34 percent of Nevada schools make ‘watch list’

Friday, Oct. 10, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.

Thirty-four percent of the state's schools have been placed on the "watch list" for failing to meet standards for yearly progress in a number of categories, the state Department of Education said today that.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, there are 37 criteria a school must achieve to avoid being placed on the list, and 146 schools in Nevada did not meet all the standards, officials said.

Jack McLaughlin, state superintendent of public instruction, told a news conference that 96 more schools are being evaluated because they had different testing times than the 430 schools that underwent the first round.

McLaughlin said the results from those additional schools should be known in about a month.

McLaughlin emphasized this was a "transition year" since the results are based on tests taken last November. He said the state's version of the standards was not approved by the federal government until this June. The state required only a 90 percent participation rate in taking the test but the federal government set the standard at 95 percent.

The 146 schools are in addition to the 22 schools previously designated as being deficient because of their low test scores.

There were 430 schools evaluated.

Keith Rheault, deputy state superintendent of public instruction, said the state received $86 million to help the schools improve their performance. That is an increase of about $30 million to $40 million from past years. He said the state supplied $5 million to help those schools that don't meet the standards. And the state funds teacher training academies in Clark, Washoe and Douglas counties.

The department of education received $400,000 also to help these schools.

He said he did not know if this would be enough money to take care the needs of all the schools on the "watch list" and the 22 schools that have been designated as needing improvement.

McLaughlin said "some of the biggest fears" are that the schools now will only focus on English, language and math and "not provide a well-rounded education."

He said "Nevada needs well-rounded citizens," but all the schools are talking about the test scores in these categories.

Federal and state law requires all schools to move 100 percent of their students to proficient or better performance levels within a 12-year period. Student test performance is analyzed on the basis of test scores of various groups including economically disadvantaged, the disabled, limited English proficient and students from each major racial or ethnic group.

Also analyzed are the numbers of students taking the tests, attendance and graduation rates.

If even one of the subgroups has not met its performance target, the entire school can be identified as not having met adequate yearly progress.