Five schools receive ‘inadequate’ mark

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 11:45 a.m.

Five Clark County schools are "inadequate" according to state testing standards, officials announced today.

That's down from 13 inadequate schools last year.

Four elementary schools landed on the inadequate list for the second year in a row: Cambeiro, Booker, Fitzgerald and Madison. Robert Lunt Elementary joins them on this year's list.

"Inadequate" means 40 percent or more of a school's fourth-, eighth- or 11th-grade students scored in the bottom 25 percent of students nationwide on the standardized TerraNova test taken in October.

"In some ways, we view this as a celebration," Clark County Superintendent Brian Cram said during a news conference at the district's curriculum and planning offices. "But it is a restrained celebration. We still have five people left behind. I remain concerned about the schools that are still on the list."

Cram said a combination of factors helped nine schools on last year's list to escape this year's, including smaller class sizes, more teacher training, some internal curriculum reviews and a host of new programs, partly paid for by $1.5 million in new state money.

"We have less than 2 percent of our schools on the list now," Cram said. "Two percent is 2 percent too much, but this represents a lot of hard work in these schools. You go to those schools and you find people who are sucking it up."

No schools landed on this year's "high-achieving" list. Last year the Advanced Technologies Academy was designated as high-achieving, which means 50 percent or more of students scored in the top quarter of all test-takers on all four of the TerraNova sections -- reading, math, language arts and science.

Cram said three schools were close to the high-achieving label: Advanced Technologies Academy, the Las Vegas Academy and the Hyde Park Academy of Math and Science. "We are within striking distance with those three schools," Cram said.

The Legislature began labeling schools as inadequate last year after it passed the 1997 Education Reform Act. The sweeping education legislation reflected a national push toward making schools more accountable for what students learn.

The law requires districts to identify inadequate schools and create plans for improvement.

District officials on Tuesday were quick to unveil their plans to raise test scores at each inadequate school. Those plans are similar to the schools' plans from last year, including new programs on specific subjects such as reading.

According to state law, a state panel will now study the four elementary schools that landed on the inadequate list for the second year in a row.

"I think there's nothing wrong with another opinion here," Cram said. "If they see something we do not see, so much the better. We welcome state involvement."

Last year, Nevada had 23 inadequate schools, which competed for a pot of $3 million in state money for programs aimed at raising test scores. Clark County got $1,549,307 of that money, and each of its 13 inadequate schools got a piece of the funding. The schools used the money for reading, math and science programs.