Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

5 schools earn top honors under No Child Left Behind

The Clark County School District today announced the designation of five public schools, up from one last year, as top achieving under the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001.

The designation -- "exemplary turnaround" -- is considered an important benchmark in measuring improvement in public education and is widely followed by educators.

The schools that won were Clark High School, Simmons Elementary School, Hewetson Elementary School, Griffith Elementary School and Diskin Elementary School.

Only Valley High won the designation last year.

There are 367 elementary and high schools and what are known as alternative schools, up from 361 last year.

More than 40 percent made some form of improvement, known as Adequate Yearly Progress, down from 47 percent.

Lauren Kohut-Rost, deputy superintendent, said the drop was due to more students having to meet the complex requirements of No Child left Behind.

In the formula, schools are measured by benchmarks known as cells, including programs for the physically and mentally challenged, ethnic groups and English language learners.

Terri janison, the school board president, noted that sometimes a school would miss a benchmark, or cell, by one point. There are 37 such cells.

The designations aren't final until the Nevada Board of Education makes them official Aug.16.

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