Next Up Blog

As measured by Nevada’s School Performance Framework, the 89123, located in southwest Las Vegas, features a wide-range of school choices, ranging from district-zoned schools to state charter schools to private schools. The zip code serves 8,174 students with 50 percent attending three-star schools.

The zip code features three five-star schools – a pair of Coral Academy of Sciences schools (elementary and middle school) and one magnet (Roger Gehring Elementary School) – accounting for 1,690 students in the 27,525 households.

A majority of students (4,094 students) find themselves in three-star schools (Silvestri Middle School, Schofield Middle School, Beatty Elementary School, and Cartwright Elementary School). The lone one-star school (Nevada Virtual Academy) serves 540 students  — it is important to note that Nevada Virtual educates students from all around Nevada in their own homes, with its office in the 89123 zip code.

The 89123 is a picture of school choice with a healthy mix of state charters, private and district-zoned schools, providing families plenty of options. The zip code is home to a trio of private schools, including Omar Haikal Islamic Academy (K-8), Kids R Kids Quality Learning Center (K), and Challenger School Silverado Campus (K-8). The private school options go hand in hand with public charter options in Coral Academy of Sciences and Nevada Virtual Academy – both servicing students kindergarten to high school. The zip code is also home to Roger Gehring Elementary, a magnet school where students must apply, meet any academic entrance requirements and be accepted to attend the school. The school is open for students kindergarten through fifth grade.

Education is viewed positively in the area as 91 percent of the 56,300 residents posess a high school diploma or higher, with 7,716 residents over the age of 25 holding a Bachelor’s degree. The median household income is $61,006, well above the Las Vegas average.

For more information on the performance of public schools in Clark County, visit the GreatSchoolsAllKids website operated by Opportunity 180.

As measured by Nevada’s School Performance Framework, the 13,660 households in North Las Vegas’ 89030 ZIP Code remain substantially underserved when it comes to high-quality educational options.

Next year, the neighborhood will be home to Clark County’s most anticipated new school in many years, Cristo Rey Saint Viator Las Vegas College Preparatory high school. The Catholic school features a rigorous academic instructional model with a work-study program which has earned national renown for the relevant experience and workplace skills it offers its students.

For now, however, most students in its ten current schools (4,700 of its 7,700 total students) attend a public school rated with one or two stars, the lowest performance ratings on the state’s 5-Star evaluation system.

Its one five-star rated school, Jo Mackey Elementary School, is one of Clark County’s highly-rated selective-enrollment magnet schools. There are no charter schools currently open in 89030.

Marion Cahlan Elementary School earned a four-star rating, thanks to especially strong student growth over time in reading and math.

Educational opportunity represents the most crucial pathway to a middle-class lifestyle in this community, where half of all residents 25 years old or older have less than a high school diploma or equivalent. Average annual household income (median) in 89030 is $30,300, half of the Clark County average.  About 7 in 10 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and African-Americans comprise 1 in 7.

As most residents lack access to the financial resources it would take to move to a different neighborhood where their children could be served by higher-performing schools, their best hopes for better educational options must come through either through finding ways to access school of choice, or relying on the Clark County School District’s leadership to accelerate its process for making improvements for its underserved families.

For more information on the performance of public schools in Clark County, visit the GreatSchoolsAllKids website operated by Opportunity 180.

Nevada Action is excited to announce this new contest with our partner, world-class digital content provider Spider Learning.  Any Nevada school is eligible to enter and win a free middle school curriculum pilot, all subjects, for up to 30 students.

We will be at the Charter School Association of Nevada Conference, Sept 20-21 in Las Vegas.  Stop by and see us if you’re able. All public (including charter) and private schools are eligible to win.

HINT: We’re looking for you to tell us about what is most important to you about personalizing teaching and learning in your entry.

The winner will receive two teacher licenses and will have access to 38 semester courses, 2,800 instructional lessons, and 800 review/assessment tools.

To enter, register here before 5pm September 25.

 

For the first time, all states are making preparations to adopt a new federal requirement that they collect and report student performance data for students with a parent who is an active member of the nation’s military services. Congress instituted this requirement, called the Military Student Identifier, hoping that it would become a valuable educational tool for schools and school districts looking to measure and strengthen these students’ progress.  Once in place, it can also serve as a valuable tool for parents seeking a better understanding of how military students are doing in particular school districts or schools — information they very rarely have now.

In preparing to use this new information, what are the most important educational strategies, practices and supports to help schools most effectively serve military-connected students?

That is the focus of this new report, which I coauthored with former senior federal Department of Education Official Doug Mesecar. You can read and download this report here.  It is published by the Lexington Institute and theCollaborative for Student Success.

As we observed schools around the country serving military-connected students, we worked to capture essential characteristics found in the most successful schools we saw.  After analyzing what we observed, we organized these characteristics around three pivotal domains:

  • Direct support for students, including social and emotional supports using district and military resources.
  • Aligned educational leadership, where teachers receive the right training and and are provided with actionable information on specific student progress, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and
  • Systems and communities, reaching beyond the walls of the classroom to their broader communities with a stake in these students’ success.

For more, and to read the full report, you can find it online here.