The number of one- and two-star Carson City schools that do not, or only partially, meet statewide standards for academic performance has increased since COVID-19, officials presented during the Oct. 23 Carson City School Board meeting.
The Silver State uses the Nevada School Performance Framework to rank schools on a five-star system in which one star is the lowest rating and five the highest. Schools receive points based on certain measures; those are then translated into a star rating.
Preliminary figures presented by Dr. Ricky Medina, director of accountability and assessment, and Tasha Fuson, associate superintendent of educational services showed CCSD in the past five years has gone from having four two-star schools to a combined seven one- and two-star schools.
“I think it’s challenging on the (state’s) end,” Medina told the board. “There are so many people with their hand in the pot. The districts are saying, ‘We’ve got make some adjustments.’ ”
CCSD NUMBERS
The Nevada Accountability Portal — or nevadareportcard.gov website — shows CCSD had a total enrollment of 7,484 students, an average graduation rate of 80.56%, and a 27.6% chronic absenteeism rate for the 2023-24 school year.
Most of Carson’s elementary schools generally have declined in their ratings since 2018-19 when looking at indicators such as academic achievement and student engagement. As an example, Fritsch Elementary saw a slight dip from 67.5 to 65 points in 2021-22, earned four stars in 2022-23 but now is at three stars for 2023-24 with 55 points.
The state looks to make aggressive strides in the academic experience to equip educators, prepare students, increase school performance and strengthen workforce development programs, Carson Superintendent Andrew Feuling told the Appeal.
“Our teachers are doing so much every single day to not only do math and English,” he said. “Literacy and numeracy are incredibly important for a child and for a citizen as they function and grow up, but there’s definitely other things that have value. But what’s hard is other things don’t have an easy way to just put a number to them so that a judgment can be made, and that gets to the crux of the problem.”
An infusion of funding and resources has long been on educators’ minds. In the 2023 legislative session, Gov. Joe Lombardo committed $2.6 billion for K-12 education, along with pushing his Acing Accountability initiative. But it can be hard to pin down acceptable evidence of analytical and creative thinking skills that are a part of State Superintendent Jhone Ebert’s Portrait of a Learner design.
“Test scores ended up being really easy,” Feuling said. “No one ever asked the question, ‘Are these tests supposed to be used in this way?’ The people who developed those tests, they’re not supposed to be used as a judgment.”
THE COVID FACTOR
Fuson told the school board the trend has been common among districts in general and doesn’t fully recognize or appreciate the impacts of the system or testing on younger students since COVID-19 in 2020.
“(The system) does need to be redone,” Fuson said. “… We just have to increase our skill sets to be more strategic about what we have. I don’t think there’s any research about, ‘This is going to take us five years.’ Our littles are coming in better prepared than our COVID kinders. They’re having problems with reading body language and social cues. We’re seeing some of that change. Kinders were pre-COVID. We’re trying to bridge those gaps.”
Carson City’s trustees agreed testing alone isn’t the state or federal government’s most robust method of determining academic success or providing for a skilled workforce after graduation.
“You test in the fall and test again in three days, day after day after day when they do this testing,” Trustee Molly Walt said. “Don’t ask me to do that day after day and sit in a room and write grants for three days straight. You’re not going to get my best. I don’t agree and never have agreed, even when I was in the classroom. I don’t believe you can get the best out of a student.”
Walt said educators take it personally when they see their schools receive one or two stars.
“It’s broken and it needs to be fixed,” she said. “It’s not where our schools are at all, and it’s not a reflection.”
Trustee Mike Walker said celebrating results can be a challenge when the points indicate little growth. There is an appetite for change so that growth is captured in a positive, strategic way, he added.
“Teachers take their jobs seriously,” said Walker, a principal in another district. “Their results with their kids are super important; more than people realize. They give up weekends and holidays, and then you get a report that looks like you haven’t done anything.”