Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Number of schools failing to clear federal standard growing

The number of Nevada schools failing to clear the bar set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act is growing, with the bulk of low-performing campuses in the Clark County School District.

The Nevada Department of Education released statewide tallies for 2003-04 on Monday, which showed that 225 schools had been placed on either the watch list or the needs improvement list for failing to measure up academically. That represents 40 percent of Nevada's public schools.

In 2002-03, the number of under-performing schools totaled 194, or 35 percent of Silver State schools.

Sixty-two percent of the newly designated low-performing schools are in Clark County, the nation's fifth-largest public school system and also the largest in the state. Clark County is home to 51 percent of the state's schools.

The size of local schools, the large population of limited English speakers and the high concentration of local schools that serve communities in poverty all contribute to make the numbers what they are, said Clark County Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

"Our demographics are radically different from those of other school districts in Nevada," said Garcia, who announced local school standings in July. "And if you look at the list, it's not just schools in Clark County that are struggling."

The Nye County School District brought up the low-end of the needs improvement list, with Amargosa Valley Elementary School and Manse Elementary School in Pahrump the only campuses in Nevada failing to show adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years.

In the third year of inadequacy, schools are required to offer supplemental education services, such as individual tutoring, to low-performing students. Schools that are unable to demonstrate adequate yearly progress for five consecutive years face restructuring by the state Department of Education.

School evaluations are based on 135 different factors, including attendance, staffing and student test results. The gains a school must demonstrate are called adequate yearly progress. To make adequate progress, a school must show proficiency in basic skills testing for all student groups in grades 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 11.

Sixty-five Nevada schools ended up on the watch list or needs improvement list solely because they did not have the required 95 percent of students participate in testing. That's roughly 29 percent of the state's red-flagged schools.

"That's something those schools will have to emphasize next year," State Superintendent of Schools Keith Rheault said Monday.

Rheault said in general, the results were better than he expected. The number of campuses on the watch list actually declined this year. Watch list schools are those that have failed to make adequate progress for one year only. The decline means that fewer schools are in jeopardy of progressing to needs improvement status next year. The needs improvement list is populated with schools that failed to make progress for at least two consecutive years.

But even with the decline, Rheault said it was doubtful that Nevada would be able to prove a prediction by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who said on his last Las Vegas stop that nationwide, the number of inadequate schools would begin to decline in coming years.

"If you had to bet on it, I'd bet that's not going to be accurate," Rheault said, adding that the nationwide trend shows more schools falling short of national goals. "I can't see that happening."

Rheault said that the state department should have individual school results posted on its Web site -- www.doe.nv.gov -- by Aug. 15. The designations made by Nevada school districts are based on criteria established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Nevada educational accountability system. A total of 568 public schools were evaluated in Nevada this year.

Rheault also said that making adequate progress is getting progressively more difficult for public schools. The federal act requires schools to show gains from year to year, so that by 2013, all students are academically proficient. So at the same time schools are falling behind, the goals become increasingly difficult to reach.

The mushrooming number of schools falling short is also taxing the resources of the state department, which is required to provide technical assistance to struggling schools. That was doable when the state had fewer than 20 needs improvement schools, Rheault said, but it's become a challenge now.

To meet the requirement, Rheault said, teams of district people are being trained by the state department to provide the required assistance, which covers topics such as choosing remediation programs and selecting professional development for staff.

Not all the news was bad for Nevada. Twelve schools achieved exemplary status, the state's highest honor for public schools. Three of those schools -- Garrett and Lyon middle schools, and the Advanced Technologies Academy -- are in Clark, which has 289 schools. The Lyon County School District, which has about 20 schools, also had three schools deemed exemplary. The Washoe County School District, the state's second-largest with 88 schools, had two schools earn exemplary status.

Another 69 were named high achieving schools. Clark and Washoe each had 18 high achieving schools, according to the Nevada Department of Education.

MEASURING UP

The Nevada Department of Education released statewide results on school performance on Monday. The following list shows how many schools succeeded or failed to measure up to the federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Determinations on which campuses made adequate yearly progress, or AYP, are primarily based on student performance and participation in basic skills testing in math and English language arts.

Summary Results	Elementary	Middle	High	State
Number of Schools	331	118	119	568
School Classification
Made AYP	239	59	55	353
Exemplary	1	7	4	12
High Achieving	27	25	17	69
Did Not Make AYP	92	59	64	215*

*This figure does not include schools that met standards this year but are required by law to repeat the performance to earn their way off the needs improvement and watch lists.

NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION