Quality Counts 2011 addresses the impact of the new economic reality and education’s adjustment. The fallout from the “Great Recession” continues to resonate with state and local tax bases diminished and government budgets struggling to close shortfalls. In Nevada our 2011 state budget will face a devastating budget shortfall to which we ask: how will education be impacted?
The 15th edition of this annual report, produced as a joint effort by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, provides a picture of states and school districts struggling to rebuild school budgets and compensate for the end of the massive one-time federal aid to education under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the end to the economic stimulus measure enacted two years ago.
States were graded across six distinct areas of policy and performance: chance for success; K-12 achievement; transitions and alignment; school finance analysis; standards, assessments, and accountability; and the teaching profession.
Nevada received a C-, ranking 45th in performance. Overall, the nation’s grade was a C.
Nevada Grading Summary
Downloadable PDF: Nevada Grading Summary
Source: EPE Research Center, 2011
Chance for Success
Downloadable PDF: Chance for Success
Note: States are ordered based on unrounded values for the Chance-for-Success Index.
Values in the U.S. row report results for the nation as a whole, if it had been treated as a state.
Source: EPE Research Center, 2011
Nevada State Highlights - Chance for Success
Downloadable PDF: Nevada State Highlights - Chance for Success
Source: EPE Research Center, 2011
K-12 Achievement
Downloadable PDF: K-12 Achievement
Note: States are ordered based on unrounded values for the K-12 Achievement Index.
Values in the U.S. row report results for the nation as a whole, if it had been treated as a state.
Source: EPE Research Center, 2011
Nevada K-12 Achievement Index
Downloadable PDF: Nevada K-12 Achievement Index
Source: EPE Research Center, 2011
Downloadable PDF: Graduation in the United States
Source: EPE Research Center, 2010
According to Education Week's annual benchmark study on the nation's high school graduation rates, Nevada, based on data from the class of 2007, once again ranks at the bottom with a graduation rate percentage of 41.8%. In the last study, based on the class of 2005, Nevada ranked last with a graduation rate of 45.4%. Our state falls 42% points below the graduation rate of the highest ranked state, New Jersey.
Educational opportunity and improvement is now a moral imperative and a quality of life issue for Nevadans. Current student outcomes are not acceptable.
Despite some isolated pockets of excellence and hope, when half of our children fail to graduate high school, when post-secondary education enrollment rates are the lowest in the nation, and when the wide achievement gap of African-American and Hispanic children continues to prevail, we have failed. Nevada’s diverse student population faces challenges of mobility, poverty, and English language acquisition. As a result, Nevada is 16 points below the national average in student achievement (Quality Counts 2010, Education Research Center). The consequences this portends are obvious—a sad escalation of social needs and a dismal prognosis for our state's desperate economy.
Downloadable PDF: Chance for Success
Source: EPE Research Center, 2010
