CARSON CITY — Hispanics outnumber whites in Nevada public schools, and Clark County has a higher graduation rate than the state average. These are some of the statistics compiled by a computer program and presented today by the state Department of Education.
“The new data portal gives us the ability to focus on results and make data-driven decisions,” Steve Canavero, state superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement. “It empowers parents, principals and teachers to see how schools are doing and focus on continuous improvements.”
The data collected via the Nevada Accountability Portal contains information from the 2016-2017 school year and from prior years.
It shows there were 473,647 students enrolled in public schools, up about 1 percent from the previous year. The largest percentage of students — 42.09 percent — were Hispanic, compared to 33.2 percent white, 10.8 percent black and 5.5 percent Asian.
Clark County has a higher percentage of Hispanics and blacks than the statewide average. In Clark County, 46.25 percent of students were Hispanic, 25.2 percent were white, 13,78 percent were black and 6.3 percent were Asian.
The portal shows Clark County had a graduation rate of 76.88 percent, higher than the state average of 73.55 percent.
The portal includes data on student achievement, high school graduation rates, postsecondary enrollment rates, educator qualifications, state performance in national assessments and English language proficiency.
“The data helps us focus on the lowest-performing schools and ensuring that we are providing the right professional development in our school leaders,” Canavero said.