Nevada ranks 21st in new education report

Holly Steed was a product of public schools and spent her career teaching high school music. But when she retired from Clark County School District after having her third child, she and her husband decided their children would try a different route.

"They were broken," she said of district schools but didn't believe home school was the answer.

She found her children could instead have school at home through Nevada Connections Academy, a kindergarten through 12th grade charter school that wouldn't cost a dime because it's still public.

Students still have teachers but their computer is the classroom with parents such as Steed ensuring they stay on task and get help if needed.

At any time, students can easily transfer to regular school because they have normal transcripts, which isn't the case with homeschooling. That's a choice the family considers every summer, Steed said.

But four years later, the family is happy with the virtual education provided to their sons in third and first grades. And, due a tiny bit to Steed's recommendations to other parents, the school's enrollment has grown, quadrupling from 400 students in 2007 to more than 1,700 students.

"It's great to see so many varieties of education right now," Steed said.

'NOT ENOUGH'

Options like this should be available to parents, but they don't have enough power over their children's education yet in Nevada, according to Jim Guthrie, state superintendent of public schools.

"Thirty-one charter schools out of more than 600 public schools is not enough," he said.

Limited choices is one of several reasons the odds are stacked against Nevadans in public schools, according to a nationwide report released today that doesn't score states by students' performance - like most rankings - but goes to the source, grading states by their policies that can either stifle schools or give them the power to thrive.

Nevada ranked 21st in the nation and earned a D grade because of long­standing policies, such as still largely laying off new teachers first - regardless of performance - before tenured teachers, noted StudentsFirst, which advocates changing laws that "put adult interests ahead of students."

PROMINENT BOARD MEMBERS

StudentsFirst lobbies for evaluating teachers based on student data, giving parents the power to leave under­performing schools and basing layoffs on teachers' performance, not seniority. Board members include Connie Chung, the first female co-anchor of the CBS Evening News, comedian Bill Cosby and Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools.

"We're sorry Nevada scores so low, but we don't dispute it," said Guthrie, speaking of himself and Gov. Brian Sandoval, who has advocated sweeping reforms to state education policies.

The governor signed four reform bills into law in 2011 after winning the Legislature's approval.

The bills ordered the creation of a first-ever statewide system for evaluating teachers and principals, basing at least half their evaluations on hard data from students' test scores. Most district's evaluations for teachers are currently based on principals observing classrooms.

The bills also put tenured teachers on probationary status after two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations, created a state authority to oversee charter schools and more.

Because of these changes, Nevada may have scored a D - the national average - but it's a "momentum builder" and a state to watch, Nevada's StudentsFirst Director Lea Crusey said.

She praised Nevada's recent reforms as a change of course in the right direction for Nevada, which commonly ranks near the bottom nationwide in math and reading test scores, according to reports by the U.S. Department of Education and other organizations.

"But it still has much work to do," she said.

Guthrie agreed, calling the Students­First report "very helpful" for law­makers, as was StudentsFirst's intentions.

'IMPORTANT LEVERS'

In its scoring, StudentsFirst largely criticized Nevada for how it spends on education and not giving parents enough power over their children's education, such as allowing parents to petition for drastic changes at chronically under­performing schools.

"These are important levers to pull to change the system," Guthrie said.

Some of these policies have already been pinpointed for change.

Guthrie said the governor gave him the go ahead Dec. 20 to begin changing the 45-year-old formula that dictates per-student funding to the state's 17 school districts. Currently, Esmeralda County receives more than $17,000 per student, the most of any county and three times that of Clark County.

Two bill draft requests for the 2013 session, similar to the California "parent trigger" law, would enable parents to fire a principal or staff members, or shut down a low-performing school if half the parents at the school agree. More than 20 states have considered such legislation, and seven states have passed a version of it. In Nevada, the two bills advocating more parent control are being requested by two state senators and an assemblyman.

"There's a lot of progress coming," Guthrie said but emphasziing, "we want to protect the progress made last session."

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.