North Las Vegas has high teacher vacancy rate, study says

Clark County School District campuses in North Las Vegas are facing high teacher vacancy rates and a persistent gap in standardized test scores, a new study shows.

The city of North Las Vegas contracted with Data Insight Partners for a study — which cost $45,000 — about the state of education in the city.

The city council heard a presentation Wednesday on the report’s findings, which are included in a 232-page document posted with online meeting materials.

“This is really important stuff because this is not something that you’re seeing anywhere else,” City Manager Ryann Juden told the council.

The report includes publicly-available data, including proficiency rates on standardized tests, graduation rates, teacher vacancy rates, Advanced Placement exam pass rates and teacher salaries.

Nathan Trenholm, co-founder of Data Insight Partners, gave the presentation to the city council. He was previously the school district’s director of research and accountability.

Assistant city manager Sally Ihmels told the Review-Journal on Thursday that city officials are “really digesting information” at this point, noting “there’s a lot of startling data that we need to follow up on.”

The report presentation follows a Tuesday quarterly report by the school district to the Clark County Commission that showed only 51.5 percent of students of North Las Vegas high school seniors in the class of 2022 graduated within four years of starting high school.

But the district’s reports sometimes include only pieces of information or data is conflicting, Ihmels said.

“We wanted to try to get a handle on what’s actually going on,” she said.

The district’s reports sometimes include only pieces of information or data is conflicting, Ihmels said.

“We wanted to try to get a handle on what’s actually going on,” she said.

City staff will bring back recommendations, Juden told the council.

Teacher vacancies

North Las Vegas has 40,426 students enrolled at school district campuses and 7,890 in public charter schools sponsored by the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority.

The district saw its largest teacher exodus ever in 2021-22, with 2,435 teacher/licensed employee separations, the report notes.

“While the primary driver for teacher vacancies around the country was the creation of more positions, in CCSD it was a massive teacher exodus,” according to the report.

The teacher/licensed employee vacancy rate in North Las Vegas was three times higher than in Henderson on the first day of school in August 2022.

District campuses in North Las Vegas had 6.8 teacher/licensed vacancies per 1,000 students. That compares with 2.2 in Henderson and 4.6 in Las Vegas.

By mid-January, North Las Vegas had more than five times the vacancy rate of schools in Henderson.

And year-over-year, comparing Jan. 15, 2022 to the same date this year, the teacher vacancy rate doubled in North Las Vegas.

The report references a school board presentation from June 2022, showing 79.1 percent of students at schools with 20 percent or higher teacher vacancies were Black or Hispanic/Latino.

Test scores

The report notes that gaps in Smarter Balanced assessment proficiency rates in North Las Vegas have persisted or widened.

For example, 32.6 percent of third through fifth graders tested proficient in reading in 2022 at district schools in North Las Vegas. That compares to 40.8 percent for the district as a whole.

In math, 22.6 percent of third through fifth grades tested proficient, compared with 31 percent for the district.

Sixth through eighth graders had a 28.2 percent proficiency rate in reading (compared with 41.6 percent for the district) and 11.2 percent in math (compared with 21.8 percent for the district).

Meanwhile, public charter schools in North Las Vegas have closed gaps, the report says. The schools exceeded the school district’s overall rates in elementary school math, and middle school math and reading.

Results are in line with the district for elementary school reading, the report says.

CCSD’s response

The district said in a Friday statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “CCSD has been clear that teacher vacancies disproportionately impact schools with higher minority populations.”

The district pointed to the state’s 2017 reorganization law — which gives schools more control over staffing and budgeting — saying, “the central office does not have the authority to place teachers at school sites.”

“Over the past year, CCSD worked with bargaining units to fill critical positions at schools with greater needs, including schools in North Las Vegas,” the district said.

The School Board has approved agreements with the Education Support Employees Association and the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional-Technical Employees for incentives for employees at 23 high-needs elementary schools that are part of the Transformation Network.

“Unfortunately, (Clark County Education Association) refused a similar incentive offer for teachers,” the district said.

The district also said teacher recruitment efforts are ongoing “to ensure students begin the new school year with a highly effective teacher in their classroom.”

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.