Re: Nevada Fails Students

[Judi Hirsch <judih@OUSD.K12.CA.US>]

these are good questions, and I would add another: doesn't the failure to graduate these students say something insulting about their teachers' integrity? It seems to me that if a student of mine got a passing grade in my class and then failed some test, and then was denied graduation, I would be able to challenge that test result. 
    Judi
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gerald W. Bracey 
  To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU 
  Sent: Thursday, November 25, 1999 10:18 AM
  Subject: Re: Nevada Fails Students


  Michelle,

  Do you know who developed the tests and when?  The state education site says the legislation was passed in 1997 so they couldn't have been in place very long.  How many chances did kids get to take them?  How was the passing score determined?

  What happened to the roughly 2000 kids who didn't graduate for other reasons?  Do you know why they didn't?  Not enough credits?  Did they refuse or neglect to take the test?  
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: MacUser 
    To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU 
    Sent: Thursday, November 25, 1999 1:00 PM
    Subject: Nevada Fails Students


    Hello all, 
    Just an update on what is happening in Nevada:  709 students were denied a diploma simply because they couldn't pass the proficiency test, 2,652 students out of 20,000 total seniors in Nevada didn't graduate last year (almost 11%).  The article says that 83% of the kids that didn't graduate are from Clark County. 

    I must add to this that Clark County is where Las Vegas is--it is the one area in the state of Nevada that has a high percentage of ethnic American students. 

    Michelle 

    This is from the Nevada Appeal--Carson City's Newspaper: 

news Thursday, November 25, 1999 3:46 AM 

                     Proficiency tests prevented 709 from getting diplomas last June

                     Geoff Dornan 

                     The inability to pass state-mandated proficiency tests in math and reading prevented 709 students from
                     getting diplomas last June even though they had enough class credits. 

                     State Superintendent of Education Mary Peterson released a final report Wednesday that showed the 709
                     who failed the tests were among a total of 2,652 students in the state who failed to graduate from high
                     school. That is out of about 20,000 seniors in Nevada's high schools. 

                     Clark, which has two-thirds of the students in Nevada schools, had an even higher percentage of those
                     having trouble with the exams. Altogether, Clark had 85 percent of the students who failed to graduate
                     and 83 percent of those denied a degree solely because they failed the proficiency tests. In Clark, 585
                     students were unable to pass the proficiency tests. 

                     That is more than eight times as many as the 74 who couldn't pass the exams in Washoe School District,
                     even though Clark is only three times the size of Washoe. 

                     In Carson City, only two students were unable to get degrees because of the mandatory tests, along with
                     one student in Douglas and six in Lyon County. Storey County schools listed no students unable to
                     receive a diploma in June because of those tests. 

                     All together, there were 41 Carson students unable to get their diploma in June, 24 in Douglas and 13 in
                     Lyon. Again, Storey showed no eligible students unable to graduate high school in figures released by
                     the Education Department on Wednesday.