Nevada has the lowest high school graduation rate in the country

To those who promote Las Vegas as the standard to be emulated, beyond the facades of excess, does anyone consider the statistics?


Nevada has the lowest high school graduation rate in the country.


But now a multi-million dollar federal grant is helping one district turn its schools around. Host Michel Martin speaks with a principal who spent last Saturday knocking on the doors of students who dropped out, encouraging them to come back to school.

MARTIN: Neddy Alvarez, I'd like to start with you. Only 43 percent of the students who started your school in 2006 actually graduated with their class in 2010, according to the district's figures. Why do you think that is?

ALVAREZ: There's many reasons that, you know, they drop out. There are reasons - you know, poverty, pregnancy, students not being engaged. They don't see a value, no connection. There's not a value there for them. Some of them have lost of credits in the 9th and 10th grade they lose their credits. They haven't passed their proficiency exams. Then they don't see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. So, they think that, you know, there's no reason for them to return, so they drop out.


TAKAHASHI: Well, there are many different factors as, you know, Neddy just said. There are, you know, factors of poverty. Las Vegas of course was really wracked hard by this recession. It has the highest unemployment rate in the country. You know, recent numbers came out today for the national level, but we were at least five percentage points higher. You know, Las Vegas is the foreclosure and bankruptcy rate capital in the nation.

And so, there are a lot of different factors here that lead to homelessness among students. You know, that give rise to the things such as crime and drugs and alcohol abuse. And a lot of those things, of course, impact family life. You know, families working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. And so, you've got a lot of students here who might be working to help support their families.

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