Education ratings are low where poor Chris Jones Jersey
You are hereHome NewsEducation ratings are low where poor, less educated live Aidan Patterson, center, pauses from working on an iPad to raise her hand with other students in Steve Armitage's 5th grade class at Hancock Elementary School Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Las Vegas. Hancock Elementary School is a Positive Behavior Intervention School, which uses a model of continuing positive behavior reinforcement. The school also utilizes technology such as iPads as well as other electronic devices for education. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review Journal)Education ratings are low where poor, less educated live Expectations and rules for students are posted in the front of Steve Armitage's 5th grade class at Hancock Elementary School Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Las Vegas. Hancock Elementary School is a Positive Behavior Intervention School, which uses a model of continuing positive behavior reinforcement. The school also utilizes technology such as iPads as well as other electronic devices for education. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review Journal)Education ratings are low where poor, less educated live Students Ani Riley, left, and Aidan Patterson (both CQ) work with a web based phonic program called Lexia on iPads in Steve Armitage's 5th grade class at Hancock Elementary School Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Las Vegas. Hancock Elementary School is a Positive Behavior Intervention School, which uses a model of continuing positive behavior reinforcement. The school also utilizes technology such as iPads as well as other electronic devices for education. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review Journal)Education ratings are low where poor, less educated live Sara Rajabi works with a web based phonic program called Lexia on an iPad in Stephanie Larson's 5th grade class at Hancock Elementary School Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Las Vegas. Hancock Elementary School is a Positive Behavior Intervention School, which uses a model of continuing positive behavior reinforcement. The school also utilizes technology such as iPads as well as other electronic devices for education. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review Journal)Education ratings are low where poor, less educated live A 5th grade student works on an iPad during a reading class at Hancock Elementary School Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Las Vegas. Hancock Elementary School is a Positive Behavior Intervention School, which uses a model of continuing positive behavior reinforcement. The school also utilizes technology such as iPads as well as other electronic devices for education. (Ronda Churchill/Las Vegas Review Journal)A 24 pack of stress balls sits in the office of Laure Forsberg, principal of Fitzgerald Elementary School.The struggling North Las Vegas school now ranks lowest among the Clark County School District's 337 campuses, according to the recently released results of the state's fledgling rating system. The school's score of 24 out of 100 puts it just three points from dead last among all Nevada public schools."I'm as concerned as anyone," said Forsberg, who explained without excuses that landing at the bottom is not as simple as it would seem.Less than 20 miles from Fitzgerald, which is near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue, sits the highest ranked traditional public school in the state, Twitchell Elementary School in Henderson. Only the Davidson Academy of Nevada, which serves gifted middle and high school students, and the College of Southern Nevada's high school campuses can beat it.Twitchell and Fitzgerald are both neighborhood schools. No magnet program at Twitchell draws the best and brightest from across the Las Vegas Valley.In addition to distance, the schools are separated by a chasm of circumstances that have more influence on a school's performance than funding or staffing, according to a Review Journal analysis. From Fitzgerald to Twitchell, and at all the schools between them, economic and social indicators have a hefty impact on how a school and its students do.With rare exception, school ratings are higher districtwide when the surrounding neighborhood has a higher median household income and more college educated residents, regardless of whether parents have degrees.Schools do progressively worse when their neighborhoods have higher rates of high school only educated residents, families falling below the poverty line, and minorities.Clark County's one star schools on average serve areas where 32 percent of residents never went beyond high school. In those same areas, just 8 percent of residents are college educated, far short of the county's overall 22 percent average.As schools gain stars, the percentage of neighborhood residents with at least a bachelor's degree also steadily increases to 29 percent on average for five star schools, more than 3.5 times the rate of college educated residents for one star schools."We're blessed to have the components of a good school," said Sue Abacherli, a 10 year kindergarten teacher at Twitchell, where the student poverty rate is 16percent, less than a third of the district average.Caucasian students outnumber Hispanics four to one, which is the exception in the Hispanic dominated district.At Twitchell, nine out of 10 students have grade level math and reading skills."But there's no utopia," Abacherli said.SUCCESS FOR ALL?From Clark County Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky to multiple associate superintendents, none deny the link binding socioeconomics to school performance. The findings come as no surprise, they said."It shows that we have a lot of work to do," said Mike Barton, the district's chief student achievement officer.But is the link one that public schools can break?Barton referenced the famed 1966 Coleman Report, "Equality of Educational Opportunity," which sampled 650,000 students nationwide. Authentic Ryan Allen Jersey