More students make grade

Brittany Jackson is ready for her cap and gown after getting results from her high school proficiency test.

"I passed it with seven points, but I passed," said the 17-year-old Desert Rose Adult High School student.

Jackson is among the 1,246 more high school seniors sighing with relief, having passed the exam given in March that is required to get a diploma.

They reduced the percentage of Clark County School District seniors still needing to pass both the math and reading sections of the test down to 13.4 percent, an improvement from this time last year when 16 percent of seniors were still trying.

The pressure is enormous, Jackson said, adding, "It's almost like your life depends on it." She dreams of becoming a pediatrician.

If students don't pass, they get certificates of attendance instead of diplomas at graduation. Graduation ceremonies will take place from June 4 to June 13.

Students will be given one more chance to take the test in July so they can be counted as graduating with their class, said Sue Daellenbach, academic manager for the school district. Otherwise they can continue to retake the tests as adults until they pass and get a diploma.

Students get their first crack at the proficiency test as sophomores. So some students take the test four or five times before they pass. Seniors have five chances to take the test this school year.

Daellenbach called the 2007-08 results "encouraging."

She said the numbers could improve once officials learn the results for the next round of tests that were given this month. Those results won't be released until just before graduation.

School Board member Sheila Moulton said the improved showing proves that the tutoring and individual attention is paying off.

"I'm excited. (The test results) mean students get to graduate," Moulton said.

School Board Trustee Terri Janison said even more students would do better if they used the district's tutors and online study aids.

"Opportunities are available but you have to take advantage of them," she said.

The proficiency test results are so important that they're a criterion that School Board members use for evaluating Superintendent Walt Rulffes, Moulton said. Rulffes did not return phone calls seeking comment on the test results Friday.

The proficiency exam tests what high school students should have learned in math and reading, Daellenbach said. In math, students are tested on algebra, geometry, probability and statistics.

The improved performance on the math portion of the proficiency test contrasted with a dismal showing earlier this year in a different districtwide test.

Daellenbach said it was "apples and oranges" to compare the proficiency test with the end-of-first semester math test results, when roughly nine in 10 high school students were unable to pass exams in Algebra 1, geometry and Algebra 2. Roughly eight in 10 eighth-graders failed the pre-algebra exam.

In the comparison to the well-known, high-stakes proficiency tests, school officials said the end-of-first semester exams were new to students. Also, the tests were not given uniformly to all students across the school district.

"We know kids," Daellenbach said. "If they don't take something seriously, they're not going to do well."

If school district officials were encouraged by the proficiency tests, they were discouraged that the high school dropout rate for students in the 2006-07 school year increased to 6 percent from 5.6 percent. The increase comes after years of steady decline from a high of 7.8 percent in 2002-03 school year.

Some students who left school told officials they went to work to support their families, officials said.

Also, their families might have moved out of town and neglected to tell the district, Daellenbach said. Without documentation that a student has re-enrolled in another school, the district must count the student as a dropout.

Contact reporter James Haug at jhaug@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4686.