Cash payments. Drinks and airfare. Government contracts. All ingredients of a good scandal. But in the case of Nevada’s State Public Charter School Authority, there’s more behind allegations of misconduct than meets the eye.
Aleksandra Appleton
Aleksandra Appleton’s On Education column appears in print every other Saturday.
aappleton@reviewjournal.com … @aleksappleton on Twitter. 702-383-0218
Many Clark County teachers question the fairness of the professional growth system, a way to earn raises that the district and teachers’ union rolled out in 2016, saying it unfairly penalizes some educators while rewarding others.
Lawsuits filed against the Clark County School District by employees who say they were retaliated against after airing concerns have cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
The percentage of graduating students in both the district and the state has jumped substantially over the past six years, but because the formula for calculating those numbers keeps changing it’s impossible to do a meaningful comparison.
Infighting between the state teachers union and the breakaway Clark County teachers union bleeds over into the election debate.
For the first time in years, many parents, teachers and administrators in the Clark County School District are preparing to make a unified push for adequate education funding during the 2019 legislative session.
The Clark County School District and the state board that oversees charter schools have taken few measures to improve academic performance at struggling charters. Are they being held to a different standard that traditional public schools?
As they deal with a spate of students bringing guns to school and a fatal on-campus shooting, district officials also are trying new approaches to discipline to steer problematic students away from prison.
The Clark County School District last year identified 15,019 homeless youth among its students. The number includes children living with friends, in a hotel or motel or in a shelter.
The teachers, who already put in long days and take work home, will see their caseloads grow from a maximum of 22 students to 24. That will require more paperwork that will take them away from the classroom, they say.
Longstanding animosities hang over the Clark County School District, but there are also signs of a new sense of hope as a new superintendent seeks to harness energy, support and excitement “for CCSD and for the children.”
What drives people — particularly support staff and teachers — to leave? Or maybe the better question is what makes them stay?
The dispute between the Clark County Education Association and the new National Education Association of Southern Nevada has become a back-and-forth mud-slinging fight.
New Superintendent Jesus Jara pledged to comb through the organization to spot inefficiencies — but then he brought in two new higher-ups. Does the district need to reorganize or simply cut the fat?
Despite efforts to narrow the gap between its highest- and lowest-performing students, proficiency and graduation rates for blacks still lag behind the highest-achieving subgroup. One community leader says that’s because the district lacks a strategy.
