New evaluations smack Clark County schools

In a flash, Western High School on Friday went from being an exceptional four-star school to a failing two-star school.

It’s not the only Clark County school to suddenly lose its luster.

The school rating system changed Friday. In phasing out the federal requirements of No Child Left Behind, the Nevada Department of Education also replaced the Clark County School District’s self-created star system, which was criticized for awarding four- and five-star designations to almost half its schools.

Under the defunct district ratings, not one school received a one-star designation, which made the struggling district look good but surprised education experts who questioned the results in light of the district’s 61 percent graduation rate and poor performance on state tests.

The state-created system, on the other hand, ranked five Clark County schools as one-star campuses and gave two stars to 58 schools. The district system gave two stars, a D-level ranking, to 49 schools. The rankings issued were for 2011-12.

The fundamental difference between the state and district systems: the weight given to schools’ scores for showing improvement.

Clark County School Board President Carolyn Edwards described the local rating system as the precursor to the statewide rankings.

“We like to think that we are forward thinkers here in Clark County,” Edwards said. “The systems were both created for the same reason: to create a transparent way to hold ourselves and our schools accountable to students, to parents and to our communities.”

The district’s system, which became obsolete Friday within two years of its creation by a $250,000-a-year consultant, gave maximum points to schools like Western for just showing improvement.

That is how Western earned four out of five stars while having a 55 percent graduation rate, a 5 percent pass rate on the Algebra I final exam and a one-third pass rate for sophomores on a reading test.

The state rating system also takes growth into account but doesn’t allow improvement to obscure where schools like Western really stand. For that reason, nearly a third fewer Clark County schools have five stars now that they’re no longer under the district-created scoring system.

The state designated 66 Clark County schools as five-star campuses. The district system had awarded five stars to 92 of its 327 schools.

Still, the state gave a passing grade of three to five stars to more than 80 percent of Clark County schools, which is about the same proportion as the district designated itself. The difference is that the state wasn’t as generous with four- and five-star designations — or A and B grades — as the district was, but gave Cs to the majority of passing schools.

The state gave a C grade to 156 of Clark County’s schools, or almost half, whereas the district gave a C grade to a little more than a third of its schools.

Nevada’s interim superintendent of public instruction said Friday that while a C rating is acceptable, it’s not sufficient.

“A three-star is nothing to be ashamed of, but it doesn’t mean your work is done,” Rorie Fitzpatrick said during a news conference at Las Vegas’ five-star Bracken Elementary School, near Eastern and Washington avenues. “Use the data to grow the performance of every student in the school.”

Some argue that’s still too many schools labeled proficient in a district responsible for the state ranking dead last in the nation for student performance, according to the annual Kids Count report.

Clark County Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky reiterated that local star ratings no longer will be used, but said the district will continue to collect data the state system doesn’t. That information includes Advanced Placement testing scores, parental engagement, and college and career readiness. The data will be used for planning and for teacher and administrator evaluations.

The Review-Journal’s Adam Kealoha Causey contributed to this report.