Despite budget constraints, school district looks to improve performance, increase graduation rate
The Clark County School District is making big changes this school year to what your kids will learn and how their performance will be measured.
ADOPTING COMMON CORE
STATE STANDARDS
Nevada is joining 44 other states in adopting the Common Core State Standards curriculum.
Common Core offers a more comprehensive approach to subject matter, as explained by Hewetson Elementary School principal Lucy Keaton.
“It’s not like you’re trying to teach more,” said Keaton, “but trying to go deeper with what you’re teaching. I like teaching at a true depth where they comprehend the curriculum. It’s a lot more fine-tuned, a lot tighter, a lot deeper. As they move through the grade levels, there’s deeper understanding of what they’re being taught.”
Common Core standardized tests require more analytical thinking in English language arts and mathematics. Common Core will be rolled out by grade level and subject starting this year through the 2014-15 school year.
DEALING WITH BUDGET RESTRICTIONS
One change that has principals worried is their budget. Principals reported cuts of about 50 percent compared to last year. Centennial High School principal Trent Day said it will force schools to rely more on technology for instruction than ever before.
Many assignments and activities formerly done on paper will be done on computers. Instead of hands-on dissections in science classes, they will probably use computer software.
“We have to think differently than in the past,” Day said. “Spending will be solely toward instructional efforts. It’s going to be a little more difficult with the budget constraints.”
The district had been preparing for $400 million in cuts to its 2011-12 budget before the Nevada Legislature handed down cuts in June of about $150 million.
The district’s budget includes per pupil spending of $5,136, a decrease of $44 per pupil from last school year; reductions in school facilitators and specialists by 12.5 percent, saving $7 million; cutting administrative department budgets by 20 percent, or saving $48 million; and cutting textbook and supply budgets by 50 percent, saving $25 million; and freezing teachers’ pay raises and other concessions, saving $56 million, among other cuts.
The teachers union has not agreed to the concessions, and a settlement is unlikely to be reached by the beginning of school Monday, which may force the district to lay off more than 500 teachers.
GAINING RESOURCES THROUGH NEW PERFORMANCE ZONES
A change that Day is looking forward to is the teaming of all elementary, middle and high schools into 14 performance zones, based on location and achievement.
The new model puts between 20 and 30 schools in each zone and relegates fewer schools in zones with the lowest achievement, as well as more oversight.
Lower-achieving schools also are expected to receive preferential access to resources, such as having first opportunity at hiring new teachers and receiving a larger portion of professional development funds.
Conversely, the higher performing zones will have more schools and greater autonomy.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Keith France, the new principal of Elizondo Elementary School, 4865 Goldfield St. in North Las Vegas.
“It’s great when the elementary schools talk to the middle schools.”
CHANGING DIRECTION: REORGANIZING ‘TURNAROUND SCHOOLS’
Elizondo and four other district schools, called “turnaround schools,” were forced to undergo reorganization due to consistently low performance. The new principal replaced more than 90 percent of the staff and is expecting double-digit gains in achievement this school year, France said.
“We’re going to knock the socks off this community,” he said. “With the staff I’ve hired and the support I’m getting, they’re in for a great ride.”
Mojave High School, 5302 Goldfield St. in North Las Vegas, also underwent reorganization. Principal Antonio Rael replaced 75 percent of the staff and renovated the campus.
Graffiti that used to cover the walls, bathroom urinals, doors, locker rooms, desks, chairs and windows has been replaced or painted over.
More than half of the school’s windows, which were tagged or etched into, were replaced.
“First and foremost, it’s about high expectations,” he said. “We hold the standard very high. When (students) start to have pride in their school again, they will self-regulate.”
Rael, a math major in college, plans to add an engineering theme to his school and offer pre-engineering classes and create a robotics team, for which teachers are training, he said.
Mojave, one of 32 schools in the district with a new principal to start the school year, has partnerships with the College of Engineering at UNLV and Project Lead the Way, a curriculum for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“It’s an area near and dear to my heart,” Rael said. “We want to make math and science come to life with students.
“When you have a school that’s had some unfortunate publicity,” said Rael, “and a dark cloud cast over the students, it really makes for a great opportunity to come in and change the perception.”
READY BY EXIT: INCREASING
THE GRADUATION RATE
One of Superintendent Dwight Jones’ objectives is to reach a graduation rate of 75 percent within five years.
Jones wrote in his Preliminary Reforms Report that his goal is to have all students “ready by exit,” meaning “prepared to step into college or other postsecondary opportunities and compete without remediation. Whether students enter college or choose to enter the workforce after high school graduation, what matters most is that they have the knowledge and skills to perform and be successful in either environment.”
The district’s graduation rate varied from 46 percent to 65 percent in 2008, depending on the method of calculation.
Beginning this year, all states have agreed to use the same standard for calculating graduation rates, making 2012 graduation data comparable nationwide.
Of the more than 20,000 incoming 12th-graders this year, about half are not on track to graduate because of credit deficiency, failure to pass the high school proficiency exam or other factors.
The district provided every high school’s principal with a list of these students and has asked them to create individualized plans to help them graduate.
Schools will be able to offer those students online credit recovery, proficiency-focused classes, mentoring and other services.
RETHINKING ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS
The state also is in the process of breaking free from the unpopular Adequate Yearly Progress measurement that resulted from No Child Left Behind.
Nearly two-thirds of the district’s 363 schools failed to meet the federal bar.
The standard has been raised every year since the 2002-03 school year, and will top out in 2013-14, when 100 percent of students nationwide are expected to be proficient in math, reading and English.
Test scores are broken down into 45 subgroups based on ethnicity, English literacy, economic status, special needs and other factors.
If one subgroup does not pass AYP, the entire school fails.
Clark County School Board Trustee Lorraine Alderman called it “a no-win scenario.”
“These reports don’t show the gains,” Alderman said. “Even when I was a principal, it never showed the accomplishment we had made. Even some of these schools that haven’t (made AYP) the whole time have made tremendous gains. There’s no way to celebrate that.”
The district’s AYP statistics were not available at the time of publication, but several principals said they missed AYP by one subgroup and it was special education in most cases.
This year the district will begin focusing on a growth model for future student assessments. The new model would chart a student’s growth on an annual basis from the time they enter the district.
The strategy will allow teachers to focus more on students’ progress, rather than worrying about AYP.
Deputy Superintendent Pedro Martinez said the old system forced teachers to focus on “bubble kids,” those students in the middle of the achievement spectrum, to get just enough of them over the AYP bubble.
“Now we’re saying ‘no, let’s focus on growth,’ ” Martinez said.
The plan is that any child, at any level, could reach proficiency within three years. Close analysis of data will allow the allocation of resources to be made available to those schools most in need, he said.
Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.
