Comparing schools: The state of east valley education
Clark County students are set to start fresh when school begins next week, but many east valley schools are still struggling to rebound from recent ratings that indicated they were on the lower end of the performance scale for the valley.
“Our school is rated one star with the state’s school performance framework,” said Pamela Simone, principal of Cambeiro Elementary School, 2851 W. Harris Ave. “I took over here two years ago, and we’re not where we need to be yet, but we’re going to get there.”
Many of the valley’s oldest schools and lowest-income residents are in the eastern area, and efforts have been made by both public and private entities to bolster resources and aging infrastructure. In Cambeiro’s case, members of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Leadership Las Vegas class of 2013 donated 2,300 books to the school last year.
According to a spokesperson for the Clark County School District, who asked not to be identified, “Funding for school sites is allocated the same for each school in the district. We do not make a distinction from a Summerlin school versus a school in North Las Vegas, for example, in terms of allocation.”
“Title I funding had already been used to acquire updated teaching materials before I got here,” Simone said of Cambeiro. “The school has smartboards and Elmos (devices that replace the chalkboard or white board and allow the display to be interconnected with computers and other technology). The fourth- and fifth-grade students have laptops.
“There are a lot of maps created to show that, overwhelmingly, the one- and two-star schools are in the core of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas,” said Dr. Joe Morgan, assistant professor of special education and coordinator of special education programs in the UNLV Department of Educational and Clinical Studies. “As you go out further into the valley, like in Summerlin or Centennial Hills, the star level increases. We know that in areas where there are one- or two-star schools, there is also a higher concentration of students living in poverty, students who are English learners, or students with special needs.”
Simone is still trying to get the word out to the low-income neighborhoods that Cambeiro’s student registration has switched to an online-only system. Because many of those households don’t have access to a computer, the school will help parents register using school computers.
“We have 100 percent of our students on free or reduced lunch, and 86 percent are Hispanic, and many are (English as a second language) students” Simone said. “The reading proficiency when I got here was barely over 30 percent, which is disheartening. We’re facing a lot of challenges, but we’re making it.”
The problems are complex and reflect the challenging economics of the neighborhood.
“Schools with lower stars also have higher transient rates,” Morgan said. “We know that transiency is directly related to poverty. People tend to go to cheaper living areas.”
The school district noted that despite the perceived disparity, the distribution of experienced teachers is not exclusively in the more affluent areas.
“There are many at-risk schools that have a real healthy combination of experienced and newer teachers,” said the spokesperson for the school district.
The statistics seem to belie that assertion.
“State data shows that the highest percentage of newly licensed and alternative licensed teachers are in urban schools because they have the highest need due to their long-term vacancies,” Morgan said. Despite the challenges, some programs are helping to turn schools around.
“We went in to Turnaround four years ago when I was the assistant principal,” said principal Lolo James of Chaparral High School, 3850 Annie Oakley Drive. “We are no longer in Turnaround. We’ve met the qualification numbers and obtained all the required data numbers to transition back to our geographic area, Performance Zone 7.”
Clark County’s Turnaround schools are schools that have chronically underperformed and were deemed in need of renewed focus on helping students achieve and grow. The program is drastic and can include large staff turnovers but is focused on professional development designed to increase effective instructional techniques and collaborative planning to help teachers understand the unique and individual needs of their students, and to capitalize on the talents of teachers on the team and target specialized support to meet the needs of students.
In general, it moves away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to education.
“When we went into Turnaround, we had a 34 percent graduation rate,” James said. “Last year, it was 69 percent. We’re in the average range, but we’d love to be above average.”
The graduation rate for 2014-15 isn’t final yet as some students may be finishing summer classes and raising the numbers, but James believes the school will be on par with the previous year.
The 42-year-old Chaparral was renovated during the Turnaround process, but there is still work to be done to make it ready for new vistas in education.
“We’re trying to utilize our technology and make sure our building can handle ‘bring your own device days,’ which we’re implementing this year,” James said. “One day a week, each department is going to utilize technology in the classroom.”
The program allows student to bring their own laptops, cellphones or tablets to school to learn how to use the technology for educational purposes. The school has devices available for students who do not have one, but the idea is for students to learn on a device they are already familiar with. The program will rotate by department each day, in part to avoid overwhelming the school’s infrastructure.
James believes that this is the sort of program that would have been unthinkable four years ago and said he’s proud of the changes the school has made and considers Chaparral to be one of the school district’s success stories.
“I want to make it very clear that I believe that the success that has taken place here is due to the teachers,” James said. “We have a lot of entities on the campus that helped make us successful, but the foundation of our success is our teachers.”
Classes are set to begin Aug. 24. Visit ccsd.net.
— To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor, email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.
