[momofvegasgirls]

The albatross continues to be our education system. CNBC (for what it's worth) released the 2015 rankings for Top States for Business. Our overall score is 45 but we are at an abysmal 50th place, when it comes to education. This is madness. We go round and round about what's wrong with our education system and the only ideas we can come up with are vouchers and studying "maybe" breaking up the district.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102573546

I'm putting out $90.00 per week for 2 math tutoring sessions and 1 writing session for my 2 girls, to make sure that they don't lose skills over the summer. That is on top of the packet of activities their schools have given us to make sure they start the new year up and running.

I am a stay at home mother. I have not only the time, but the sheer fear and interest in their outcomes, to do this. But what would happen if our home situation changed? What if that kind of money and time wasn't available?

I could go on and on about the implications of our collective reality, but I won't bore you all. Despite the lack of ALL CAPS in my post, I do, in fact, feel like screaming!

Thanks for letting me vent.

[ScoopLV]

Pshaw!

Our schools are just perfect. And no amount of studies and reports that say otherwise makes any difference at all. Just buy a house in Summerlin and everything will be hunky-dory. Now take your happy pills and repeat after me, "Duloc is a perfect place."

[ND_Irish]

While I certainly will not defend CCSD since we home educate our kids, I am not sure I would be relying on CNBC to make the determination on where Nevada stands relative to other states in terms of education. Here is how they determined their score for education: "Education (200 points) Education and business go hand in hand. Not only do companies want to draw from an educated pool of workers, they also want to offer their employees a great place to raise a family. Higher-education institutions offer companies a source to recruit new talent, as well as a partner in research and development.
We look at traditional measures of K–12 education, including test scores, class size and spending. We also look at digital and lifelong learning opportunities in each state. And we consider the number of higher-education institutions in each state, as well as long-term trends for funding higher education." (Source: America's Top States for Business 2015: Our methodology) This does not strike me as a very transparent or objective calculation. In fact, they do not even tell us the specific data they used to determine these rankings. Also, they ranked Wyoming and Kansas eight and tenth respectively in education, and I do not typically consider these states to be at the forefront when I think of excellence in education.

[ScoopLV]

Fine, CNBC is just the latest in a very, very long string of publications to either rank us dead last, or close to it.

So how many of these studies are we going to dismiss by shooting the messenger?



If Hell froze over and someone ranked us #1 in the country, the cheerleaders would be cooing and fawning all over them no matter what their methodology.

[ND_Irish]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Fine, CNBC is just the latest in a very, very long string of publications to either rank us dead last, or close to it.

So how many of these studies are we going to dismiss by shooting the messenger?



If Hell froze over and someone ranked us #1 in the country, the cheerleaders would be cooing and fawning all over them no matter what their methodology.

I'm surprised you are defending this messenger. I'm not a cheerleader for CCSD; however, I also am not going to accept a ranking without any specific details regarding how that ranking was determined.

I would not be surprised if some of this is just East Coast bias, and I'm well aware of it having attended an Ivy League school after going to high school in the 49th ranked state for education in their survey, Arizona.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by momofvegasgirls

The albatross continues to be our education system. CNBC (for what it's worth) released the 2015 rankings for Top States for Business. Our overall score is 45 but we are at an abysmal 50th place, when it comes to education. This is madness. We go round and round about what's wrong with our education system and the only ideas we can come up with are vouchers and studying "maybe" breaking up the district.

Top States 2015: Nevada

I'm putting out $90.00 per week for 2 math tutoring sessions and 1 writing session for my 2 girls, to make sure that they don't lose skills over the summer. That is on top of the packet of activities their schools have given us to make sure they start the new year up and running.

I am a stay at home mother. I have not only the time, but the sheer fear and interest in their outcomes, to do this. But what would happen if our home situation changed? What if that kind of money and time wasn't available?

I could go on and on about the implications of our collective reality, but I won't bore you all. Despite the lack of ALL CAPS in my post, I do, in fact, feel like screaming!

Thanks for letting me vent.

It is not true. We do not rank 50th in turns of educational achievement. See NAEP.

We do not rank high either probably around 40th.

This is one of those dull rankings that claim we spend too little so we rank lower. We do spend too little but we just partially fixed that. The new education plan from Sandoval will move us well off the bottom in expenditure.

And settle down. If you have your kids in a reasonable school and they are doing reasonably well they will be fine. Good Las Vegas interchanges with any of the nice south western city suburbs.

[momofvegasgirls]

I think my fear is that whatever the methodology, when people are deciding on whether or not to accept a transfer to this State or trying to narrow down options when moving, these are exactly the kinds of rankings they Google and take note of. The word is out and has been for a long time; We are not measuring up.

I WANT this place to succeed, for lots of different reasons...

[ScoopLV]

OK, let's assume all of these studies, from all of these groups, that all arrive at the conclusion that Las Vegas schools suck aren't just flawed, but Bizarro-world flawed. So what? Public perception still hamstrings us when it comes to attracting business other than porn production companies and casinos.

(Porn is our biggest growth industry right now.)


I use my own methodology -- living in Las Vegas. This is not a smart city chock full of smart people. Education simply isn't valued like it is elsewhere. Even if we had the best schools, the best curriculum and the best teachers -- which we don't -- Las Vegas is still one of the least-educated cities in America. Only the desert crap-holes of inland California routinely beat us on the mouth-breathing index. People move here because there are better opportunities for people who never went to college. So a university degree isn't as valued here. (Just so long as our doctors actually graduated from medical school.)

So when Parenting magazine ranks us the worst city in America for schools, the problem isn't that we just appeared on a list that makes us look bad. I could pull articles like that all day long. It's the lowest of low-hanging fruit. Finding these "Las Vegas sucks" articles is about as difficult as finding a prostitute on Boulder Highway. The problem is that companies decide that Las Vegas is less attractive based on our schools and our uneducated population. CEOs flying over Las Vegas read these articles in Forbes and Barron's (and yes, even Parenting).

And they open new factories and offices elsewhere. Don't think for a minute public perception about Las Vegas doesn't affect the fortunes of this city.

But frankly, I really don't care. Things aren't ever going to change. The "don't tax me/college is only for liberal indoctrination/if a degree doesn't come with a high-dollar career, it ain't worth pursuing" crowd is FIRMLY entrenched.

Culture, while better, is still woefully lacking compared to other cities this size. The fact that it took us until 2012 to open the Smith Center is all we really need to know about culture in Las Vegas. (Don't get me wrong. I'm glad we have it. It's a real asset. But why did it take almost 100 years to get a decent concert hall?)

Point blank: This city is populated by people who think that working as a doorman means having it made; people whose idea of culture is smoking American Spirits instead of generic cigarettes, and playing blackjack on the strip instead of video poker at the local's bar; people who haven't bought or even read a book since they graduated from high school. Of COURSE our schools suck. This city is clown shoes.

I find it comical that there are people who get indignant about this every time it comes up.

[momofvegasgirls]

State Profiles.net

NAEP - Nation's Report Card Home

NAEP Nations Report Card - Why Participation in the Assessment is Important

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by momofvegasgirls

State Profiles.net

NAEP - Nation's Report Card Home

NAEP Nations Report Card - Why Participation in the Assessment is Important

Try this

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard...es/2011458.pdf

Here is another..


http://education-consumers.org/pdf/N...%20reading.pdf