Nevada Score Card

Nevada has very low educational attainment. It ties for the fifth lowest state in the percentage of adults with a bachelor's degree, and only Mississippi and Arkansas have lower percentages of adults with graduate degrees. The state ranks 49th in the college participation rate of low-income students, ahead of only Alaska. Nevada has an 11 percent high school dropout rate, the highest in the country, but the state is expected to have a 48 percent increase in high school graduates from 2007–08 to 2017–18, making it the second fastest growing state in the country. As a state, Nevada has very high rates of students attending four-year institutions (83 percent) and, of its postsecondary students, attending a public institution (90 percent). Yet, only 37.4 percent of freshmen enrolling at four-year institutions graduate in six years or less, second lowest among all states.

Nevada's higher education accountability system's strengths are:

• Comparing data across time and/or against peers.

Nevada's higher education accountability system needs work in:

• Formally linking budgetary decisions to the performance of state postsecondary institutions.
• Proactively informing prospective students, parents, and the general public about the performance of state colleges and universities.