They said Nevada collects the data on student participation in schools' plentiful opportunities, like career and technical education or courses that give early credit for college alongside high school credit, as well as on students who need remedial courses in college. At a summit Thursday, area educational officials, policymakers and other stakeholders agreed that it's time to strategically put the data together and study it.
Assemblymember Erica Mosca, D-Las Vegas, a former teacher who is active in education matters in the Legislature, said the goal of collating and analyzing data is to help the state better invest in public education by knowing where the gaps are, not to be punitive.
"I see so many of our nonprofit friends here who would love to say this student was in my program, they went to CCSD, and we had an impact on them, and therefore you should fund us," she said to about 100 thought leaders gathered at Discovery Children's Museum in downtown Las Vegas. "From a government lens, we're still in some ways guessing, if you were in this program and then you went to this institution, these are your outcomes."
Last year, Mosca authored a successful bill to establish a publicly viewable online dashboard of information on students who graduated from a Nevada public high school and enrolled in remedial reading, writing or math courses when they moved on to a Nevada public institution of higher learning; how long it takes students, on average, to graduate from a state college or university; and the number of graduates who remain unemployed or on public assistance within two years of graduation. The dashboard goes live Sept. 1.
She also passed a bill, in 2023, to make the state's more rigorous "college and career ready" diploma plan the default for high school students.
A survey last year by education policy advocates 50CAN found that only 39 percent of Nevada parents are satisfied with their children's school, and 30 percent are confident in workforce and college preparation, all below the national averages.
Nathan Oakley, the senior policy director for college and career pathways at ExcelinEd, a national education reform think tank, said "pathways" do not come down to a single class or program but require continual conversation about career preparation using information that is collected but not often used well.
"It's a connected set of experiences that start early, continue through postsecondary (school) and ultimately end in a job — a family-sustaining, wage-paying career," he said in a keynote.
These experiences for high school students should include the opportunity to earn college credit, specific technical skills and credentials that employers want. Students should also be able to get hands-on through internships, fellowships and job shadowing.
Similarly to Mosca, he said a "return on investment analysis" shouldn't evaluate whether an education is valuable but whether the programs are delivering as designed and funded. That means looking at access, participation, completion and where students go afterward.
In a follow-up interview, Oakley said that, in layman's terms, school is supposed to lead to opportunity for kids.
"As a part of that education experience, kids ought to have opportunities to earn college credit and to take a (career and technical education) course and to earn industry certifications, and to get work-based learning experiences that all together, position them for" success, he said. "It's not just a matter of studying reading and writing and science and social studies, but to what end."
He said Nevada has good data available. Tam Shearer, CEO of Nevada education nonprofit and event host Opportunity 180, agreed, and said the state does good work with career and technical education and magnet programs of choice. But the data is not connected, she said.
"We have a lot of great programs, and with really great intent to serve kids," she said. "We don't have a comprehensive way to evaluate: Are those programs being the intended impact or outcomes that they were set to do."
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