New state accountability results show mixed performance among six Fernley and Silver Stage schools, with both high schools gaining a star while other schools remained steady or lost ground.
The Nevada Department of Education recently released its 2025-26 school accountability results, including star ratings for individual schools and Nevada’s first performance ratings for school districts.
Among the six Fernley and Silver Stage schools reviewed by The Fernley Reporter, Fernley High School improved from two stars to three, while Silver Stage High School moved from three stars to four. Silver Stage Middle School dropped from two stars to one. Fernley Intermediate School remained at one star despite making the largest index-score gain among the six schools. Fernley Elementary and Silver Stage Elementary remained at two stars.
What Do the Stars Mean? — A school’s star rating is not the percentage of students who passed state tests. Nevada combines several measures into an index score from 1 to 100, which determines a school’s rating of one to five stars. Elementary and middle school students take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessments, while high school juniors take the ACT, making direct comparisons between grade levels difficult.
Academic proficiency and student growth are important parts of elementary and middle school ratings. High school ratings also include graduation and college and career readiness. Despite those differences, all six Fernley and Silver Stage schools reported proficiency rates below the statewide rates of 45.2% in English language arts and 36.2% in mathematics.
Fernley Schools — Fernley High School earned three stars with an index score of 56, up 6.5 points from the previous year. The school also reported an 87.1% four-year graduation rate.
Fernley Intermediate showed the largest gain among the six schools. Although it remained at one star, its adjusted index increased 12.7 points to 26.3 — just 0.7 points short of the two-star threshold. Fernley Elementary remained at two stars, but its index increased 8.5 points to 36.
Silver Stage Schools — Silver Stage High School moved from three stars to four, with its adjusted index increasing 2.3 points to 70. The school reported a four-year graduation rate of 93.9%.
Silver Stage Middle School’s adjusted index fell 10 points to 25, dropping the school from two stars to one. Silver Stage Elementary remained at two stars, with its adjusted index declining 1.2 points to 33.3.
What Do the Improvement Designations Mean? — Three of the six schools also carry federal school-improvement designations, which are separate from Nevada’s star ratings and can identify concerns an overall rating may not show.
Fernley High is designated for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI), which identifies a school where a particular group of students needs additional support. A school can therefore improve its overall star rating while still being identified for targeted improvement.
Fernley Intermediate is designated for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI), which calls for broader schoolwide improvement. Silver Stage Middle is designated for Additional Targeted Support and Improvement, which is tied to low performance among a particular student group.
Graduation, Proficiency and Attendance — Fernley High reported an 87.1% four-year graduation rate, while 17.3% of students met the state mathematics proficiency standard. Silver Stage High reported a 93.9% graduation rate, while 17% met the math standard.
Graduation rates and state test scores answer different questions. A student may earn enough credits to graduate without scoring proficient on a state assessment, which helps explain how a school can have a high graduation rate and a much lower math proficiency rate.
Chronic absenteeism also varied among the six schools. The Nevada Report Card’s At a Glance data show rates ranging from 36.1% at Silver Stage Elementary to 49.1% at Silver Stage High. Fernley’s three schools ranged from 42.1% to 44.3%. The state defines chronic absenteeism as missing at least 10% of the school year.
Lyon County Receives Level 2 Rating — Lyon County School District received an overall Level 2 rating, the middle of three levels under the new Nevada District Performance Framework. The district received Level 2 ratings for both school outcomes and district support.
District support looks at factors including qualified teachers, equitable staffing, instructional materials, college and career readiness opportunities, and financial stability.
Districtwide, Lyon County reduced the number of one- and two-star schools from 16 to 14. Teacher coverage increased slightly, from 82.2% to 82.5%. Those figures apply to the entire Lyon County School District, not specifically to Fernley and Silver Stage.
The first year of district ratings establishes a baseline and carries no formal accountability consequences.
Comment
Comments