EDITORIAL: Graduation rate

The state’s education chief offered a rather muted response to news that Nevada’s high school graduation rate ticked upward this year — and with good reason.

Preliminary numbers show that 72.6 percent of students who entered high school in the 2012-13 school year earned their diplomas in 2016. That’s up from 70.9 percent last year and 70 percent in 2014.

“We’ve been seeing some modest increases” recently, Steve Canavaro, Nevada’s superintendent of public instruction, told the Review-Journal last week.

In addition, the dropout rate receded slightly, declining to 2.7 percent for the past school year compared with 2.8 percent a year earlier.

All this is progress, as far as it goes. But districts across the state continue to bestow credentials on students who are unprepared for the rigors of the university or even to succeed in entry level jobs. Where’s the value in that?

ACT results from the class of 2016 reveal that just 8 percent of Nevada students attained the scores necessary in English, math, reading and science to be considered ready for college in all four subjects. Not every student must graduate to the next level, of course. But marks from the college entrance exam reveal that many Nevada kids are being handed A’s and B’s in high school, yet can’t handle basic math computations or compose a cogent paragraph.

This is borne out by data from the state university system. An astonishing 57.7 percent of 2014 Clark County School District graduates who enrolled in a Nevada university or community college required a remedial class in either math or English, up from 55 percent in 2013. Some 45.6 percent of those receiving a Millennium Scholarship — supposedly among the best and brightest students — required remediation upon enrolling at a Nevada school.

The district is exploring initiatives designed to address the issue, including “stronger programs that senior year” to expose students to “more mathematics, English and reading,” said Mark Barton, chief student achievement officer. That might indeed be a good start. Taxpayers may be surprised to know that many Clark County high school seniors carry a minimal class load and are off campus by mid morning.

“We know we need to improve,” Mr. Barton said.

Until then, the district’s rising graduation rate only obscures multiple other issues.