Reviewing student evaluation system examples at a Clark County elementary school.
To kick off the Assembly Education Committee’s work, we took a tour of Clark County School District sites this past Friday (coverage from the Las Vegas Sun.) The day was packed with information from students, teachers, and administrators about the state of the schools, with a dose of reality about what further cuts to education funding will mean for student achievement.
Some highlights of what we saw and learned:
- Students reading at a grade or more above level at Halle Hewetson Elementary School, thanks to an accelerated reading program that creates a culture of literacy by rewarding and teaching students how fun books can be.
- While the high transiency rate of students in Clark County schools has been a legendary challenge, it has declined of late in part due to the stagnant economy.
- Federal stimulus money, which our state likely won’t see again in the foreseeable future, has been used to make targeted reductions in class sizes to benefit learning.
- The class of 2010 received $189 million in scholarship funds (district-wide, not just Clark High School as incorrectly reported in the Sun.)
- Lots of examples of school-based decision making dependent on rigorous analysis of student achievement data.
- And while students in an A.P. Government class struggled to name the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, my jaw dropped as I listened to one student give a synopsis of the landmark Affirmative Action court case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.
Thank you, students, faculty and administrators for hosting us! Las Vegas Channel 3 has a report.
