EDITORIAL: Star ratings dimmer than they first appear
On Monday, the Nevada Department of Education released its Nevada School Performance Framework star ratings. These star ratings provide a quick way to judge the academic and overall quality of an individual school. That’s useful for parents and school officials.
Start with the good news. Many schools showed significant improvement. In the 2023-24 school year, 11.2 percent of Nevada’s schools earned five stars. In 2024-25, that jumped to 17 percent. In Clark County, the number of five-star schools rose 20 percent. The district had 102 schools receive a four- or five-star rating.
Some lower-performing schools also saw significant increases. Three district schools made a three-star jump. Fantastic.
Charter schools continued to perform exceptionally well. The State Public Charter School Authority saw a 21 percent increase in five-star schools. Also, six charter schools made a three-star jump. It’s more evidence that state lawmakers should continue to look for ways to expand, not kneecap, charters.
In the 2018-19 school year, 25 percent of district schools received four- or five-star ratings. This year, it was 25.4 percent. This suggests that the best schools have largely returned to their pre-COVID levels.
But if you step back, there is bad news. The worst schools still struggle. In the 2018-19 school year, 11.7 percent of Nevada’s schools received a 1-star rating. This year, it was 16.3 percent. That represents a drop from 25.8 percent in 2022-23, but it’s hardly a long-term success story.
In the 2018-19 school year, 23.5 percent of schools received two stars. This year, it’s 25.3 percent. That’s an increase from 22.6 percent in the 2022-23 school year.
This is especially concerning once you dig into the details of the star-rating system. Obtaining five stars implies that almost every student is excelling. But for an elementary school to obtain a five-star rating, it needs to score only 84 points out of 100. High schools need to score only 82 points. This comes from the NSPF Manual for the 2023-24 school year.
Then you look at the standards for stars. The manual states that if an elementary school has a “pooled proficiency rate” of 60 percent or higher, it receives full points for that category.
A student earning 60 percent is on the verge of failing. A school reaching 60 percent receives full marks. Students aren’t the only ones benefiting from grade inflation.
Years of effort and billions of new dollars have done little to improve Nevada’s public schools. Modest improvement is worth celebrating. But it shouldn’t obscure that much, much work remains or the failure of more money to perform miracles.