State Board of Education increases high school graduation requirements

Monday, July 12, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Freshmen entering high school this fall will be facing tougher requirements than in the past.

They will be have to complete three math courses instead of two to graduate; they must be enrolled in a minimum of six courses in their freshman, sophomore and junior years. And they must achieve a certain number of credits to advance from grade to grade.

"Just because you're 17 years old doesn't mean you're going to be a senior," says Gary Waters, a member of the state Board of Education, who pushed through the higher standards at the board's meeting Friday in Carson City.

After three public hearings, the board decided against changing the 22 1/2 credits needed for graduation. Instead it voted to require a student have three years instead of two years of math. That means 15 core or required subjects must be taken and 7 1/2 elective courses, one less than at the present.

Clark County has already decided to require three years of math for graduation so the state regulation will dovetail into it.

It will also be harder for kids to slide by from grade to grade. To be eligible to be a sophomore, a student must have five credits including one each in English, math and science. Eleven credits will be required to qualify as a junior including two each in English, math and science. And the youngster must have earned 17 credits to enter the senior class.

The new regulation also establishes an "advanced diploma" for students, able to amass 24 credits by graduation.

Waters, a school administrator in Clark County, said students who now graduate with the bare requirements of 22 1/2 credits are not accepted either at UNLV or the University of Nevada, Reno because they don't have enough core classes.

There were complaints that school districts already award "honorarium" and other special diplomas. Critics said the present standard diploma would turn into a "second class" certificate.

But Waters said there is nothing wrong with rewarding students who put in extra work.

The board also voted to require every school district to provide remedial instruction to juniors and seniors who are short credits in English, mathematics or science or who have taken the high school proficiency examination at least twice and failed one or more sections.

Board member David Cook of Carson City said he plans to start an effort to expand remediation. At present schools that don't score well in national tests get extra money for remedial instruction.

Cook said he wants to see that every student who scores in the bottom 25 percent of the national test get extra help, not just those who attend low achieving schools. He will ask this issue be put on a future agenda of the education board.

The vote to adopt the higher standards was 8-2 with Peggy Lear Bowen, a schoolteacher in Reno, and Yvonne Shaw, a retired teacher from Washoe County, dissenting.

Nevada school districts and the schoolteachers union had both opposed making major changes in the credit requirements, calling it premature.

They argue that the new tougher curriculum is being put in place, and the impact of those moves should be assessed before more changes are made.

"Our position is they (the board) don't need to be doing anything with graduation requirements until the standards are in place." Debbie Cahill, a representative of the Nevada State Education Association, said. "They were acting prematurely at this point. Let the dust settle first.

"They are trying to solve this problem of student failing the math proficiency exam by manipulating these graduation numbers and there are a lot of other factors that will not even be touched by this," she said after the meeting. "There's the fact kids can take two math credits in eighth and ninth grades and then they don't take the proficiency exam until the 11th or 12th grade. They are going to forget some of that stuff.

"That's one of the factors that might be increasing the failure rates on the math and this is not going to touch that," Cahill said. "There's also the example of the student taking the second year of math while they're taking the proficiency test in their junior year. They are being tested on something they haven't learned."