Nevada politicians receive a failing grade for bipartisan education effort

Fail. (Getty Images)

State politicians are like self-appointed lifeguards that lack the ability to swim, yelling directions to someone drowning, from the shore. Lacking knowledge about education or experience in the field, they mandate senseless policies and practices that do not improve student outcomes. 

Nevada’s newest attempt at “education reform,” Senate Bill 460 was recently enrolled by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo. It combined two competing bills: one from the governor and one from Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro. The result is a complete bipartisan mess.

Who or what (AI?) created this monstrosity? It is difficult to consume its 200+ pages even for those familiar and experienced with reading educational studies and legalese. Trust me on that one.

The opening paragraph alone contains a laundry list of ineffective remedies, most of which have failed in other states. The biggest flaw (among many) in this law is promoting the false premise that standardized test score averages effectively measure accountability in education.

Possible positives buried in SB460 are support for pre-kindergarten / early childhood education programs that may help students enter kindergarten on a more level playing field and limiting teacher liability when intervening in physical altercations.

There are no proven educational practices that have ever closed academic achievement gaps or  produced common levels of literacy. Not the interventions, remediations, strategies, or methods included in this law.

There are no effective models of instruction in other states (especially those with 3rd grade retention policies). Phony claims of success made by states, districts or schools are based on flawed statistics and outright lies. There is no “science of reading” or “miracle” in another state that closes literacy gaps.

The mandatory elementary school plans, strategic plans, Educational Service Center, Public Oversight Board, Commissions for Innovation, Funding, Recruitment and Professional Standards, or requirements for hiring a superintendent will not improve state test score averages.

Threatening “low-performing” schools with state takeovers, withholding funding or removing principals has never worked in any other state. The new definition of “low performing” includes schools with state test score averages in the bottom 20th percentile or where less than 50% of 3rd graders are proficient readers. Currently, this describes about half the schools in Nevada.

Oversight, accountability and evaluation of schools, administrators and teachers are pointless if measured by standardized test score averages. Differences in instruction or educational practice do not account for individual differences in standardized test scores. Test score averages should not be tied to school performance or evaluations of teachers and principals.

State and national standardized tests are designed to create a normal distribution (bell curve) of individual scores. The bulk of scores fall between the 40th and 60th percentiles. Proficiency levels are preset; meaning that the number of students that can achieve proficiency is predetermined. It is a rigged game.

Standardized tests rank individual students in relation to their peers. Individual test score ranks are used to sort and label students at all levels of education. State tests were never designed to measure school success or evaluate the effectiveness of teachers and administrators.

Nevada uses the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) as its state-mandated test of academic achievement in grades 3-8; along with about a dozen other states. SBAC consistently delivers a rank of percentile scores for individual students as do other state standardized tests.

The SBAC, like other standardized tests, is not a learning tool. Tests cover a very broad range of material with strict time parameters to comprehend and process test questions.

Students take this once a year battery of tests, are not allowed to see which test items were correct or incorrect, receive results weeks or months later with a raw score, percentile and label. There is no feedback to students which is crucial for learning. There is no opportunity to correct or learn from mistakes.

The preset proficiency level for 3rd grade reading on the SBAC is about the 55th percentile. That guarantees the failure of more than half of 3rd graders as only 45% are allowed to be labeled as proficient readers.

Demographics are the major determinant of test score averages. Higher poverty levels, lower parent education levels, more English learner students ensure that Nevada will remain near the bottom when compared to other states.

Superintendents across Nevada public school districts have grown weary of senseless mandates from the state; usually directed toward curing the perceived educational ills in Clark County. The directives have not improved student outcomes in CCSD or other districts across the state.

If the primary concern is the size of CCSD, then break it up. Create independent districts in Clark County. Start with the borders of the City of Henderson.

Few can comprehend the educational mess created by SB460, certainly not its creators. If oddsmakers set the over/under at 1 for the number of members in the Nevada State Legislature and governor’s office that have read the entire content of this pointless law, bet the under.