Proficiency exam on table for many seniors

Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.

Eldorado High School senior Alex Martinez knows what's standing in the way of his going to college next year -- the mathematics portion of the Nevada proficiency exam.

"It's really hanging over me," Martinez said Monday. "I'm trying not to worry about it too much and study for it at the same time. That's hard to do."

Like all students in the state, Martinez must post passing scores on the math, reading and writing portions of the high school exit exam in order to earn a diploma. While some seniors are spending their winter vacation finishing college application essays, many others are cramming for the February sitting of the proficiency exam.

Martinez said he hasn't even bothered to request an application to his first-choice school -- the University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- until he knows he has passed the math test.

"There's no point, because if I don't pass I can't go," Martinez said.

The exact number of Clark County seniors who go on to attend two- and four-year colleges isn't known because the district does not track the data. A survey of graduating seniors by district administrators last spring showed just over half planned to attend either colleges or universities, but the actual number who enrolled isn't known.

Statewide about 38 percent of Nevada's high school seniors go on to college, according to the state Education Department. Nevada has one of the lowest rates in the country of college graduates, with just 12.6 percent of the population holding a four-year degrees.

Most of the 10,000 students in Clark County's class of 2002 completed the proficiency exam requirements in time to graduate with their class. But nearly 1,000 students did not, leaving them with certificates of attendance rather than diplomas.

Students in the class of 2003 who do not pass in February can try again in April and still graduate with their classmates. But by April they will have missed most college application deadlines.

In fact, even the February test date is cutting it close, said Jim Driscoll, co-founder of Nevada Education Consultants in Las Vegas.

"By the time they pass, they've put themselves out of the running for most of the colleges they would like to apply to," said Driscoll, a former Clark County charter school principal. "And by then the scholarship money is long gone to the early bird applicants."

Driscoll said he expects to spend much of the next month helping students prepare for the proficiency exams, as well as the ACTs and SATs that are used by colleges to evaluate would-be students. One of his clients finally passed the math portion of the proficiency exam last month -- on her sixth try.

"She was understandably elated," Driscoll said. "For so many of these kids, even ones who are otherwise strong students, the proficiency exam is just a huge hurdle to get over."

Edward Goldman, superintendent of the Clark County School District's southeastern region, said he understands the reticence of students to apply to college before passing the proficiency exam.

"Colleges and universities expect when you apply that you will have completed your full high school education by the end of that academic year," Goldman said. "It would be rather embarrassing to get into a school and then have to tell them you can't come because you haven't earned the full diploma."

Not all students wait until their senior year to finish the proficiency exam requirements.

Joey Garcia, a senior at Coronado High School, plans to relax during his winter vacation, having passed his proficiency exam this fall and finished his college applications. Garcia, who hopes to play baseball for Arizona State or Washington State, said he wanted to avoid the type of stressful spring he saw his senior-class friends struggle through last year.

"I'd rather know right away so I can enjoy what's left of my senior year," Garcia said.

Barbie Randolph, a senior at Las Vegas High School, also planned ahead and already knows she will attend Abilene Christian University in Texas next fall, having been accepted through the school's early decision program. Randolph said most of her friends, however, have not followed her example.

"They just keep putting it off, the tests, the applications, all of it," Randolph said. "They'll be sorry later."