Editorial: Fix exit test, or risk losing it

Thursday, May 11, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

Before 1998 the Clark County School District's exit exam for high school students - which must be passed to graduate with a diploma - was considered a joke. It tested basic skills, very basic. But the 1997 Legislature ordered a tougher exam, and for the next several years the high percentage of students failing it became a major concern.

The 2003 Legislature rolled back the minimum passing score from 304 to 290 (out of a maximum score of 500). The Legislature ordered a gradual return to 304 by 2007. The rollback gave students time to adjust to the more difficult test, and it appears to be gaining results. Out of 12,000 seniors in the district's class of 2005, 91.5 percent passed the exam.

At a time when Nevada is overcoming the perception that the exam will be a barrier to graduation, an issue is arising in California that might once again propel proficiency exams here to the forefront. Graduation is scheduled for next month in California, but tens of thousands of students there have not passed the exam. This is the first year that Golden State students were required to pass the math and English portions of the exam to receive diplomas.

A San Francisco attorney filed a lawsuit on behalf of six seniors who failed the exam, alleging that most of the failing students were from poor families and went to schools with overcrowded classrooms and less-qualified teachers. A judge in California, set to rule on the suit Friday, has already issued a tentative decision siding with the attorney.

The attorney in the case told the Los Angeles Times: "The judge is saying, 'If the state is going to deprive a student of a diploma based on a single test, then it must ensure that every student has an equal chance to prepare for it.' "

The Clark County School District, which also has overcrowded and disparate schools, addressed that by intensifying classroom instruction and offering tutoring and test-based workshops to all students. Yet there remains a problem. Thirty percent of its exit exam consists of geometry, which is not a required course.

It is not right to require students to be tested on a subject in which they have had no instruction. The district must fix this flaw. We believe exit exams are important, and we would not want to see a California ruling against them ignite a similar suit and judgment here.