Graduation tests now required

Friday, April 10, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Tougher and longer high school graduation examinations for reading and mathematics are now being used, the state Department of Education said Thursday.

A high school student must pass the examinations developed over the past two years as well as a direct writing assessment to earn a diploma.

Eleventh graders start taking these examinations and have several chances going into their senior year to pass the examination.

"We will now use statewide tests which are more difficult than Nevada graduates may have seen before," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mary Peterson said. "In the future every Nevada high school diploma will have to demonstrate that he or she is equipped to compete in our rapidly changing world."

Science will become part of the testing program next year.

The more difficult examinations were ordered by the 1997 Nevada Legislature.

The reading examination, which will consist of 64 questions, will test a student's literary experience. The math test will have 72 questions and will include items about geometry, spatial sense, statistics, data interpretation, algebra and functions.

The state Board of Education will set the passing grades for these tests later. Peterson said the new tests will measure only those skills that have been required in each school curriculum for at least three years.

Students will receive twice as much time to complete the examinations compared to the past.