Letter: Schools’ ‘achievement’ nothing to brag about

Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007 | 7:40 a.m.

Recently the Clark County School District announced itself the nation's only district, among the 10 most populous, to meet all state benchmarks for the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

School District officials tout this as evidence of significant achievement for the district. But is the glass half-full or half-empty?

For example, the School District announced that at the elementary and middle school levels, 40 percent attained minimum standards in English and 43 percent passed in math. As a former teacher, to me this still represents a miserably poor grade of F.

These questionable and mediocre results coupled with the significantly high annual numbers of school dropouts and seniors failing state graduation competency exams leave one to wonder what is so significantly wonderful about these NCLB findings.

Again I ask, is the glass half-full or half-empty? It apparently depends on the viewpoint of School District officials, concerned parents or dedicated teachers.

Considering that School District officials proudly boast about mediocre achievement, how low would the scores have to be before officials would acknowledge mediocrity and act to improve the situation?

I wonder: Is the School District propagandizing the public, using these local NCLB results to significantly improve the chances of passing a $10 billion school bond issue? Hmm?

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas

archive