Clark County students rank low internationally

It has been well-known for some time that Clark County schools rank low nationally, but how do they compare with schools in Germany, Japan, Canada and Finland, whose graduates will be competing with Americans in an increasingly global job market?

The Global Report Card, released by the George W. Bush Institute this week, compared reading and math test scores of nearly 14,000 U.S. school districts with each other and 25 developed countries. The results are posted at globalreportcard.org.

Within our borders, the average Clark County public school student performs better than 42 percent of U.S. students in math and 38 percent of U.S. students in reading.

But Clark County students fared even worse when compared with their international peers. The average Clark County student performs better than 33 percent of international students in math and 37 percent of international students in reading. That means two-thirds of international students are better at reading and math than Clark County students.

"This report card is a wake-up call for parents because, while some progress is being made, we can now definitely see that our kids are not being prepared to compete in the global marketplace," said former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Kerri Briggs, director of education reform at the Bush Institute.

Although low, the ranking of Clark County School District – the fifth-largest district in the country with 311,000 students – is about the same as, if not better than, other large districts in the nation.

The average student of the second-largest district, Los Angeles Unified, scored better than 23 percent of international students in math and 26 percent of international students in reading – much worse than Clark County.

The nation’s largest district, New York, did slightly better than Clark County. Its average student outperformed 34 percent of international students in math and 40 percent of international students in reading.

Small and large, many U.S. school districts traditionally thought of as high performers ranked near the middle of the pack when compared with international peers, said Jay Greene, professor of education at the University of Arkansas and one of the lead researchers behind the Global Report Card.

The problem is broader than just poor, urban schools, he said.

"While most people think our children are receiving a quality education, the fact is U.S. students are falling behind the rest of the world," he said.

And it’s not just about test scores, but the real-world effect.

Forbes reported last year that 70 percent of the engineers graduating from U.S. universities are now foreign-born.

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