Rotarians Frankie Alvarado, Jeannie Dwyer and Ashley Marshall with Minden Rotary President Graham Rogney
ACHIEVEMENT IS HIGH AT DOUGLAS COUNTY SCHOOLS
Members of the Douglas County School District Administration presented the Minden Rotary Club with an abundance of information showing the schools are widely improving and are among the top in the State. Superintendent Frankie Alvarado, HR Executive Director Jeannie Dwyer, and Ashley Mitchell (Accountability, Grants and Progress Monitoring Manager) shared this year’s evidence based strategy and theme is “Inspiring Hope”. The District has chosen MTSS as the wildly important goal for the 2025-26 school year. Each school has autonomy to choose which component they are focusing on. Most are choosing behavior and academics as wildly important goals. They are developing scoreboards as a tool for accountability.
Achievement growth in the 17 schools in the district is being monitored in several areas. Highlights include:
- Proficiency increased by 7% in English and 3% in Math on the statewide Smarter Balanced testing for Grades 3-8. The data also shows that the district is 3% higher than statewide data at the Elementary, Middle and High School levels for both ELA and Math. Douglas County Schools are first in the state in Math out of 18 counties.
- MAP (Measures of Academic performance) scores for the District are 8% above state levels. Douglas County Schools saw huge increases in Math in Kindergarten (from 48% to 71%) and Grades 3 & 4 (from 45 to 61%)
- Statewide Star Rankings have two schools (Pinion and George Whittell High School) at the highest 5 stars. Both Minden and Zephyr Cove improved from 1 star to 3 stars.
- AP (Advanced Placement) data resulted in 89% passing locally compared to 60% nationally.
In the Elementary schools, the emphasis is on the Science of Reading - an evidence-based approach to improving literacy outcomes. This is the only area that saw a budget increase in the district. The Elementary Schools also offer 26 different elective exploration offerings as well as many enrichment offerings. Resources beyond teachers include full-time counselors, nurses, social workers and school psychologists.
The Middle schools operate in a departmentalized structure and offer honors and accelerated tracks. Technology is integrated in the classrooms and each student has their own device for home use which is monitored for appropriate use. Exploration and elective courses are numerous and include such classes as Foods & Nutrition, Band, Choir, Outdoor Science and Sports Medicine.
The High school programs include Honors, Advanced Placement, Honors, numerous CTE (Career Technical Education) courses, Electives, many sports opportunities, and over 40 clubs.
Finally, school safety is a huge goal for the district with a single point of entry for each school, monthly drills, video surveillance, weapon and vape detectors and 4 SRO’s (School Resource Officers). Expansion of CTE is also a high priority and may soon include a Construction pathway.
