Megan Peterson of the Nevada Department of Education told the commission that the department has been organizing working groups to support the commission’s statutory tasks and has been coordinating with a State Board of Education subcommittee reviewing at-risk metrics.
"We have been working with the at risk subcommittee ... to review the metrics that are currently utilized and make recommendations on potential changes," Peterson said. She told commissioners the subcommittee is reviewing metrics including direct certification, homeless and foster status, and assessment performance bands and is considering alternate ways to construct at-risk counts, such as changes to how quintiles are calculated.
Peterson said the counts the subcommittee pulled so far are "relatively more narrow and fewer than what is funded currently under the grad score." The department also pulled three years of data to analyze trends and said it would share those data points with the commission after the meeting.
She reported contracting work to amend existing procurement documents and said the department is in an evaluation phase for a competency-based education contract that could affect adjusted base funding. The department aims to bring contracting documents to the December Board of Examiners and return implementation findings to the commission around February or March.
Why it matters: the commission’s recommendations and NDE’s work on at-risk measures and enrollment weighting affect how the People-Centered Funding Plan distributes dollars. Peterson emphasized commissioners retain authority to make independent recommendations even if the State Board pursues related changes.
Ending: NDE staff will provide the three-year data sets and follow-up analysis to allow the commission’s working groups to begin scenario planning and to inform the upcoming competency-based funding contract work.