Trevon Milliard

tmilliard@rgj.com

After years of floundering near the bottom in a widely watched report card for state education systems, Nevada has sunk to dead last.

For the first time, the Silver State fell behind all other states and Washington, D.C., in the annual Quality Counts report, which assigns overall scores to states based on student performance, school financing and other qualities of K-12 public schools.

“It’s honestly disheartening,” said Nevada interim Superintendent Steve Canavero on Wednesday before the results were publicly released.

The report also looks beyond schools, considering factors like parents’ education levels, income and language abilities to determine children’s “chance for success” in each state. There, Nevada has ranked lowest for seven years, its children less likely to succeed than those in any other state, according to the report.

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These factors are outside the control of public schools but should nonetheless be considered in the state’s score, Canavero acknowledged.

“This is a society. This is us,” said Canavero, emphasizing the connection between school as a child and well-being as an adult, using that education to provide for a family. “If we’re not doing our work as a school system, we’re not getting it done as a society.”

The nonprofit Education Week, a national newspaper covering education, has been publishing Quality Counts for 20 years. This year, Massachusetts topped the list with an overall score of 86.8 out of 100 possible points, followed by New Jersey in second place and Vermont taking third.

Nevada switched places with Mississippi for last place even though its overall score slightly increased, improving from 65.0 to 65.2. Nevada has always ranked low in Quality Counts, but it has consistently fallen in recent years from 46th place in 2008 to the lowest possible 51st this year. That comes despite Nevada’s recent gains in academic achievement, suggesting the Silver State is improving at a slower pace than other states.

“Everybody’s in a race here to improve student achievement,” Canavero said of the states.

Nevada improved its average pass rate on the National Assessment of Educational Progress to 29 percent of students last year, which Quality Counts took into account. The report, however, judged Nevada on its 60 percent graduation rate of 2012. The state’s graduation rate passed 70 percent in 2015, which wasn’t taken into account.

Besides graduation rate, most figures used for Quality Counts’ scoring came from 2014 and 2015.

“I’d hate for this to be seen as an assessment of where we are. It’s where we’ve been,” said Canavero, noting the recent investments made in public schools that have yet to bear fruit. “We’ve got the tools to move the needle.”

In 2015, state lawmakers increased public school funding by $400 million and instituted many reforms, including the requirement that students no longer be promoted to fourth grade unless they can read.

To reach an overall score on Quality Counts, Nevada was evaluated in three categories. This year, Nevada fell in the rankings for academic achievement and school financing, but stayed in last place for students’ chance of success.

Only a third of Nevada families have at least one parent with a college degree, coming in lower than any other state, according to the report factoring parents’ education into children’s chance for success. A quarter of Nevada children have parents who don’t speak fluent English, which also stacks the chips against them. Only two other states have fewer fluent parents.

Nevada is also lowly regarded for how it funds public schools, coming in 48th place. Quality Counts looked at equity in how funding is dispersed and plain dollar amounts.

The Silver State spends less per pupil than all but four states. The Silver State spends about $8,200 per student compared to a $11,700 national average.