High school seniors awaiting results of tests

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 | 9:03 a.m.

More than 2,700 Clark County high school seniors are finding out whether they passed the state's proficiency exam, a requirement for receiving a diploma when graduations begin Friday.

Results from the exam were sent to local school districts by the state Education Department Tuesday. Some schools started distributing the results Tuesday afternoon while others were to begin today.

For example, of the 63 Desert Pines High School students who took the math exam, just 10 passed, said Principal Roger Jacks. The school had a higher success rate on the reading section, with 20 of 35 students passing. On the writing test, 16 of 27 students passed.

Some students lacked passing scores on only one section of the exam while others needed to complete all three, Jacks said.

During graduation ceremonies Monday the school expects to hand out 360 diplomas and 65 "Certificates of Attendance," which are given to students who complete the required 22.5 course credits but do not pass all sections of the proficiency exam.

School officials will speak individually with each of those 65 students today and encourage them to enroll in the summer school proficiency test study class that begins next week, Jacks said. Seniors who pass the July round of the proficiency test may still receive diplomas from their home high schools, Jacks said. After the July testing date students receive general diplomas from the district's Adult Education program.

"We need to catch the kids now and convince them that the diploma is still within their grasp," Jacks said. "Tomorrow's the last day of school -- after that they're not ours anymore and the chances of them just giving up rise astronomically."

The May round of the test was open only to seniors who had otherwise completed all of their course requirements but still lacked passing scores on one or more sections of the proficiency exam.

Unlike the other rounds of the exam, which are sent to an outside company for scoring, the May exams are graded in-state so that the results can be distributed more quickly and in advance of graduation ceremonies.

State Superintendent Keith Rheault said his staff discovered last week that the state's computerized scoring system had not been updated to reflect changes made to the answer sheet.

"We switched to a more complicated process -- our system now scans for statistical data, not just whether the answer is right or wrong," Rheault said. "We're going to go back and make sure all the kinks are out and this doesn't happen again."

When the company that handles the state's computer system could not fix the problem quickly, the state turned to Harcourt Testing Co. for help, Rheault said. Harcourt is under contract to develop and score the state's proficiency exams.

The exams were sent to Harcourt Testing Co.'s offices in San Antonio and the company "worked feverishly" to complete results, Rheault said. Results were sent electronically to all 17 of the state's school districts this morning, Rheault said.

Officials in some school districts said they had hoped to have the results by the end of last week.