Pandemic year exacerbated already declining scores

Not that long ago, around graduation there would be a handful of Douglas County seniors who couldn’t pass the state math proficiency test and were not allowed to graduate with their class.

That changed in 2016 when the state dropped the proficiency test and required at least 95 percent of juniors to take the American College Testing exam instead. Students weren’t required to pass the test, but their scores were still used as a measure of school performance.

That change can be seen in test results posted to nevadareportcard.nv.gov/di/ but the drop was exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak school year of 2020-21, which saw math test scores in Douglas County plunge 61.3 percent compared to 2016-17.

The college exam is also used to track progress in English and Language Arts. Those scores have also been in decline, but not quite so precipitously as math scores.

Concerns about test scores have entered the political debate in the Douglas County School Board race.

Douglas math scores dropped from 69.3 percent in 2017 to 26.8 percent in 2021. The only countywide school district to do better than Douglas in 2017 was Eureka County with an 88.8 percent score. That rural county actually suffered a bigger drop than Douglas over the five years, with a 74.4 percent decline in its math score to 22.7 percent in 2021, according to data from nevadareportcard.nv.gov/di/

“In the spring of 2016, the state moved to the ACT as the assessment that would be used to determine high school math and (English as a second language) proficiency,” Superintendent Keith Lewis said. “This was a significant change, as we moved away from the High School Proficiency Exams that students were required to pass in order to graduate.”

Students were given up to four tries to help them pass the exam.

“The motivator of graduation was built into the assessment,” Lewis said.

The drop in math scores was immediate, with Douglas dropping 15 points in state data to a 45. Eureka County immediately dropped from its statewide throne to 46.6 percent. Nye County dropped from 44.2 percent in 2016-17 to 21.5 percent in 2017-18. Test scores for 2021-22 are expected to be released next month.

“With the move to the ACT, the graduation requirement moved from having to pass the assessment to simply having to take the assessment,” Lewis said. “That is a huge change, as kids who do not plan to go to college have absolutely zero motivation going into the exam.”

Lewis said Nevada is one of only 17 states requiring juniors to take the college test.

“People point out that Nevada's ACT scores are some of the lowest in the nation, which is true,” he said. “However, being compared to 33 states whose data is based primarily on college-bound students is not an apples to apple comparison.”

Lewis said ACT’s changing top possible score from 32 to 36 also contributed to the decline.

“We have always been frustrated in education that the assessments seem to continually change and it's very difficult to compare apples to apples,” he said. “While I understand and support accountability measures, it's tough to be evaluated on assessments that students may not be motivated to take as they don't impact their grade.”