Washoe Country School District
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Annual Reports and Publications
Report to the Community: Achievement and Accountability
Designed to inform and educate citizens about who we are and what we do. The report is an informative booklet that details both the success WCSD has achieved and the challenges it faces in educating the county's 63,000 kindergarten through high school students.
District Improvement Plan
Any school or district not meeting one or more of its goals under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) must develop and publish an improvement plan designed to address the specific reason(s) for not meeting the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets. Dramatic increases in the number of two student populations critical to accountability, special education and English Language Learners (ELL), have caused the Washoe County School District (WCSD) staff to seek various strategies related to how these students learn as well as best practices with regard to how special education and ELL student achievement can be improved.
The following plan reflects a clear and critical need. Since 1994, there has been a 247% increase in the number of Hispanic students and an increase of 435% in the number of students whose second language is English. The number of special education students has also increased since 1994 by 104%.
Achievement for ELL and special education students did not meet State standards by the annual measurable objective for the 2005-2006 school year. These are the reasons that the focus of this District Improvement Plan pays particular attention to two groups: ELL students and special education students.
Blueprint for Student Success
Prior to the Blueprint for Success, administrators and teachers worked from various planning documents including a mission statement, beliefs, parameters, and a strategic plan adopted by the Trustees in 1997 and achievement goals originally adopted in 1999. In December 2003, the Trustees re-affirmed the need for a District master plan for improvement that incorporates the vision of past documents and requirements of NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and state legislation to ensure that all children do learn and that all children are successful. We have an obligation to aggressively mobilize all District resources to ensure rich educational environments, well-prepared teachers, and effective student support strategies.
District Wide Accountability Report
During the 1993 session, the Nevada State Legislature passed a School Accountability bill (NRS 385.347 revised) requiring all school districts in Nevada to inform the public on the performance of public schools throughout the state. The Legislature passed further revisions of the School Accountability Law during the 1995 session (SB 386), the 1997 session (Nevada Education Reform Act, SB 482), the 1999 session (SB 70), the 2001 session (SB 165), and the 2003 special session (SB 1).
Recently, the federal government has become involved in school accountability with the passage in 2001 of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (HR 1). This law provides a school accountability model that applies to public education in all 50 states and includes accountability reports to the public with a set of required elements. Nevada's revised accountability law (SB 1) includes these NCLB reporting elements and every other aspect of the NCLB model.
If you are looking for individual school reports, please click here to go to the SCHOOLS section of the website, choose the individual school and scroll down to that school's Accountability Report.
Fast Facts
Fast Facts is a yearly publication of WCSD information. This information includes demographic information, total enrollment counts, dropout rates and more.
Official Count Day for 2008-09
Each Nevada school district is required to conduct an annual official enrollment on the fourth Friday of the school year. The following enrollment numbers represent the official report of enrollment for the current school year. It represents the number of students officially enrolled on September 19, 2008. Current enrollment numbers will vary.
WCSD Data Profiles
For the past nine years, the Washoe county School District, Truckee Meadows Community College and the University of Nevada, Reno have worked in concert through the Education Alliance (formerly Education Collaborative) of Washoe County to produce the Washoe K-16 Data Profile (formerly called the High School Data Profile). The Nevada Department of Education and the Nevada System of Higher Education have also participated in this effort. The Data Profile is the collection and presentation of data about Washoe County School District high school students and their matriculation into college, with social emphasis on the graduates who attend the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College. Through this effort, we hope to identify factors that can increase the success of our student as they proceed from high school to post-secondary education.
