Area students fare well in high school tests

Carson, Douglas and Lyon county students fared much better than state averages when scores for this year's high school proficiency tests were tallied.

But Storey County scores were the state's lowest in both math and reading.

Statewide, 49.9 percent of juniors taking the tests the first time passed the math exam. The rate was 68.5 percent for the reading test.

High school students in Nevada must pass both exams to get a high school diploma. The tests are first given to students in October of their junior year. Those who didn't make it will have six more chances to pass the exams in order to go through the graduation ceremony and get a diploma with their classmates.

In Carson City, 61 percent passed the math test and 77 percent passed the reading test.

In Douglas, the percentages were higher - 66 for math and 78 for reading. Lyon students had more trouble with math, but they did better than the state average with 51 percent passing on their first junior-year attempt. In reading, 78 percent of Lyon County juniors passed.

Storey County students fell far below the state averages with just 32 percent of juniors passing math and 55 percent passing reading exams, both the lowest of any school district.

Bob Scott, interim Storey County superintendent, said the main problem is that "the curriculum hasn't been aligned with those standards." In essence, he said, that means the schools aren't necessarily teaching the material required to pass the tests.

"I was very disappointed," said Scott. "but we're going to be working very hard on that."

He said the other problem is that Storey County has so few high school students , a few of them having difficulty with the tests can cause a much larger percentage change. According to the state figures, only 50 Storey high school juniors took the tests this October, so each one of them counts as two percent of the total.

Scott, who has been on the job in Storey County only a few weeks, said the district has recently hired a new high school principal, Pam Calhoun.