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By Paul Takahashi (contact) 
Published Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012 | 2:11 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012 | 9:50 p.m.
The number of top-performing Clark County schools rose sharply last school year compared with the previous year, according to School District data released Thursday. Under its school ranking system, the district's 328 traditional, magnet and charter schools are classified from one to five stars, based on academic performance and school climate data, such as student attendance. There were 91 top-performing five-star schools in the district during the 2011-12 academic year, up from 51 in the 2010-11 school year. That means a little more than a quarter of the district's ranked schools now have five-star status, up from 16 percent. Notably, ...
I would be willing to be that the 91 Five Star schools have the best attendance records and the most family involvement.
Some great reporter should look into that. :)
I recall the outcry from some over the ranking system being unfair and it was wrong to promote competition between schools. If these results are legitimate then I say tough cookies to those detractors.
Administrators are just playing a numbers game. Now that they know how they will be ranked, they are making changes just to see an improvement in their star rating. They are not making these changes to improve student education.
I would suggest that seeing such a large increase in "5 star schools" in a single year shows that the results are meaningless. Do we really think that one year truly made that big of a difference? The School Performance Framework is a sham.
How did your school do Mr. Zetzman?
Were you part of the solution or part of the problems?
My school is ranked at 2 stars, the same as last year. As a school, we have undertaken efforts to raise our ranking, but they have yet to produce results (the ranking is based on last year, not this year).
I am a very hard-working teacher who cares deeply for his students... and I can tell you that my school deserves more credit than a "2 star" school. I can also tell you that my school, along with every other school I am aware of, is playing a numbers game-- reacting to a star rating with arbitrary measurement. Student growth, which should be the centerpiece of this, isn't a huge part of the measurement.
I don't buy this "5 star" hokum for a minute. fake-o all the way.
denver, miami, los angeles, miami????
all democrat controlled strongholds. this is nothing more than a democrat sham system to cook the books on a crappy school system loaded with dropouts.
rate the HOMESCHOOLERS toe-to-toe against the tax supproted daycare babysitting "star" system with the same No Child Left Behind.
Louisianna has the right idea. School Choice and Vouchers. the corrupt NEA is challenging this since they lose their hourly compensation per hour worked slush fund at the expense of so called tax supported public education.
this "new" system is sham all the way. what should happen is all the laws for tax supported education be repealed and start over from scratch. no illegal alien anchor baby dream acts freebies, either.
then we'll see academic results when educational private industry competes.
Smoke and mirrors. The RJ and the Sun love the access to the district. Principals spend time playing at the Mini Grand Prix for a photo op while teachers are in the trenches. More administrators in the district than ever before. Loss of Race To The Top for just plain arrogance from the district thinking they can turn around our schools without the teachers.
When will the animosity end?
You guys are suckers.
You have no idea what the challenges are for our students in this test crazed environment. Maybe someday you will begin to ask the right questions rather than be a mouthpiece for a district administration focused more on show than substance.
Commenter Jon Zetzman has a valid thought about academic student growth not being the controlling measurement.
There are so many ways to tilt the figures to sway results in this game of numbers. We live in a world where politics, and/or personal agendas, play big in what is happening in reality. When the official surveys come out asking school staff and parents what their experiences are of that school, it is like having a gun to your head, for if you answer negatively, it WILL affect the school star rating. So many are extremely reluctant to even take such surveys, let alone be candidly and entirely honest. It becomes punitive. Do YOU want to do that to your school?
We have thousands of kind, amazing, qualified people running our public schools. They have NO CHOICE in who comes to their school and enrolls, for they must, by law, take any and all who come. School population truly makes a difference, and if services are not matching the needs of that population, that is a problem as well.
The greater Las Vegas community has attracted populations that have been at-risk or challenged from other states at a phenomenal rate, and it has been difficult for schools to quickly shift. Typically, bureaucracies don't turn on a dime, they move slower and make wide turns, not sharp turns. I come from both Northern Nevada and California, and have observed this being the case.
All young people have potential, and it is up to their first teachers, their parents, and their local educators to guide them into being the best they can be in this life. Some will have the will and ability to reach the stars and do anything their hearts desire, and some will reach as far as they can go, with all their personal dynamic givens. Let us not forget that.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
LMAO....the highly touted and now defunct "no child left behind" program placed too much emphasis on proficiency so obviously THAT program had to go...however, not before school districts collected the billions of fed dollars paid out for NCLB.....
I predict the new "system" will survive until year over year comparisons start to fall, then of course, a new rating program will need to be created.....
@zetzman,
you are correct sir, just another game created to keep educators (everywhere)from having to explain why this nation spends more per pupil than any other in the world yet ranks 20th or worse in just about every measurement.
The b.s. continues as long as the sheeple get served their bowl of tripe.