SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
Rory Reid today released his plan for education reform in Nevada and will discuss it at a town hall meeting Tuesday, March 23, at 6:30 p.m. at Lois Allen Elementary School, 5155 McGuffey Road, Sun Valley.
The plan–“The Leading EDGE: Rory Reid’s Plan for Economic Development through Great Education”–is available online at RoryReid.com.
Reid will lead a panel discussion about the importance of transforming Nevada’s education system to build a 21st century economy. Joining him on the panel will be local educators, experts and parents.
The current state of our education system is unacceptable, and we are losing ground every day. Reid’s plan will fundamentally change the way we approach our schools in Nevada, increasing accountability and giving teachers the freedom to teach and principals the tools to lead, while creating vibrant learning environments.
Reid believes that transforming our education system is essential to building a strong economy in Nevada. He says we need to attract dynamic new businesses to our state but they won’t come if we do not have quality schools for children and the ability to educate the workforce needed for 21st century jobs.
Among the proposals in “The Leading EDGE”:
- Giving responsibility to the schools. Principals should make decisions on how to use their resources, making them accountable for the success of their schools. Principals should be leaders, developing their own schedules, managing their own budget and controlling staffing levels to meet the needs of students.
- Making sure standardized test scores aren’t the only measure of success. We need to measure how our educators do in improving student performance on an individual basis, over the course of the school year, instead of just looking at a snapshot of how our students are doing. Grading teachers on the job they do improving students will be fairer and encourage good teachers to teach at schools where they can have the greatest impact.
- Ensuring Nevada has world-class teachers in every classroom. We need to train, attract and retain the best teachers in the country. Teachers should be treated like the professionals they are and given control over curriculum, opportunities for career advancement, incentives for performance and the chance to build professional learning communities.
- Providing a choice for parents. Parents should be able to choose where to send their kids to school. And they should have the tools to measure school performance based on factors such as variety of programs, graduation rates, the percent of graduates who enroll in college and other factors.
- Ending classroom micromanagement by Carson City. We must streamline bureaucracy and give responsibility for Nevada classrooms to those with the expertise to do it: teachers and principals. The governor should be ultimately responsible for our schools’ performance.
Reid is the only candidate for governor to offer solutions for today and a vision for Nevada’s future success–supporting strong schools for a stronger economy. For more information about Reid’s campaign or to download his plans, visit RoryReid.com.
