Improving a school’s rating from one to five stars is a challenging feat. But one Las Vegas school did just that in only two years.
Darnell Elementary School in the northwest valley skyrocketed to a five-star rating last school year, up from the one-star status they earned in the 2023-24 school year. Star ratings are calculated by the Nevada Department of Education based on factors such as assessment results, chronic absenteeism and graduation rates.
Darnell Principal Kim Gray said she arrived at the school just three years ago with two questions: “What do our kids need?” and “What do our teachers need?”
Gray said she found that, for students to thrive, her teachers needed to become more familiar with the high-quality instructional materials they had been provided. By developing her staff’s teaching skills, Gray said her students started seeing results.
“Teaching is an art, and anyone can deliver a curriculum, but these teachers who come to us as professionals have the ability to make sure that they’re implementing strategies, supports and scaffolds for kids that are effective,” Gray said. “Our growth in our proficiency are definitely outcomes of that purposeful work.”
Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students at Darnell Elementary raised their math proficiency rate to 61.1 percent last year, up nearly 22 percentage points from just two years ago. Their English Language Arts proficiency rate made a 21-percentage-point jump to 64.7 percent proficiency in the same timespan.
“From my first day on this campus, I knew this was not a one-star school,” Gray said. “We have the same educators. We are in the same community. Nothing really has changed other than providing everyone what they needed.”
She added: “These teachers have always built incredible relationships with our community, our kids and our parents.”
The academic improvements were a delight to Patsy Darnell, the widow of the elementary school’s namesake, Marshall Darnell, who spent about 30 years as a Clark County School District educator and administrator. A former high school employee in Las Vegas, Patsy Darnell said she has seen how important a child’s elementary school years are.
“The first few years is a foundation that means everything to the student for the rest of their life,” she said. “I’m just so proud of them.”
To celebrate the academic improvements, the College Football Playoff Foundation provided lunch to the school’s staff and awarded first grade teacher Christine O’Neal with $1,000 to buy classroom materials. Gray called O’Neal “one of the heartbeats of the school.”
O’Neal, a Clark County School District employee for 31 years, said her math instruction in recent years has focused on getting kids to be confident in knowing their numbers, while her English instruction centers on phonics. She said she plans on using the award money to purchase prizes for her students to earn.
“I think the success here is because the teachers really all are working together, and we have a very supportive administration. If we didn’t have that, I don’t think we could be as successful,” said O’Neal, who has worked at Darnell Elementary for 12 years.
Gray praised the efforts of Darnell’s teachers and staff over the last two years.
“They’re incredible,” Gray said of her school’s staff. “The work that they put into this is outstanding. I’m incredibly proud of them.”
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
