Report card shows lower dropout rate

Rheault, outlining highlights of the state Education Department’s annual "Nevada Report Card," said the statewide reduction in the dropout rate applied to all ethnic groups.

He also said the statewide graduation rate increased to 67.5 percent this year, ending a three-year trend of decreasing graduation rates.

The report, in its fourth year, has extensive information on public schools, including demographic profiles, fiscal allocations, teacher attendance, parental participation and other assessments.

Also included is information on numbers of short-term and long-term substitute teachers in the state’s public schools.

The state’s dropout rate information follows a Kids Count Data Book report last month that indicated Nevada’s dropout rate was 11 percent in 2004-05, well above the national average of 7 percent that year.

That report was issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based nonprofit organization that promotes reforms to help vulnerable children and families.

Nevada school officials questioned the accuracy of the Kids Count ranking because it was based on a community survey taken by the U.S. Census Bureau that asked 16- to 19-year-olds whether they were still in school or had earned their diplomas.

That means dropouts or teenagers who didn’t earn their diplomas who moved from other states would be included in Nevada’s dropout rate, they said.

The latest state report follows the release earlier this month of another report on Nevada’s 630 public elementary and secondary schools and programs that showed a decrease from last year’s total of schools that got low marks.

The designations are based on criteria imposed by the federal No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001 and by 2003 state laws designed to bring the schools into line with the federal requirements.

Rheault said a breakdown of the 630 schools showed that 198 were designated "in need of improvement" or on a "watch list." That’s down from 223 a year ago.