High school graduation rate up, funding low in Nevada

Nevada has made strong gains in improving high school graduation rates but continues to lag behind much of the nation in education funding and student performance on basic skills tests, according to a new report released Wednesday.

Quality Counts 2005, released by the publication Education Week, gave Nevada good marks on standards and accountability. Nevada is one of only five states that provides the public with data on campus safety, parental involvement and school class sizes, according to the report.

Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction, said he was pleased by the 8-point jump in the state's graduation rate, to 68 percent in 2002 from 60 percent in 2000, according to the Education Week report.

But Rheault said he's concerned about Nevada's low marks on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, which was used by Education Week to gauge student achievement. On the 2003 round of the exam, 20 percent of Nevada's fourth graders tested as proficient or better in reading and 23 percent in mathematics. The national average in 2003 was 30 percent for reading and 31 percent for math.

The state's criterion-reference test, used to measure "adequate yearly progress" as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, has been fine-tuned to more closely reflect the NAEP standards, Rheault said.

"It's probably not ever going to be a situation where we're comparing apples to apples but we're getting closer," Rheault said.

The federal act calls for every public school student to demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics by the 2013-14 academic year. That deadline has meant states are paying closer attention to how money is distributed to local districts but what results those dollars are producing, the report's authors concluded.

Nevada ranks 48th in overall education spending, with expenditures of $6,380 in the 2001-02 academic year. The national average in the same year was $7,734 per pupil.