Lawmakers OK remedial programs for nonperforming schools

Friday, March 27, 1998 | 10:46 a.m.

Schools that don't perform adequately would choose from the 21-program list - once it's reviewed and approved by the state Board of Education - so they can get remedial education money from a $3 million fund set aside by lawmakers.

Several programs already are in use in Nevada schools, including Reading Recovery, Reading Renaissance and a new after-school program, the Voyager Expanded Learning Program.

The list was prepared by a legislative analyst and approved Thursday by the Legislative Committee on Education.

As many as 20 to 25 Nevada schools, half of them in the Las Vegas area, are expected to be identified as having inadequate student achievement when a statewide ranking is announced April 1 by the Department of Education.

The ranking of the schools and the funds to help them improve were part of a 1997 effort by lawmakers and the governor to improve the quality of education and student achievement.

Keith Rheault, a deputy superintendent with the department, said applications for funds from the targeted schools are due by May 1, and the money will be released by July 1. That will allow the schools to use the money in summer remedial programs.

The committee also was urged by Washoe County School Board Trustee Anne Loring to change the time of year students are tested. The tests used to determine how well the schools are doing are administered to the fourth, eighth and 10th grades in the fall.

Loring argued that the tests should be given in the spring because by then students have had a chance to learn the material in the grade level.

But Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, the committee chairman, said the testing time was changed to the fall by the Board of Education in 1995 because of cheating scandals. He said there were cases in Las Vegas where teachers actually taught the questions on the test because they were concerned the results would reflect on their abilities.

In other business, the committee hired former state schools chief Gene Paslov as a contractor for lawmakers to review the school accountability program.

Paslov's company, the Carson City-based Education Management Consultants, Inc., will earn about $19,000 for the work.