Progress made in Carson City on education reform

While the path was rough at times, the Nevada Legislature's final destination proved worth the journey.

We began concerned about the possibility of destructive budget cuts and hopeful about meaningful reforms, and emerged largely having avoided the former and being much encouraged about the latter. These successes are in no small part due to the leadership of Gov. Brian Sandoval, the leaders of both parties and our elected representatives. I am grateful to all for the hard work involved in forging the agreements necessary to fund our schools and change the way we do business.

Legislators demonstrated true leadership in extending funding sources that helped public education escape cuts that could have reached $400 million in Clark County alone. While our funding picture is still bleak -- we must make cuts of approximately $150 million -- the massive layoffs we avoided would not only have been devastating to instruction and achievement, but would also have had a significant detrimental ripple effect in the local economy.

Additionally, landmark legislation passed that will forever change the way we evaluate staff and how we retain and release staff.

Assembly Bill 222 installs a four-tier educator evaluation system. A four-tier system represents a shift from the current binary system that classifies teachers as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. The new categories include highly effective, effective, minimally effective and ineffective.

An important future element of the shift is that the performance of students (i.e., academic growth) is considered during the process of evaluation.

Importantly, this legislation calls for a Teachers and Leaders Council, thereby enabling our state to incorporate a new tool (the Nevada growth model) within educator evaluation. What does this mean for our community? It means having more transparent data about achievement and holding educators to a higher standard.

Assembly Bill 229 accomplishes three things. It clears the way for wider use of performance pay in public education, and it removes seniority as the sole basis for layoffs. It also requires veteran educators who receive two consecutive substandard evaluations to be placed on probationary status, thereby opening the door for subsequent removal. It sets aside the so-called "last in, first out" provision that has guided labor force reduction in the past. In short, performance matters.

Looking back on these pieces of legislation, it is easy to see how they work together to support the kind of changes that we absolutely need in our public schools. Together they provide tools needed to turn the tide of eroding graduation rates and slipping achievement scores.

Education is not a "school" issue, it is a community issue, and changes in our statutory framework make it clear that Nevadans want to change the way things happen in our community's schools. These are huge wins for education and students, and our policymakers deserve credit and respect for taking these stands.

Dwight D. Jones is superintendent of the Clark County School District.