CARSON CITY, Nev. – Nevada made the largest gain of any state in the nation in the latest installment of Education Week’s Quality Counts 2019 report card. While Nevada still lags with an overall score of 66.9 with a grade of D+, Nevada improved 1.8 percentage points from 2018, edging out the District of Columbia (1.6) and California (1.5).

“We set a goal to become the fastest improving state in the nation and the latest ranking in the Quality Counts report card demonstrates that Nevada is headed in the right direction,” said Jhone Ebert, Superintendent of Public Instruction. “We are in no way satisfied and we know we have a long way to go. With education policy changes in place and additional investment in education in recent legislative sessions, I’m confident that our teachers will continue to expand opportunities and improve outcomes for all of Nevada’s students.”

Education Week published its grades, scores, and data at 9:01 p.m. (PDT) today. This third installment of Quality Counts 2019 updates overall grades based on results from all three categories in the report card framework. A state’s overall grade is the average of its scores on the three separate indices tracked by the report. The latest information available is K-12 Achievement grades, which are determined largely by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores from 2017. Education Week had previously released reports this year on Chance for Success and School Finance. Though Nevada scores poorly in the School Finance measure, the data do not include increased funding from the 2017 or 2019 Legislative Session.

In the Quality Counts report card released today, Nevada showed noteworthy gains in all of the reporting categories. Improvements in NAEP achievement between 2003 and 2017 are as follows:

• NAEP 4th Grade Math proficiency increased 4.2 percentage points to 30.7 percent.
• NAEP 8th Grade Math proficiency increased 7.3 percentage points to 27.4 percent.
• NAEP 4th Grade Reading proficiency increased 7.9 percentage points to 30.6 percent.
• NAEP 8th Grade Reading proficiency increased 7.5 percentage points to 28.2 percent.
• NAEP 8th Grade Advanced Math proficiency increased 3.8 percentage points to 6.6 percent.

In addition, Nevada showed the following gains for high school students:

• Graduation rates increased 10.9 percentage points from 2014 to 80.9 percent in 2017.
• Students scoring a 3 or above in Advanced Placement Test increased 19.4 percentage points from 2000 to 25.2 percent in 2017.