Monday, Oct. 25, 2004 | 11 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Thirty-seven percent of Nevada schools did not meet the federal standards for yearly progress last school year, a state report says.
The first draft of a state improvement plan for education said 210 of the 567 public schools in Nevada -- 37 percent -- did not measure up to standards laid out in the No Child Left Behind Act. But that was an improvement from 2002-2003, when 42 percent of the schools fell short, the report said.
The preliminary report, presented to the state Board of Education Saturday, painted a picture of a lack of achievement in the state's public schools and made some tentative recommendations. Gloria Dopf, deputy superintendent of public instruction, said the final plan with concrete suggestions will be presented to the state board on Dec. 4.
Of the 210 schools that did not make adequate yearly progress, 122 fell into the category of "in need of improvement." Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress two years in a row are deemed "in need of improvement." Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, parents are allowed to request children in those schools be transferred to other schools.
"The performance requirements prescribed by No Child Left Behind are rigorous," the report said. "At the time of this writing more than 100 Nevada schools have been identified as in need of improvement, and projections paint a bleak picture for the future."
Nine of the state's 17 school districts, including Clark County, have been identified as "in need of improvement." No school district received exemplary achievement or high achievement designations.
Allen Coles, southwest region superintendent for the Clark County School District, said every school in the district was reviewing its testing data and formulating school improvement plans.
Across the district, Coles said, individual elementary schools will also begin testing student progress in English and math throughout the year to make sure students are progressing toward the federal standards.
"We're proud of the progress all of our schools have made," Coles said. "Even the schools who did not make AYP (adequate yearly progress) made substantial gains but may have fallen short in one of two areas."
Because of a federally required increase in state annual achievement goals, the state expects that more than 200 schools will be placed in the "in need of improvement" category this school year. That number "will likely grow to more than 300 schools after 2005-2006," when the standards go up again.
Nevada's high school graduation rates were low, at 63 percent for 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, ranking Nevada as 39th among the 50 states. The report said ethnic groups with the lowest graduation rates are Hispanic and blacks, each around 48 percent. In addition, girls graduate at a 67 percent rate, compared with 61 for boys.
On the positive side, the report said 5,590 Nevada students took the American College Test and received an average score of 21.3, compared with the national average of 21. In the last school year 5,937 students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test and had an average score of 1,027, one point above the national average.
But Nevada ranks last among the states in the percent of students going to college, at 27 percent, the report says. The report cites the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, which says Nevada is 49th in the nation in the number of students who drop out of college after their freshman year.
Clark County Deputy Superintendent Agustin Orci said the school district is "engaged in a series of initiatives to improve academic improvement, including graduation rates."
The school district has mandated that all sophomores take the PSAT, a precursor to the SAT, in an effort to identify students who may benefit from higher level classes and to encourage all students to think about college at an earlier age, Orci said.
To improve math scores, Orci said, students must also now take algebra in eighth grade, a measure that has led to an 11 percent increase in the number of students taking geometry. The district is also training teachers in techniques they can use to help students pass the math proficiency exam.
A new virtual high school allows credit-deficient students statewide make up classes online in order to graduate, Orci said. About 250 students are taking classes online full time, he said, and another 6,000 to 7,000 students are taking everything from tutorials on the proficiency exams to advanced placement courses through the virtual high school.
About nine schools are participating in AVID -- advancement in individual determination -- a nationwide program that identifies students who are at risk of dropping out and places them into classes where specially trained teachers can challenge them and move them to the college track, Orci said.
At the elementary school level, the district has used federal funds to offer full-day kindergarten to the 54 highest need schools, Orci said. The district has asked the Legislature to consider paying for the program for all of Nevada's elementary schools.
"It may take a while for the fruits of these initiatives to become known," Orci said, but they all should lead to improved performance among all of the district's schools.
The report to the state board gave a portrait of Nevada school enrollments showing 50.7 percent are white and 49.1 percent are minorities. It predicts that the number of minorities will outnumber the whites in the near future. Hispanics make up 30.1 percent, blacks 11.9 percent, Asian-Pacific Islanders 7.9 percent and American Indians 2.9 percent.
"There is a growing population of students living in poverty," the study says. Thirty-three percent of Nevada's third graders live in poverty, based on qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Forty percent of the fifth graders were in this category, the report says.
While Hispanics make up 30.1 percent of the population, only 4.9 percent of the teachers are Hispanics. It said 4.6 percent of the teachers were black.
Board member Marcia Washington of Las Vegas said she found it "unbelievable" that there were so few minority teachers compared with the makeup of the students.
The report says teachers in these ethnic groups have increased in recent years.
"Among Nevada teachers, 44 percent have between one and five years of prior Nevada teaching experience, suggesting a relative inexperienced teacher corps," it said. "However this figure does not take into account the fact that some teachers may have had prior teaching experience before coming to Nevada."
More than 47 percent of the teachers have advanced degrees.
Figures collected last October showed that 64 percent of the core classes were being taught by teachers who met the "highly qualified" criteria established by the state.
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