Lawmakers consider how to prepare students for proficiency tests

Lawmakers meet today to consider a plan to better prepare students for proficiency tests they must now pass to get a high school diploma.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, said the state must not only provide remediation for students who fail those tests but do a better job of preparing students in advance of the tests.

He is proposing the Proficiency Exam Preparation Act to help with the problem. It would parents parents of junior high students for the tests their child must pass, including informing parents about the concepts students are expected to master. It would give schools more flexibility to provide tutoring and after-hour programs to students who need more help and provide more training for teachers of at-risk students.

Williams, who chairs the Interim Legislative Committee on Education, said the tutoring could be especially important for students who didn't have a math course the year before the test. Math is the test most students are failing.

He said another bill he is proposing would allow troubled schools that are making improvements in overall student test scores to continue getting remediation up to three years instead of being cut off.

"Right now we are not only failing to help troubled schools to continue their improvement, we are actually punishing them for their success," he said.