Nevada funds students at risk of not graduating high school. It isn’t working, study says

Nevada school districts receive millions of dollars from the state each year to support students who are at risk of not graduating from high school. However, those additional funds are not improving the likelihood that at‑risk students will earn a diploma, according to a recent study. WestEd staff found that an artificial intelligence program successfully identified which students faced graduation risks, but the extra dollars directed to those students did not improve their academic outcomes or increase their chances of graduating. The study notes that Nevada limits the at‑risk designation to students scoring in the bottom 20 percent of the Graduation Related Analytic Data (GRAD) measure, which amounted to roughly 93,000 Nevada students in the most recent school year. The AI‑derived score draws on about 70 different measures of student need and performance. During the 2023‑24 and 2024‑25 school years, “no interaction was recovered connected the interaction of at-risk presumption connected world oregon attainment indicators,” said Patrick McClellan, an acquisition concern probe subordinate at WestEd and co‑author of the study with Kelsey Krausen, WestEd’s manager of acquisition finance. The analysis examined graduation rates, chronic absenteeism and standardized test results in math, science, early literacy and English language arts. The state’s Commission on School Funding approved the investigation on Sept. 25. Nevada schools receive about $3,320 in extra per‑pupil funding for each eligible at‑risk student, the study reported, a figure comparable to other states. The Clark County School District has allocated more than $159 million for at‑risk weighted funding through June 30, 2027, according to its budget approved in May. State policy permits at‑risk weighted funds to be used for services such as free pre‑K programs, teacher professional development and reading skills centers. Questions have been raised about the study’s approach. The authors acknowledged limitations, noting that the research covered only two school years and that its findings apply primarily to students near the eligibility cutoff for the at‑risk label. Nevertheless, the study says its results prompt questions about how Nevada distributes at‑risk money and whether those funds should be allowed to combine with other weighted allocations. Nevada provides additional weighted funding for students with various needs, including those who are at‑risk, disabled or whose primary language is not English. Currently, schools that serve students qualifying for multiple weighted categories can only use the money to address one of those needs. A stacked‑funding model would allow students to receive supplemental support for each qualifying condition. McClellan said only about 52,000 of the roughly