lobby for expanded remediation funding in the next session.

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