LOOKING IN ON: EDUCATION

By Emily Richmond

Monday, Dec. 4, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

The Clark County School Board won't vote until January on a proposal to increase graduation requirements, but campus guidance counselors have already raised the bar.

"When students comes in, we don't ask them, 'Are you going to take a third year of science.' We ask them what their third year of science class will be," said Jhone Ebert, director of curriculum and instruction.

If approved by the School Board in January, the "21st Century Course of Study" would take effect beginning with students who are currently high school freshmen. Unless parents want their children excluded from the tougher requirements, students would be expected to complete four years of math and three years of science at the high school level. That's an increase of one year's worth of classes for each subject.

Among the class of 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 49 percent of students finished four credits of high school math while 74 percent completed three science credits.

The upgraded curriculum requirements are in line with expected changes to the Millennium Scholarship program, Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said.

The School District has been steadily increasing its math expectations since 2001.

In fact, it was one of Carlos Garcia's proudest achievements when he was superintendent - an aggressive campaign to enroll more students in algebra by eighth grade. And while his initiative has been scaled back, it appears to have succeeded at directing more students toward higher math studies.

Garcia had wanted every middle school student to complete algebra before entering high school, arguing that it would put more students on track to tackle tougher math classes. But some students simply weren't up to the demands of the course work, district officials acknowledged at Thursday's School Board meeting.

That doesn't mean the algebra initiative has been dismantled, just refocused.

"We are providing the course that is appropriate for the readiness of the student," Ebert said.

The curriculum office developed a pre-algebra class for middle schools, which gives students the foundation they need to take the class as high school freshmen, Ebert said.

In the 2005-06 academic year, 73 percent of eighth graders were enrolled in algebra, up from 15 percent in 2001.

A proposal to allow open enrollment in the district's northeast region earned support from the School Board on Thursday, although plenty of questions still need to be answered.

Chief among them: How would students be transported to and from school?

Convincing the 2007 Legislature to pay for bus service is essential to moving forward with the pilot program, said Marcia Irvin, superintendent of the district's northeast region.

School Board Vice President Sheila Moulton suggested it might be time to explore public transportation options, something parents have vehemently resisted in the past.

"I'm not for young children using public transportation, but maybe at the secondary and high school level," Moulton said.

Remember the tumultuous search about a year ago for a new superintendent, all those ultimately futile trips to New York and the infighting back here?

The Clark County School Board is the 2006 recipient of the Nevada Association of School Board's Distinguished Service Award - for its stewardship during the "turbulent, though ultimately successful" search for a new superintendent.