A meeting of the minds on preparation for college

Emily Richmond and Christina Littlefield

Sunday, June 25, 2006 | 7:50 a.m.

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University system Chancellor Jim Rogers and Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes want to build a bridge.

Rogers has the lumber, Rulffes the nails, and they're asking everyone to meet down by the river to decide what kind of bridge it should be.

Do they want it wide enough to drive a car over, or should it be a footbridge? What about nighttime lighting? How many people can cross at once? How about a toll booth to help pay for it?

For the first time, Nevada education officials are laying out a blueprint for just such a bridge - one that will help students successfully cross a sometimes raging river between the state's K-12 and higher education systems.

The goal is to close the gap between what the School District expects from its graduates and what it actually takes to succeed in college or the real world. "We're talking about raising everyone's expectations - our students, our teachers and administrators, our parents," Rulffes says. "We're not saying everyone should go to college. We're saying our students should be ready to succeed in life when they graduate, whether they go to UNLV or a career training program or right into the workforce."

Just six months ago, Rogers was campaigning for Rulffes' competitor for the job of superintendent.

These days, Rogers and Rulffes meet regularly to discuss how to improve Nevada's public education pipeline.

"In the higher education system, the majority of its success is dependent on the quality of education that kids get in K-12," Rogers says.

After years of educators lamenting - and finger-pointing - about why so many Clark County high school graduates require remedial college classes, Rulffes and Rogers have developed a multi-tiered plan to address the problem. It requires all district students to enroll in college prep curriculum, local colleges to offer remedial help to high school students and both to provide increased opportunities to earn credit that would apply to high school and college.

Under the plan - which will require Clark County School Board approval - parents would have to "opt out" of having their children enrolled in the more challenging courses.

Mike Cohen, president of an education think tank created by a coalition of the nation's governors and business leaders in 1996, praises the superintendent and chancellor for their public display of collaborative spirit.

"It's hugely important that they do it together. It's almost impossible to succeed if they don't," says Cohen, whose organization, Achieve, promotes aligning K-12 standards and content with the demands of higher education.

"The college faculty has to sit down with the high school faculty and say, 'Here's what we cover in a first-year course that will be new material to your students. Here's what we're prepared to review with them, and here's what they absolutely have to know when they arrive or they'll be in trouble because we're not teaching it to them again.' "

National studies have repeatedly found that the top predictor of collegiate or workplace success is taking a rigorous college-prep curriculum - four years of math and English, three years of science and social science, and a foreign language.

Compared to other states, Nevada's curriculum ranks well above average in both scope and difficulty, state education officials say. Still, about 40 percent of Nevada high school graduates, including Millennium Scholars, wind up in remedial college classes.

And there's little doubt the state's students are struggling. At Nevada's community colleges, less than half of the students returned for a second year, compared with 61 percent nationally, according to a 2004 report by the Education Trust, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

Freshmen at Nevada's four-year colleges returned at a 72 percent rate, compared with 77 percent nationally. Only 45 percent of students at UNLV and UNR earned a four-year degree within six years of beginning their studies.

Implementing stricter course requirements will require major policy changes for the School Board, but the Community College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College are already working on pilot programs to improve the state's remediation rates.

Under a tentative plan with the School District, CCSN would offer diagnostic placement testing in math and English to high school juniors. The tests determine what remedial classes the juniors need, which would then allow them to take those classes during their senior year.

Students currently take those diagnostic tests when registering for community college classes, but CCSN began offering the math test to select juniors this past spring, says Mike Richards, vice president of academic affairs.

This fall CCSN plans to offer testing in English and math to students at five valley high schools, and provide remedial classes on those campuses in the spring, he says. High school instructors who meet CCSN's requirements will teach the community college's curriculum in the remedial classes, which will fill in the school day for seniors, some of whom finish their school day as early as 10 a.m. The remedial classes will probably carry a $25 fee.

CCSN is also working with Nevada State to offer more dual-credit classes at high school campuses, allowing students to take introductory-level college classes at their own high schools.

The more rigorous course offerings fall in line with recommendations from national education researchers.

A two-year study of high school curricula by the American Diploma Project, now overseen by Cohen's Achieve, found the nation's high schools did not demand enough of students.

The study recommended graduation benchmarks with specific course requirements in English and mathematics. For example, algebra would be mandatory instead of simply requiring a minimum number of math credits. And all students should be held to the same high standards, whether they are in college-track classes, magnet programs or vocational schools, the project's researchers concluded.

The state Department of Education requires high school students to earn three math credits, but specific classes are not identified. Seniors scheduled to graduate in 2007 will be required to pass algebra. Clark County has pushed to get more students into advanced math classes earlier in their academic careers, and the first-time pass rate for 10th graders on the state proficiency exam has climbed steadily.

In an effort to recruit low-income, minority and at-risk students to Nevada State, the Henderson college is adopting high schools in the district's east region. Beginning in August, the college will offer a dual-credit course to students in Eldorado High School's Advancement Via Individualized Determination program. Las Vegas High School is also interested in participating.

"The goal is to try to fill that gap senior year and help students who don't see themselves as college material go to college," says Rene Cantu, assistant vice president for student services at Nevada State.

Programs such as AVID, which steers students toward more challenging curriculum while providing intensive tutoring and mentoring, are one way to address that gap. Nationally, 95 percent of AVID students go on to four-year colleges and universities.

But the cost of the program - about $60,000 for every section of 30 students - has limited the district to offering it in just 18 of 35 high schools.

"We need AVID in every middle school and high school we have," Rulffes says. "If we had the money, we would have done it already."

And he and Rogers plan to present a united front to state lawmakers next spring in a search for dollars to build their bridge. For example, Rogers will support Rulffes' push for all-day kindergarten, and Rulffes will back the Nevada System of Higher Education's requests to improve student services.

Rogers wants education to get every dime of extra state revenue available in this biennium.

Keith Rheault, state superintendent of public instruction, says everyone benefits when K-12 and higher education work as allies rather than enemies. Ultimately, however, "we're both competing for the same dollars, and the pot of money is only so big," he says. "They have needs, and we have needs - I've never seen it where the Legislature's funded everybody's needs."

Rulffes and Rogers appear willing to engage in some creative bartering, a technique that might serve them well when the Legislature resumes in February.

Nevada State College has 550 acres on the outskirts of Henderson, with plenty of room for the K-8 school the district would like to build. In exchange for the land, the district would use bond funds to build a 120,000-square-foot College of Education, increasing the number of classroom seats for future teachers.

Professors would serve as a resource to the K-8 school next door, and college students would be able to do their student teaching on-campus.

Rogers is forging ties with Washoe County as well, and will give his State of the System speech twice in November - once in conjunction with Rulffes and again with Washoe County Schools Superintendent Paul Dugan.

The chancellor isn't the only higher education official reaching out to K-12.

The Board of Regents recently expanded its statewide P-16 Council, adding several community and business leaders from Reno and Las Vegas. At the council's urging, the state Education Department, higher education system and state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation agreed to share data and better track what happens to the state's students after high school.

The bridge-building efforts of Rulffes and Rogers are also winning applause from some of the state's toughest critics of public education.

"We've been preaching this for so long, and I am so glad they are doing this," says Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas. "Hallelujah and congratulations to these two gentlemen for coming to the conclusion that this needs to be done."

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