Regent Board Member

Member Arrascada, the Board of Regents appointee (the Board in charge of higher education in Nevada), ended his term at this meeting. Member Arrascada has been crucial in bridging the gap between K-12 and higher education in Nevada, and he is appreciated for his service to the State Board of Education. During his two years on the Board, the Nevada System for Higher Education (NSHE) has made strides to increase collaboration with the Nevada Department of Education (NDE). NSHE released the data dashboard, helped NDE engage with stakeholders to select the College and Career Readiness test (the standardized test taken by all Juniors, currently the ACT), made strides in offering affordable dual credit classes, increased high schools offering dual credit classes by 96 percent, and more. The new Board of Regents appointee will be Stephanie Goodman. Regent Goodman represents District 13 and was elected in 2022. Read more about her here.

Student Mock Elections

The Board received a presentation from the Nevada Secretary of State Francisco V. Aguilar, Nevada Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Wlaschin, and  Co-chair of the Youth Advisory Task Force Andrew Cirincione about the Nevada Student Mock Election taking place on October 1st of this year. This year, the Secretary of State’s office improved the curriculum to reflect standards in each grade level and replaced current political figures running in the 2024 election with influential politicians from Nevada history. Additionally, they are putting the course material in Canvas so it is easy to integrate into schooling. The project aims to encourage youth to register to vote and teach civic engagement throughout grade levels. You can view the shortened version of the handbook linked here. Learn more about the Student Mock Elections here.

Arts and Humanities Requirement

During a previous regulatory meeting, proposed regulation R099-23P made necessary changes to graduation requirements, and while doing so, it attempted to remove the Arts and Humanities required credit to keep the required elective credit count at 6. However, I opposed this change for a variety of reasons:

• Nevada is moving towards a competency-based education system, and graduation requirements should be what we expect graduates to know.
• Why did they choose the Arts and Humanities to get rid of? Why not remove a physical education credit or a flex credit requirement? Targeting the singular Arts and Humanities credit devalues the humanities and shows that we, as a state, believe it’s not as important to learn as other subjects.
• Getting rid of it as a requirement may put current arts programs at risk as districts try to budget more for courses that are a graduation requirement. By keeping it required, we can safeguard these current programs.
• In addition to those reasons, I had concerns about the legality of its removal. Although I did not confirm, my understanding of NRS 389.018 § 3(a) is that the arts must be taught in public schools. The exact language is:
  • 3. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, in addition to the core academic subjects, the following subjects must be taught as applicable for grade levels and to the extent practicable in all public schools, the Caliente Youth Center, the Nevada Youth Training Center and any other state facility for the detention of children that is operated pursuant to title 5 of NRS:

(a) The arts; …

During the last meeting, the Board voted twice on this language to approve and deny it, with both votes failing. In this meeting, we passed the language to make the necessary changes to graduation requirements while retaining the Arts and Humanities requirement. This does, however, come with the downside of reducing the amount of elective credits required. Overall, the Board made the right decision to retain the requirement. The presentation related to this issue is linked here. Find the regulation language passed linked here.

*Although not mentioned above, the Board also approved regulation R050-24P relating to placement in rigorous courses, R131-22P relating to students in mental health treatment centers, and R092-24 relating to physical education exemption requirements. We also discussed the appeal processes for curriculum vendors and the pilot program relating to replacing the SBAC, breaking it into three separate tests to be administered throughout the year. We received presentations about mechanisms for rural support provided by the Department of Education and a presentation about the pilot for the teacher exit/transfer survey.*

You can find the meeting materials HERE, the agenda HERE, and the video recording HERE. The next meeting will be held on September 4th at 2 PM.