WEEKLY EDITORIAL RECAP

TUESDAY

SMOKE, MIRRORS and DROPOUTS

The Board of Education took the position that high school students should be able to take the proficiency exam up to seven times -- and up to four times as seniors -- even if they haven't passed the classes needed to keep them on the path to graduation. ...

Prior to this year, a high school student had to earn 17 credits to be classified as a senior and qualify for the final four chances at the proficiency exam. ... Now a student will be classified as a senior for merely attending six semesters of high school -- even if that student has failed a handful of classes. ...

This is no cure for the state's high dropout rate, which is no indication of quality, one way or another anyway. It's an effort to fix a perceived problem with smoke and mirrors.

If the Clark County School Board adopts the state policy as its own, trustees need to be prepared for the inevitable results: a higher proficiency exam failure rate and more public displeasure with valley schools.

THURSDAY

REPORT CARD

The good news: Nevada was one of only four states to show improvement in math proficiency in both the fourth and eighth grades this year, when compared to the 2007 results of National Assessment of Educational Progress testing. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont (along with the District of Columbia) were the only other states to make gains in both grades.

The bad news: Nevada's scores were below national averages, ranking its fourth-graders 42nd ... while its eighth-graders tied for 43rd.

The truly awful news: Nationally, only 39 percent of fourth-graders are proficient in math, meaning their math skills are deemed to be adequate for their grade level. Only 34 percent of the country's eighth graders are proficient at math. Those figures are essentially unchanged since 2007. ...

Which begs two of the most obvious questions in public education today: If the majority of our students aren't sufficiently mastering the material they are taught in early grades, why aren't students bringing home report cards full of F's, and why are schools advancing them?