Nevada Virtual Academy’s underperforming elementary program will close at the end of the 2018-2019 school year, officials from the online charter school said this week. The closure announcement comes on the heels of school ratings released by the Nevada Department of Education earlier this month.

Across the state, only 108 of the 678 schools rated received five stars, the highest designation within the Nevada School Performance Framework, which is the state’s accountability system for public schools. Twenty-nine of the five-star buildings are charter schools, a growing segment of Nevada’s education portfolio that serve roughly 10 percent of the student population.

The Nevada Department of Education released new star ratings for public schools on Friday, showing that roughly 58 percent are meeting or exceeding academic expectations. The release of the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF) information marks the first time since 2014 that public elementary, middle and high schools have received the star ratings.

Only a month into the new academic year, police have investigated seven gun-related incidents at Clark County School District campuses — prompting a deeper look into the burgeoning problem.

Starting next year, a 14-year-old’s pathway to a private education could involve working at a local casino, bank, law firm, nonprofit or other business. Consider it akin to a college work-study program, in which students offset their tuition by logging hours at an on-campus job. Except, in this case, the students are younger — but preparing for college — and the jobs aren’t on campus.

The Nevada Board of Regents voted unanimously on Friday to approve the MGM College Opportunity Program, which will allow employees of the casino company to be reimbursed for the cost of taking courses in online degree programs provided through the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE).

“I figured this was the only way to give my son a better life than I had,” she said about pursuing a degree in spite of the grueling schedule. “If this program could help me for my last semester and possibly offset some of my student loan debt, it would change my life for myself and my son.”

It’s been just over a year since Chancellor Thom Reilly took over at the Nevada System of Higher Education — on the heels of the fraught departure of former Chancellor Dan Klaich. Later this week, regents will be evaluating how Reilly’s done in the first year of his three-year contract.

Nevada students showed continued improvement on state standardized tests — particularly on the math portion — that they took in the spring, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Nevada Department of Education.

A lengthy report released this summer reveals what education advocates knew all along: Schools with newer teachers — often in poorer neighborhoods — are subsidizing schools in wealthier parts of the county. Staffing information from six schools show the disparities that exist across the Las Vegas Valley.

Denis is considering legislative changes to the state-funded scholarship, which was created in 2017 through a bill he sponsored and is being awarded for the first time this school year. It applies only to community colleges, and as a “last-dollar” award, it offers students any remaining money they need to cover tuition after they’ve received other scholarships and grants.

Gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt, lieutenant governor candidate Michael Roberson and attorney general candidate Wes Duncan all threw their support behind the ballot measure during a forum hosted by the Southern Hills Republican Women’s Club in Henderson on Tuesday.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt wants to invest more in career and technical education programs. Laxalt released a plan Tuesday focused on bolstering CTE programs through additional funding, business community partnerships and policy changes that would remove barriers.

For more than an hour, students testified at the third meeting of the school safety task force, which Gov. Brian Sandoval created through an executive order earlier this year. It was the second such listening session for the group.

When Rebecca Gill spoke publicly in January about her #MeToo moment as a graduate student studying political science, she didn’t expect it to make a big splash. After all, the movement credited with empowering victims of sexual harassment or misconduct to speak up was already well underway at that point.

“I’ve been meeting with just about everyone I can meet with and focusing on the fact that I really do truly believe that everybody has the same goal,” she said. “We may have our differences, but everybody has the same goal of helping UNLV succeed and if you all share that goal, then there’s a place to work from.”

"We are finally getting back to pre-Great Recession funding levels when adjusted for inflation, which we can use to improve student success and completion rates throughout Nevada,” Chancellor Thom Reilly said in a statement.

On average, mass shootings in American schools last four to six minutes. And on average, police response times to school shootings take between seven to 12 minutes. Every second shaved off of that gap could mean lives saved and injuries avoided. For Tim Troyer, an Indiana sheriff who spoke at a federal school safety panel in Las Vegas on Thursday, one of the most important and least realized aspects of school security is basic design and layout of school facilities themselves.