Educators release annual report card on schools

The Nevada Department of Education says the annual Nevada Report Card on state public schools has some good news this year: The statewide dropout rate was reduced to 4.6 percent, lowest in more than a decade.

At the same time, the figures show the state's graduation rate increased to 67.5 percent, ending a three-year downward trend.

In the Carson School District, the graduation rate was 83.5 percent, a 2.5 percent increase over 2005-06, while the dropout rate fell to just 1.7 percent. But the total number of students attending Carson schools continued its decline, falling about 200 to 8,352.

The Douglas School District saw its graduation rate drop just over 1 percent to 82.8, while its dropout rate increased 1.2 percent to 3.1 percent this past school year. Like Carson, the total number of students in Douglas fell this past year - by 65 students to 6,909.

Churchill, with 4,461 students, reported one of the state's highest graduation rates at 84.9 percent. The dropout rate there was up a half percent but still only 2.4 percent.

In Lyon where the population is booming, total students grew 461 to 9,149. While the dropout rate there is tiny - just 1.2 percent - the graduation rate is a bit lower than Carson and Douglas at 79.2 percent.

Storey's graduation rate is lower yet at 70.7 percent for the year, but the dropout rate is just 2 percent, less than half the statewide average. The student population remained about the same, increasing by just 3 students to 453.

Washoe also turned in strong numbers with a graduation rate of 75.1 percent for its 65,013 students. But Washoe's dropout rate increased from 2 percent to 2.7 over the previous year.

The numbers in Clark County, home to 306,099 students during the school year that just ended, are what's dragging the averages down. In Clark this year, only 63.5 percent of seniors graduated and the dropout rate was 5.6 percent. The number of students listed as habitual truants more than doubled to 1,524.

The Lincoln County School District turned in the best graduation report with 95.1 percent of those eligible receiving diplomas. The district also reported no dropouts in 2006-07. Mineral and Pershing school districts also reported zero dropouts for the school year.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.

For more information:

The complete Nevada Report Card reports, including student-teacher ratios, numbers of substitute teachers, ethic breakdowns of student populations and other information are all available online at www.nevadareportcard.com. The Web site allows comparisons of data for the last four school years.