Nevada advisory council hears data showing low English‑learner proficiency, rising chronic absenteeism

Sarah Russell, a Nevada Department of Education (NDE) staff member, told the English Learner Advisory Council on June 25 that English‑learner enrollment has held "around the 14 and a half percent, like 14.4, 14.3" over the past five years while several troubling performance indicators persist.

Russell presented NDE data showing that grades 3–8 English learners passed the math SBAC at a rate of 12.8% and the English language arts assessment at 14.2%. She said the department has seen a rise in immigrant student enrollment and a growing share of students classified as newcomers under a new cumulative definition that counts months enrolled in U.S. public schools.

"We have seen, in the last several years, a steep increase of newcomers," Russell said, adding that long‑term English learners (students identified as EL more than six years) concentrated in middle and high school have particularly low assessment histories and rising chronic absenteeism.

Council members pressed staff on data limitations and next steps. Jana Moyer asked whether only two students were shown as enrolled in heritage language courses statewide; Russell replied that the field is narrow and that many ELs in heritage language classes are not recorded in that specific data field. When Diana Walker asked about cross‑tabulating IEP status and long‑term EL status, staff said current data stewards have limited ability to produce that cross section and that the department would pursue additional pulls.

Members also discussed teacher endorsements and program models. Russell reported nearly 5,000 ELAD and bilingual endorsements statewide, noting two‑thirds are in Clark County and 95% are in Clark, Washoe and the State Public Charter School Authority. She said about 29.5% of students are in LIEP models that require ELAD or bilingual endorsements and that 55.8% of ELs are in academic language acquisition through content models.

Amelia Thibault, the department’s legislative liaison, told the council that budget context matters: "the economic forum and the interim committee on revenue are saying that we're going to be in a flat budget," and she outlined tradeoffs among statute, regulation and policy for advancing recommendations. She described options ranging from a statutory bill draft request for a bilingual educator pipeline or mandatory professional development (which would likely carry a fiscal note) to policy recommendations such as improving the student dashboard and data validation.

Chair Eric and council members agreed to carry several items forward for further work, including more granular district breakouts, grade‑band analyses, and consideration of WIDA exit criteria as a future agenda item. The council did not take final action on policy BDRs at the meeting but signaled priorities for drafting and future follow‑up.

The council approved the May 20 minutes and the proposed meeting schedule by voice votes and adjourned at 4:55 p.m.