High school students may get break on science test

Tuesday, June 12, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- High school students should keep an eye on Thursday's special session of the Nevada Legislature because it could affect their graduation.

Current law requires seniors to pass a new science examination to gain a diploma in 2003. A bill before the special session pushes the requirement back to 2005.

School districts are just aligning their science courses to the state standards, said Keith Rheault, deputy state superintendent of public instruction. "We didn't think the students had a fair opportunity to learn the science standards."

Nevada requires two science credits to graduate. But there are five different areas of science, said Rheault. So a student may have taken biology and chemistry but did not receive any instruction in the physical sciences.

Upper-level students did not have any opportunity at counseling to determine what courses they should take to pass a science examination, said Rheault. There were predictions there would be a high failure rate. "And it would not be the students' fault that they didn't have the right subjects," Rheault said.

Clark and Washoe counties are now integrating the instruction into all the science courses. So freshmen this year will be the first to face the requirement of a science exam to gain a diploma.

The bill, Senate Bill 148, passed the regular session of the Legislature between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. The session was supposed to end at midnight, altogether there were 21 bills that passed in that one-hour period.

Gov. Kenny Guinn is including those bills on the agenda of the special session to avoid any possible legal challenges.

The state will start testing in science this year, but it won't affect graduation. The once-a-year examination is being given to see how students perform and what areas of instruction must be beefed up. It will give the state and the school districts an indication of the areas students are weak in, Rheault said.

The governor also has placed on the agenda of the session a bill that allowed $1.8 million to the state Department of Education. Part of that money would be used to develop a new test for eighth graders that would show how they are doing on standards required in the Nevada school system.

That bill didn't get approved by the Legislature. Rheault said the state, if it doesn't administer the test, could lose part of its $30 million a year in federal funding for improving instructional programs in districts with a high concentration of low-income families or handicapped children.

Rheault said the money was included in the department's budget, but the bill, Senate Bill 459, included the language change in the law for the testing.

If SB459 is considered and passed by the session, a national standardized test, now taken by eighth graders, would be instead taken by seventh graders. This would make way for eighth graders to take the state's standardized test.