Eureka County is among the few districts in the state that can boast a 100 percent graduation rate. It also has some of the highest reading and math scores as well as the state's highest average ACT score. With fewer than 300 students, the Eureka County School District is among the smallest and most remote in the state. Despite its size, students there out-perform their peers in larger districts. KUNR’s Paul Boger spoke with Eureka’s Superintendent Dan Wold to learn more about the district’s success and challenges.
"We have over half of our kids every year that graduate as seniors started here as kindergartners," says Wold. "That makes a big difference when you consider that in Clark County, 43 percent of middle schoolers do not finish at the same middle school they started."
Wold says two major challenges are recruiting developing teachers to a remote district, though many veteran educators do apply, and the trend of using online schools, which he says, can leave students credit-deficient.