Nine area schools praised in study

Terry Webster

Monday, Dec. 17, 2001 | 9:37 a.m.

Nine Clark County schools are praised in a national study that spotlights high-achieving schools with low income or high minority student populations.

Squires, Thomas, Twin Lakes, Harmon, Hoggard, Mackey, Long, Perkins and Sandy Valley elementary schools are among 4,577 public schools nationwide that are cited in "Dispelling the Myth, Revisited," a study by the Education Trust, a nonprofit education advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

"There are many people out there who believe poor and minority students can't do high-level academic work," Craig Jerald, the report's author, said. "These schools disprove that belief."

The study is based on a U.S. Department of Education database that analyzed math and reading test scores of the top one-third schools in each state, Jerald said.

The study, based on 1999-2000 data, also looked at poverty and minority populations in those high-performing schools.

The nine Clark County schools that were cited both scored in the top third in the state and had either high poverty or minority populations or both.

Squires, Thomas and Twin Lakes elementary schools had both high poverty and minority populations.

Of the 4,077 schools in the study, only 1,320 fell into that category. A fourth Nevada school, Smith Elementary in Sparks, was in the same category.

The remaining Clark County schools were either high poverty or high minority, but not both.

Carol Lark, Squires Elementary principal, credited student discipline and getting and keeping top teachers as the key to her school's success.

"You can have the best curriculum in the world, but it won't make a difference unless you have the best teachers to deliver it," Lark said. "That is the single most important factor."

Classroom outbursts by students are not tolerated, she added. Squires has a teacher whose job is to oversee all students having discipline problems.

"You have got to have a handle on discipline," Lark said. "If one youngster disrupts a class of 20 or 30, then you lose a lot of instruction time."

Jerald said excellent teachers and good discipline programs are two key qualities seen in the other schools that performed highly, despite all odds.

"It's also a myth that you need a super principal," he said. "There are teachers who have turned schools around, too."

Of the 4,500 schools in the national study, 3,592 had high poverty rates, 2,305 had mostly minority student populations and 1,320 schools that had both.