Report: Nevada education still in bad shape

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

Nevada's struggling public education system is poised to become a liability to the state's long-term fiscal health, according to a new report released today by WestEd, a national nonprofit research firm.

The report, prepared in collaboration with the Center for Education Policy Studies at UNLV, concluded that the state's student population boom -- growing at a rate nearly four times the national average since 1970 -- was a significant factor in the overall quality of public education and the success of students.

Complicating matters further is the influx of immigrant students who "struggle to learn English at the same time they must learn math and science content," said Pauel Koehler, director of WestEd's policy center.

Close to 17 percent of the state's students are English-language learners. In Clark County, the nation's fifth-largest school district, about one out of every five students has limited proficiency in English.

The WestEd report outlines steps Nevada should take to improve the quality of instruction, reduce the dropout rate and boost the percentage of students completing high school and college:

Make education a state priority.

Do more to prepare teachers, particularly those instructing students with limited proficiency in English.

Use student data to determine which instructional methods and programs are working and make improvements.

Implement research-based strategies to reduce achievement gaps.

Develop a statewide improvement plan specifically for high schools.

Increase access to quality infant and toddler programs along with preschool education.

Provide schools and teachers with more financial resources and support.

"This report is a pretty good assessment of where we're at," said state schools Superintendent Keith Rheault. "There's a lot of useful information contained in it, and hopefully it's going to spark a lot of discussion."

Some of that discussion will take place Friday and Saturday when the state Board of Education meets for its annual retreat in Northern Nevada, Rheault said.

"We're planning to use this report as a springboard," Rheault said.

The WestEd report "reinforces what educators in Nevada have been saying for years," said Agustin Orci, co-interim superintendent of the Clark County School District.

"It's yet another validation from an outside entity that Nevada does not fund education adequately and that there will be serious implications for all of us if we don't provide our students with sufficient resources," Orci said.

Nevada ranks 47th in the nation for its high school graduation rate, per-pupil funding level and the percentage of students who have enrolled in or completed college.

"It's difficult to entice new business development when we can't offer corporations a highly educated workforce," said Jim Hager, co-director of the UNLV center and former superintendent of the Washoe County School District. "There's a clear and unfortunate link between low-paying jobs, a service and tourism-based economy and our low graduation rates."

Christina Dugan, government affairs director for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said the quality of a community's public education system is a key factor for industry leaders considering setting up shop in Nevada. The chamber is looking forward to legislative interim study evaluating the state's education funding system, Dugan said, and is also interested in proposals for teacher performance bonuses.

"If you're an excellent educator in an at-risk school, you should be rewarded," Dugan said. "We don't want incentives that pit teacher against teacher."

Jeremy Aguero, a principal with the Las Vegas economic research firm Applied Analysis, said the public education system is "the lynchpin" to Nevada's future.

Numerous studies have concluded that one of the greatest indicators of academic success for a student is the educational attainment level of their parents, Aguero said. If the current generation of students fails to thrive academically, it's unlikely their own children will do much better, Aguero said.

"We're caught in a death spiral," Aguero said. "I don't know how anyone could look at this and not see it as the single largest indicator of the future of our economy."

Nevada's ever-changing demographics make applying WestEd's common-sense recommendations especially challenging, Aguero said.

"It's one thing to go into a state that's relatively static and say 'Here's what you should be spending your money on,' " Aguero said. "It's another thing when, if you don't break ground on a new school every month, you're not going to have enough seats for students, and the (Clark County School) district has to hire hundreds of long-term substitutes because they can't find enough teachers.

"Those are scary statistics that few if any communities in the United States are facing."

With 14 offices nationwide including its San Francisco headquarters, WestEd provides evaluative and consulting services to educational institutions nationwide. Its recent work in Nevada included a review of the Regional Professional Development Program, created by the state Legislature in 1999 to provide training and continuing education programs for teachers and administrators.