Bill: More teaching, fewer hours on test prep in Nevada schools

CARSON CITY — Teachers may be required to cut down on time spent preparing and administering certain standardized tests under a bill considered by lawmakers Thursday.

Assembly Bill 296, sponsored by Assemblyman Reuben D’Silva, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Selena Torres, D-Las Vegas, would cap the amount of time teachers can spend preparing or administering certain formalized testing at 2 percent of total instructional time in a school year.

“Expanding the amount of instruction time that we have with these children, especially in this post-pandemic sort of world that we’re living in — this is crucial,” D’Silva said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

And testing gets in the way of that instruction time, D’Silva and his co-presenter, Dr. Brenda Pearson, said during the bill hearing Thursday.

“There are layers of assessments offered in schools and this is a very slippery slope,” said Pearson. “It is a pyramid of assessments that are taking place in our schools and pull away from the time that students should be learning.”

Federal and state testing would be included in that 2 percent time cap, but the legislation is aimed at cutting down the amount of time spent on district specific assessments. In Clark County, those assessments include advanced placement exams and the preliminary SAT exam.

The legislation would not apply to students taking advanced placement courses, career or technical education programs or literacy programs for elementary school students.

According to a report from the Clark County School District, an average student spends 3.5 percent, or 33 hours, of time on assessments each year.

The bill also wouldn’t let districts count students who spend less than 98 percent of class on instructional time from the count of pupils that determines districts’ funding.

The Clark County Education Association and Nevada State Education Association spoke in support of the bill. But representatives with the Clark County School District, the Washoe County School District and the Nevada Association of School Superintendents raised concerns over the bill.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done and a lot that needs to be worked out to make this make sense as far as tracking. There’s a lack of clarity on what assessments we’re even talking about here,” said Patricia Haddad, a lobbyist with the Clark County School District.

Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on Twitter.