Terry Guesman wrote on January 28, 2009 11:03 AM: 'Eyes Open' has it right: parental and familial involvement make all the difference. As a proud atheist and champion of science, I am not saluting the LDS, but it should be known that Utah has the lowest per-pupil spending in the nation; Utah also has the highest graduation rate and college attendance rate in the nation. Obviously, throwing money at this problem won't fix much. A parent's involvement in their child's life and the community at large will always help to dictate how well their kids will perform in an educational setting, just look at Utah.
The problem w/ parents here in the Las Vegas Valley? This is the US capital of 'Selfish.' Only in Las Vegas will you hear folks brag to out-of-staters about how low our property taxes are, and in the same breath complain about the education system.
This contradiction is a great example of how backwards many of our fellow community members really are. It also speaks bounds about how terribly uninformed many of our fellow Nevadans are. The most unsettling detail in all of this is the level of apathy displayed; people don't understand our system or the problems facing it, nor do they take the time to learn. People are pretty good about complaining, though.
There is no, one solution to help the situation facing our education system; rather, a combination of strategies should be explored and implemented, soon.

Eyes Open wrote on January 27, 2009 08:25 PM: Lets get to the real reason kids aren't doing well in school. Parents are not raising their kids! They send kids to school and expect them to learn skills that are to be learned from parents. Disruptive kids are most often backed up by parents who go to great lengths to blame schools and teachers instead of behaving like real parents. I behaved in school because my parents would make my life very, very difficult if I misbehaved in school. How many children have parents that will actually back up their kids teacher?
Look people, kids do poorly in school chiefly because their parents are not participating.
Your average teacher is a well trained professional. They go to work to educate your children. Do not saddle them with the additional responsibility of raising them. If you do, please allow them to do so unimpeded. Don't confuse being involved with meddling.
School administrators need more authority to back up their teachers. They should be able to tell a parent that the teacher or a classmate is not the problem, it's little Johnny.
If you want to make teachers and school administrators more accountable, come up with a way to ensure that the parents of these children are doing their jobs at home.
Raising children to be useful productive citizens is the job of the parents. Period.
Teaching children who should be arriving at school prepared to learn is the schools job.

teacher wrote on January 27, 2009 07:23 PM: Hurrah! This is the number one fix schools need. Try teaching classes when half your students are three years below grade level.


The solution: Don't allow any student out of the third grade until he can read. Better yet, Bacon suggested, reconfigure schools from age-based grade levels into classroom groups assembled by mastery levels. At Nevada's universities, expanding online distance education would both slash budgetary needs and make it easier for busy commuter students to attend class.

Kris P. Cream wrote on January 27, 2009 04:23 PM: Great, we've got a doughnut salesman opining on what our education system really needs. At least the engineer quoted in this article sees what's missing...the need for critical thinking. Of course that's the last thing doughnut salesmen, gamers, and others want. If our kids are capable of anything more than making change and delivering cocktails they won't be able to contribute to Nevada's "work force." When the best interests of business and commerce are served in the educational system, we'll all be nothing more than drones.

??? wrote on January 27, 2009 12:40 PM: 1.) End social promotion.
2.) Tie more money to accountability of the schools.
3.) Organize classes by putting the most successful stundents with each other.
4.) Allow more charter schools to encourage competition. This will allow teachers to teach those who want to learn and babysit those students who are not motivated/lack parental involvement. Allow our best teachers the reward of teaching our best, encouraging those who don't to compete for the opportuity to have that honor.
6.) Cut overhead and bloated administration.

It is not funny that the first thing administrators cut are those programs that directly affect the children. Parents/school boards should be outraged and retaliate against the administrators.

I do not have children. I would not oppose more funding IF AND ONLY IF the powers that be could show us that more money will be put to use in a productive way instead of being burried in more administration.

Of course, Rogers and Ruffles will never do that. It would destroy their self-made empires.

We need better education in Nevada, so lets cut funding to education!! wrote on January 27, 2009 12:27 PM: That's the Gibbons logic!

JoinATeacher wrote on January 27, 2009 11:34 AM: Before anyone make a generalization about teachers, go spend the day in a classroom. Sure there are some bad teachers. This is quite possible a reflection of the cost of living change in Las Vegas that is not proportional to the starting salaries--the salaries have increased very little since the 1990's. Most teachers have 7 years of college if they have a MA in their subject or teaching methods--the pay in Nevada for that much education is pathetic. Many, if not most, teachers are highly educated, competent, and work extremely hard. Class size is humungous here, with little relief in site thanks to Mr. Gibbons. Working conditions are lousy. I am not sure why anyone would teach in Las Vegas anymore. Nevada still holds the record for the highest percentage of uneducated adults, and so it is actually not surprising that education is not a priority. Shame on anyone that states schools have failed Las Vegas: LAS VEGAS HAS FAILED OUR SCHOOLS.

Boycott wrote on January 27, 2009 11:05 AM: Don't expect to hear the truth from Channel 3. The man who destroyed higher education in Nevada owns that place.
Join the boycott. Stop paying into the destruction.

Amy wrote on January 27, 2009 11:05 AM: As a former teacher for CCSD, it saddens me every time I see that "teachers aren't doing enough to make kids successful." I taught with everything I had to give. But come test day, the kids showed up without having breakfast, having gone to bed at 10:00 or later the night before. I told the students how important tests were...only to see them just randomly bubble in answers and not even write a single number on their scratch papers for math tests. Not because I didn't teach them how to read and look for answers or solve them on paper. But because when it comes right down to it, they do what they want to do, or what they have the attention span to do. I couldn't force them to double check their answers.

I received excuse notes from parents that said, "Please excuse my daughter from school yesterday, we couldn't find her shoes." But yet its my fault that she didn't score well on the test? Please...

Fire The School Board wrote on January 27, 2009 11:02 AM: Heard the same complaints 30 years ago - and the complaining has never stopped.
Out the school board! Worthless. They keep it in the dark ages. Bunch of self serving wanna be's that seek to advance a career on our tax dollars because they can not make it in the public sector. You know who you are!
Get back to basic - it isn't that tough.
All these studies, surveys, plans, it is all a waste of time and money.