StudentsFirst, a national organization that assesses state’s education performance, just released their annual report showing each state’s ranking for education. Nevada actually ranked 21st in the nation, which is an improvement over years past. This is all according to an article released by the Las Vegas Review Journal.

However, while Nevada ranked 21st, they still received a D grade because of many of the states longstanding policies that have a tendency to put adults and teachers before the students.

According to Jim Guthrie, Nevada State Superintendent, limited school choices is one of several reasons that Nevada students have a harder time excelling. These low scores are just one of the reasons that both Guthrie and Gov. Brian Sandoval have advocated for sweeping reforms in education throughout the state.

The Governor actually signed four new reform bills into place that include revamping of teacher evaluations and consequences for unsatisfactory evaluations. One of the other reforms includes changing a 45-year-old formula used for determining the per-student funding in each of Nevada’s counties. The LVRJ article stated that Esmeralda Country receives more than $17,000 per student while Clark County only receives about a one-third of that.

There have also been two new bills introduced for 2013 that include giving parents the ability to fire school administration and shut down low-performing schools.