College grades low for Nevada

Jean Reid Norman

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

Nevada received a near failing grade in higher education today from a national study that evaluates states' success in schooling residents beyond the 12th grade.

"Measuring Up 2000," the first-of-its-kind study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a nonpartisan think tank in San Jose, Calif., assumed that education beyond high school is needed in the 21st century.

"For most Americans, college is no longer one of the many routes to middle-class life, but a requirement for employment that makes such a life possible," the report's introduction reads.

It graded states in their preparation of young adults to go to college, participation of residents ages 18 to 44 in higher education, affordability of college, the number of students who complete college and the benefits the state gains from its residents' level of education.

Nevada received an F in completion and two D-pluses for preparation and participation. Its highest score was a B for affordability. It received a C-minus for education's benefits to the state.

"This is a trend the governor has been aware of for a long time," Jack Finn, press secretary to Gov. Kenny Guinn said, noting that the governor responded to the problem in his first year in office with the Millennium Scholarship program.

The scholarship, funded by part of the state's share of the national tobacco settlement, provides up to $10,000 over four years for in-state tuition to Nevada graduates with a B or better average. More than 4,000 freshmen this year received the aid for the first time, reaching the 60 percent goal the governor's office set.

The program, Finn said, helps "focus students on their need for higher education.

"Millennium will play a big role in reversing this trend," he said.

Each "report card" was based on broad statistics for each state, largely from the Census Bureau and the U.S. Education Department. The most recent figures were from 1998, and included all learning after high school -- vocational and technical schools as well as two- and four-year institutions.

Complex formulas used to arrive at the grades were derived with help from outside experts including the National Academy of Sciences. Foundation grants paid for the $1.5 million survey, which took more than two years.

"A very low percentage of Nevada's first-time, full-time college students earn a bachelor's degree within five years of enrolling," the report noted in giving an F for completion. "And few students complete certificates and degrees relative to the number enrolled."

Preparation of students for college was only slightly better. A large number of Nevada's young adults earn a high school or General Education Development (GED) degree, it noted.

"But 8th graders perform poorly on national assessments in reading and writing, indicating that they are not well prepared for challenging high school courses."

In fact, the report notes, few high school students take the challenging courses, like upper-level math and science, that would prepare them for college, and few juniors and seniors score well on college entrance exams.

Participation in college, the report says, was as poor as students' preparation for higher education. Among adults 18 to 24, the usual college-age population, "A very low proportion of Nevada's students go to college ... and a similarly low percentage of young adults are enrolled in education or training beyond high school."

But Nevadans realize the value of education. "Yet a very high proportion of working-age adults (25 to 44) are enrolled in college-level education or training," the report notes.

The lack of higher education is hurting the state's economy, the report says. "A small proportion of Nevada residents have a bachelor's degree, and this impairs the state economically," it says. "Only a fair proportion of Nevada's adults perform well on high-level literacy tests. But the state's residents contribute substantially to the common good, as measured by charitable contributions."

The state's best grade came in affordability, where it "compares fairly well with the best-performing states on share of family income required, after financial aid, to attend the state's public two- and four-year colleges.

"However," the report adds, "Nevada invests very little in financial aid for low-income families."

Researchers also had hoped to examine how well people actually learn from higher education in each state, but were stymied by a lack of meaningful and uniform statistics to measure learning nationwide.

The study focused on the states because of their role in all education, whether financing public universities or grants to private colleges.