Nye County high school graduation rate sees small increase

The graduation rate of high school students in Nye County increased slightly over last year’s mark, a state preliminary report showed.

A report released by the Nevada Department of Education said that the county had a preliminary four-year graduation rate of 70.1 percent for the class of 2016, or students who were freshmen during the 2012-13 school year. That is just less than a one percent increase from the 69.2 percent mark reported for 2015.

The latest graduation rate is just below the 70.2 percent rate in 2013, but still up significantly from the 56.3 percent rate in 2012.

Since the date is just preliminary at this point, Nye County School District Superintendent Dale Norton wanted to reserve specific comment on the graduation rate until the official number is released later in the year.

“The accuracy rate is a plus/minus two-percent margin of error for this preliminary number,” Norton said. “Our final percentage will be determined by the state and released on December 15. Due to the plus/minus two-percent margin of error possibility, I will not comment on this number at this time.”

Although the increase was modest from 2015 to 2016, Norton said steps are being taken to ensure that number continues an upward trend.

“Focused on culture change, change in leadership at PVHS (largest school driving the percentage), added more credit recovery opportunities and added advisory classes at PVHS,” he said.

Despite the slight gain, the county’s rate is still below the state average of 72.62, which rose from 70.9 in 2015, and Norton has a plan in place to catch up and then exceed that number.

Norton listed student learning with failure not being an option, collaboration and curriculum and pre-K-12 assessments as pieces of the district’s blueprint to raise graduation rates.

Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pttimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.