Nevada close to being left behind education reform law

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Dec. 16, 2002 | 9:16 a.m.

As the deadline looms for compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act, Nevada education officials say they're still debating which tests they'll use to measure student achievement, as the new federal law requires.

The Nevada Department of Education has until Jan. 31 to submit workbooks detailing how it will comply with the education reforms, signed into law last winter. The law calls for yearly tests of student progress, and schools that do not show "adequate yearly performance" face sanctions.

So far two proposals for testing have surfaced. State education officials say they favor the use of criterion-referenced tests, which are based on Nevada's standards. But the Legislative Subcommittee on Education is seeking norm-referenced tests -- based on national standards -- augmented with sections from the existing state criterion-referenced tests.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said he wants students to be tested according to national standards. Raggio, who chairs the education subcommittee, said Nevada has a responsibility to ensure its students can compete with their peers in other states.

Board member Merv Iverson, a longtime educator, said combining the two versions of tests would dilute the usefulness of both. The test based on state standards is essential for charting individual student progress, Iverson said.

At its meeting Saturday the Nevada Board of Education put off making a decision until January, giving the board's subcommittee on government relations time to review the differing proposals.

Board member John Hawk pushed unsuccessfully for an immediate decision on the tests, saying the delay made it "almost too late" for discussion before the deadline.

"This is too vitally important to set aside," Hawk told the other board members.

The board also delayed discussion of another critical aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act -- a provision that requires state education officials to provide transfers for students seeking to leave "persistently dangerous schools."

Under the law each state is allowed to set its own definition of an unsafe school. A draft of Nevada's definitions was pulled from the agenda Saturday at the request of representatives state's two largest school districts -- Clark and Washoe counties. District officials said they wanted the opportunity to review and contribute to the state's proposal.