School district casts eyes at ‘world-class standards’

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998 | 11:12 a.m.

Disappointed by U.S. and local test scores, the Clark County School Board on Tuesday began a process to eventually establish "world-class standards" for local students.

Board members have long talked about setting goals for the district that would make Clark County students competitive with the world's brightest students. But mired in the district's growth problems and frustrated by the very definition of "world-class standards," the board has not pursued it.

At a special meeting Tuesday, however, the board began discussing how to make Clark County students internationally competitive.

"This is where the board makes a difference," board member Ruth Johnson said.

Board president Susan Brager said, "We feel it really is time to take a giant step forward."

Superintendent Brian Cram presented the board with 96 pages of research and articles on the topic. Cram's bottom line: educators worldwide still disagree about what "world-class" standards means.

Cram also said that some nations with high scores tend to have rigid national guidelines that schools all over the nation follow closely.

"The comparison to the United States is that we tend to be a mile wide and an inch deep," Cram said, and " ...that we tend to cover more topics less in-depth."

Board members brain-stormed about how to "raise the bar" in terms of student achievement, and about how the board's "world-class standards" push might relate to current state efforts to revamp standards.

The board agreed to focus on four goals:

-- Creating a new kind of "school culture" that encouraged structure, discipline and consistency from school to school.

-- Extending the school day to include enrichment activities, such as creative art programs.

-- Evaluating benchmarks for achievement.

-- Expanding pre-kindergarten education.

"A lot of these kids don't start on the same page," board member Shirley Barber said. "They don't have the same experiences. A lot of kids when they get to school don't know their colors."

Board members also said that improving teacher training was a key element in meeting world-class standards.

Board members agreed to meet again Nov. 6, pledging to not let the topic die by their own inaction.

"We have been continually saying that our students are a little better than average," said board member Lois Tarkanian, who for years has led the charge on the board to define world-class standards. "But what good is a little better than average when average means you are still so far behind other countries of the world? Let's try to be 'world class.' "