In response to our request for comment for our coverage of Senate Bill 9, a bill which eliminates End of Course exams and form for parental notification, the Nevada Department of Education (DOE) provided this statement:

Prior to the implementation of the End of Course exams, Nevada administered statewide proficiency exams for graduation. Since that time the state moved to the ACT as the statewide College and Career assessment. Feedback from Nevada teachers and district leaders concludes that End of Course exams do not provide actionable data due to the timing of the exam and add to the otherwise full plate of required assessments in our high schools. Alternatively, assessments taken throughout the course provide useful information regarding the students’ mastery of concepts taught.

As for your question on the elimination of forms related to parental notification and involvement, the proposed language does not eliminate all forms of parental notification and involvement but rather removes the Department from prescribing the Accord form and gives local control to the schools and parents to jointly develop the form. The recommendation to remove the Parent Report Card will allow schools and families to develop more authentic forms of communication. This meets the true intent and purpose of the school-parent compact in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

Best,

Elizabeth Callahan

Public Information Officer

Nevada Department of Education

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed by former President Barack Obama. Per the Department’s highlights of the ESSA:

ESSA includes provisions that will help to ensure success for students and schools. Below are just a few. The law:

• Advances equity by upholding critical protections for America’s disadvantaged and high-need students.
• Requires—for the first time—that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers.
• Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students’ progress toward those high standards.
• Helps to support and grow local innovations—including evidence-based and place-based interventions developed by local leaders and educators—consistent with our Investing in Innovation and Promise Neighborhoods
• Sustains and expands this administration’s historic investments in increasing access to high-quality preschool.
• Maintains an expectation that there will be accountability and action to effect positive change in our lowest-performing schools, where groups of students are not making progress, and where graduation rates are low over extended periods of time.

Recently, Scholaroo released a survey which concludes that Nevada public schools are the worst in the nation.

Key finding from the study conclude:

• Nevada students have the worst performance in reading, math, and science tests;
• Only 87% of high school students graduate, one of the lowest rates in the entire country;
• Nevada students have the lowest ACT test scores in 2022.

In 2015, Republican Governor Brian Sandoval signed into law the largest tax increase in Silver State history which promised to “reform education” through $1 billion in new taxes. Since that time, Nevada’s public schools have fallen from 35th in the nation to dead last.

During his State of the State, Governor Joe Lombardo has promised to invest an additional $2 billion dollars to “fix education” and has demanded, through executive order, the release of third part audits to his administration. The Democrats have responded to his offer with a demand for $250 million more in funding for educator and support staff raises.