Proficiency test changes proposed

Terry Webster and Cy Ryan

Monday, Dec. 11, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada students might have fewer chances to pass the High School Proficiency Exam in the wake of controversy over the test.

The proposed reduction is an effort to help avoid complex formulas used to equalize the difficulty level of the exam's six versions.

The move also would limit the number of versions the state would offer.

"We're talking about possibility of not offering it in February and April," state Deputy Superintendent Keith Rheault said, adding that a proposal may be presented to the state Board of Education later this year.

Currently, the scoring method used for the exam puzzles and concerns state Board of Education members. Some board members are even questioning the exam's fairness.

In order to pass October's reading portion of the exam, students had to get at least 82.4 percent of the questions correct, up 7.9 percentage points from the October 1999 passing score of 74.5 percent.

In explaining the difference, Paul LaMarca, the Nevada Department of Education's testing director, told the board Saturday that questions were easier on October's version of the test than they were in the past.

Ten to 12 reference questions -- which vary slightly and are used on each of the exam's six versions -- are part of the formula that determine scale scores. The scale scores are weighted scores used to equalize the difficulty level of the exams.

The different versions, LaMarca said, help to ward off cheating or students remembering answers when they take the test more than once.

Board members peppered LaMarca with questions that reflected their confusion and concern. They asked what officials could tell parents whose children were able to score 80 percent and still not pass.

Board member Frank Mathews of Las Vegas said the test was not fair to students. How did state officials know, he asked LaMarca, whether the students were smarter or the questions were easier than in the past?

"I'm still trying to grasp what your conclusions are," board member Merv Iverson of Las Vegas told LaMarca.

Iverson asked what the next steps will be and what the implications are for teachers and testing.

State officials are continuing to sort through the issue.

Rheault said he, too, is concerned about the gap between the percentage and scale scores.

"When the difference gets to be that much, it is a concern," he said.

The scoring method also is raising eyebrows in the Clark County School District.

"I've never particularly liked having to worry about scale scores," Leonard Paul, the school district's assistant superintendent of secondary education, said. "It causes more anxiety for everyone involved."

Judy Costa, the district's testing director, questions how students failed after scoring above 75 percent on October's reading exam.

She also pointed out in a district memo that the scoring method appears to have caused the minimum passing score to rise to 69 percent correct on October's math exam.

In 1999 the minimum correct needed to pass the math portion was 64 percent.

The passing rate in reading fell from 66 percent in 1999 to 63.6 percent in October in Clark County.

Passing rates in math, meanwhile, increased from 49.4 percent in 1999 to 50.9 percent in 2000.

School officials are attributing the improvement in math to stepped-up remediation efforts.

For the third consecutive year the state's passing rate in reading for juniors taking the high school proficiency examination has declined, but math performance is up slightly.

October marked the first time juniors have taken the exam. They have seven more chances to pass in order to graduate.

Of the 22,686 juniors statewide who took the examination, 66.1 percent passed the reading portion, compared with 68.5 percent last year. Two years ago the percentage of juniors passing reading was 73.3 percent.

On the math test, 50.9 percent of the 25,912 juniors who took the examination got passing grades, up 1 percentage point from last year and 1.8 points from two years ago.

"We're pleased with the steady improvement we're seeing in math performance. The concerted efforts of teachers, administrators, parents, and most of all, students to improve math achievement are beginning to pay off," Mary Peterson, state superintendent of public instruction, said.

"Now we must ensure that adequate attention is also being given to reading instruction," she added.

The department also released the results of seniors who previously failed one of the tests. Among the seniors, 23 percent passed the math test, 32 percent the reading test and 65.8 percent the writing test.

A "significant majority" of seniors have already passed all portions of the proficiency tests, officials said.

The department said the figures are not available on how many seniors still must pass one or all portions of the examination. But they have three additional chances.