October 4, 2012
"The best part of the job for McQueary? 'I wake up every morning and know this is what I should be doing,'"
Get to Know Principal Karen Smallwood
For the past three years, Principal Karen Smallwood has worked to make dramatic changes at Duane D. Keller Middle School. She has focused on creating a family environment to help drive student achievement. For example, Principal Smallwood purchased software to help ESL parents learn English and staff learn Spanish. Additionally, her monthly parent meetings and “Data Dinners,” where parents and staff celebrated student successes, have created a welcoming environment for parents to actively engage in their children’s learning.
Principal Smallwood’s school also has sustained high student achievement, in part because of her focus on human capital. Her current talent pipeline includes three Teach For America corps members, but she will soon more than double that number because of the addition of the Scholars Working OverTime (SWOT) program she adopted. Created by Teach For America Alumni Ben Salkowe and Rachel Warbelow (both Las Vegas Valley Corps ‘07), SWOT is an extended-day college prep program that has received community and district support because of its excellent results. Principal Smallwood embraced the innovative program because it would allow her to engage parents in the learning experience and push students to, as she says, “dream bigger than they ever have before.”
Region Timeline
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Clark County consolidates outlying school districts to form the school district that still exists to this day. Less than 20,000 students are enrolled in the newly formed Clark County School District (CCSD).
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School Superintendent Dr. Kenny Guinn begins integrating Clark County Elementary School District Schools.
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The Mirage Hotel & Casino opens. The opening of the casino becomes the catalyst for a population increase in Las Vegas and CCSD. The population growth would continue for the next 10 years.
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Former governor Grant Sawyer and community leader Judi Steele create the Public Education Foundation, which works to provide solutions to the challenges of educating a growing and diverse Southern Nevada population.
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For the first time, the ethnic minority student population in Clark County surpasses the white student population.
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Superintendent Carlos Garcia focuses on the Hispanic dropout rate, which is 50% percent higher than the CCSD average, by promising more ESL teachers in the upcoming year.
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The Clark County School District Board of Trustees appoint Dwight D. Jones to be the superintendent for the district.
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Superintendent Jones releases his vision for CCSD in "A Look Ahead Phase 1: Preliminary Reforms Report” and expresses his goal of having each student “ready by exit.”
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The Nevada Department of Education implements the Nevada Growth Model, which measures how much a student improves in academic performance over time.
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Governor Brian Sandoval appoints Jim Guthrie as Nevada’s Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Overheard
The corps members I work with in Las Vegas span a vast array of cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, but we are unified in our goal to change the lives of the students we serve. Regardless of any of our personal circumstances, this movement is about all individuals working to end educational inequality.
Las Vegas Valley Corps 2009
Press
September 19, 2012
"The current cohort who have joined our community is the largest in the organization’s history here."
September 18, 2012
"For a lot of my students in fifth grade, it was the first time they heard about college," Mosca said. "Now there's no question they're going to go."
