Nevada adopts rules for high school graduation
By Paul Takahashi, Las Vegas Sun
Current eighth- and ninth-graders won’t have to pass new exams in math, reading and writing to graduate from high school, Nevada’s K-12 education leaders decided Thursday.
Earlier this year, the Nevada State Board of Education began phasing out the current High School Proficiency Exam in favor of new assessments aligned with more rigorous academic standards, called the Common Core State Standards.
State lawmakers have mandated that starting with the current crop of freshmen (class of 2017), students must take four end-of-course exams in algebra I, geometry, reading and writing to graduate.
However, the Nevada Education Department wants to “field-test” these new end-of-course exams — essentially test the new tests before fully adopting them. The field tests would help ensure the test results are valid.
