Sometimes it seems like every other education-related posting I make is about California or Florida. Today, for a change, we have an impassioned article about the "horror stories" of Nevada's public education system:
1) Nevada eighth-grade students scored last in the nation on standardized reading tests; fourth graders scored third from the bottom...Terry Hickman, president of the Nevada State Education Association, said the scores reflect a lack of resources and commitment by the state to fund education...
2) Roughly one of six Nevada high school seniors couldn't pass the math proficiency exam required before students can receive diplomas...
3) Nevada ranked 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending in K-12 schools in the 2000-2001 school year, a calculation that conveniently does not include expenditures on construction and other capital projects. The state's ranking in per-pupil spending has dropped, from 38th in 1998-1999 to 40th nationally in 1999-2000.
The editorial is essentially a justification for why an expected large tax increase is necessary, and a warning that Nevada's taxpayers will be expecting accountability. The writer's goal is admirable, but it most be noted that throwing money at educational problems doesn't necessarily make them go away. Washington DC, for example, has the second-highest per-pupil expenditure in the US and yet the DC system is not known for its excellence. According to this NAEP graph, DC has the second-lowest percent in the nation of 8th-grade students reading at the Proficient or Advanced level, and over half of DC's 8th-graders read at the Below Basic level - the second-worst in the country if we count in American Samoa.
Also, to give some perspective, while roughly 13% of Nevada's seniors don't pass the exit exam math section, almost 40% of California's seniors have failed on the same task. However, when the 2000 math NAEP results for 4th-graders and 8th-graders are examined, Nevada's youngsters are indeed ranked below Californians (although the numbers are pretty close).