How Six CCSD Schools Skyrocketed in Ratings | Training

Nicole Martin moved around the classroom so much that it was difficult to get a picture of her.

That's because she aims to keep engagement high for a class she describes as part of the “Tik Tok generation.”

“Tell me your favorite pun,” she asked the fifth-graders, who eagerly raised their hands from their “flexible seating” around the room, from couches to swivel chairs.

After teaching at Antonello Elementary School for 26 years, Martin had to learn how to accommodate students with shorter attention spans than in the past.

It is teachers like Martin who “think about the students every day” who have helped the school develop from a one-star school to a three-star school in just one year, said principal Kathi Rozek.

The school is one of six schools in the Clark County School District to make the jump to two stars in a single year. The statewide system rates schools with five stars based on their academic performance, growth, English proficiency, opportunity gaps and student engagement. In a state where half of the schools have either one or two stars, the Review-Journal wanted to find out how some schools made the jump.

The answer: data-driven approaches and a positive culture for teachers and parents.

Look at the data

At Lyon Middle School, which went from three stars to five stars, a jump of 21 points, former principal Jaydel Wilson said he used “every data point we could.”

Heard Elementary School, a magnet school in East Las Vegas that went from one star to three stars, used regular testing throughout the year to evaluate student performance, according to Principal Rebecca Mestaz Lyon. The school then used this data for smaller group work and teaching approaches.

Data is also particularly important for English language learners. Although this group makes up 16 percent of the district, the district is struggling to meet the needs of these students. In the state report card released in September, English learners showed lower proficiency rates than their peers: 11 percent were proficient in math and 11.3 percent were proficient in English language arts. Seven percent of English learners were proficient in the English language.

Rozek said her English language learners demonstrated about 24 percent of their English proficiency last year and were up to 66 percent last year.

Absences

Chronic absenteeism has plagued schools across the country since COVID, and CCSD is no exception.

Chronic absenteeism at CCSD was higher than the rest of the state: nearly one in three students missed 10 percent or more of school days, compared to the rest of the state, where one in four students was chronically absent.

The city of North Las Vegas has also been a big help to Antonello, Rozek said. The city provided a subsidy for chronic absenteeism. According to the city's communications office, the city helped secure and award $10 million in grant funds in fiscal year 2024. Many of these were “microgrants” to schools with projects focused on student achievement, chronic absenteeism, teacher retention, or family engagement.

Last year, Rozek said, Antonello had a chronic absenteeism rate of 32 percent. Last year the school launched a series of challenges to encourage participation. These range from classroom challenges where classes can build a rocket and win prizes after 10 days of perfect attendance, to parent outreach and support groups for individuals struggling with absenteeism.

Heard similarly focused on incentives for school attendance, including consistent follow-up for students who missed school.

Several schools also cited parental involvement as key to combating absenteeism, as well as several other issues students face.

Wilson said in Lyon the stands at events are always full and support from parents is very strong.

“The parents are where it’s at. When the whole family is involved in your education, you have the greatest success,” said Martin.

Class sizes

The schools in Antonello and Lyon have the added advantage of having no teaching vacancies, a rarity in a district that had more than 1,000 vacancies at the start of the year.

Martin praised Rozek for “protecting class sizes,” which has helped her and other teachers at Antonello provide the individual attention they need.

Overcrowded classes have been a major concern for the district in recent years, although this year's report card showed an average class size for CCSD of just over 20, with science classes being the largest at 23, according to state data.

All of the school leaders who spoke to the Review-Journal emphasized that teachers' hard work is critical to success.

Martin, who has been a teacher at the school for 26 years, stressed the importance of staff being on the same page. As a strategist, she works to help new teachers and she said they can all learn from each other.

The meaning of stars

For some, the question also arises as to what significance the star rating has and what significance it has for the members of the school.

Even before entering Crestwood Elementary School's website, a banner warns the viewer: “We are now a 3-star school!”

The school did not respond to a request for an interview, nor did Mackey Middle School or Scherkenbach Elementary School, both of which also gained two stars.

When asked if stars were something she consciously thought about, Rozek laughed.

“Always,” she said.

Mestaz Lyon said that the star increase was a “validation of the hard work.”

“It’s like the front and back of the house,” she said. “As our students learn, our stars will naturally rise.”

Mestaz Lyon said if she were just focusing on stars, she would probably do things a little differently and focus more explicitly on end-of-year testing.

For Martin, stars can put a lot of pressure on test results.

“We’ve always been a great school, but now other people are recognizing it,” Martin said. “There are a lot of things that are out of our control, but we really try to influence the things we can control.”

Contact Katie Futterman at [email protected]. Follow @ktfutts on X.