Nev. students to face heavy year of testing
By Trevon Milliard, Reno Gazette-Journal
Last school year was anything but normal for Washoe County students.
From elementary to high school, every state-required standardized test was replaced with a new one designed to demand more of students, including the exit exams required to graduate in Nevada.
High school students were also forced, for the first time, to take an additional test — the ACT college-entrance exam. Students who don’t participate won’t graduate.
All these new tests will return this fall and affect even more of Nevada’s 450,000 students. But the state has some big kinks to work out. Almost every standardized test stumbled in its 2014-15 rollout, with some exams falling flat on their faces.
For the first time, students took to the computer for the annual tests given to every Nevada student from third through eighth grade. They were supposed to be “smart” tests, adjusting the difficulty of the next question based on students’ previous answers.