Incline middle, elementary schools don't make the grade

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — Two of Incline Village's public schools failed to meet national standards for improvement in certain areas last year.

Incline's middle and elementary schools did not improve in English language arts and math and were classified as schools in need of improvement under Nevada standards.

To make the needs improvement list, schools must fail to achieve federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards two years in a row, said Paul LaMarca, Washoe County School's assistant superintendent in charge of accountability.

Incline High School made AYP in the three areas the state department of education reviews — math, English language arts and other indicators, which includes graduation rates and attendance. Last year, the high school had an 85 percent graduation rate.

A school has two years to exit the needs improvement status, or else face corrective actions such as an intensive curriculum review, LaMarca said.

Terms of improvement

Changes are under way at each campus to improve the scores.

Kathleen Watty, Incline's K-8 principal overseeing daily operations at IES, said the school will implement some of the same strategies it did to avoid a needs improvement status for ELA.

“We're implementing a lot of professional training — more than last year with our math instruction,” Watty said. She said the system worked to pull IES from its on-watch status in ELA last year to making AYP this year. “We put so much emphasis on that last year and we're going to be doing the same amount this year with math.”

Similarly, Incline Middle School site administrator Sharon Kennedy said plans are under way to improve ELA instruction at IMS, where children with English as a second language struggled.

One plan is to train all teachers in Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, Kennedy said, a program designed to help educators teach to second language learners.

“It really is a program that's full of best practices for all learners, so it should help everyone,” she said

When WCSD's accountability report was released earlier this year, Superintendent Heath Morrison stressed that all schools need to improve with their English language learners. Those students outperformed the state averages for EL children, but still failed to hit federal standards.

LaMarca said the entire district struggles with teaching those students, mostly Hispanic.

“Certainly the whole school district has become more diverse,” LaMarca said. “This is a high priority for the district, to turn around these scores. We've made some progress with our second language population, but enough with respect to AYP.”