GRANTEE ABSTRACT 

Nevada
 

Overview 

Nevada’s proposal supports the improvement 

and expansion of Pre-K slots across the four 

years of the grant, while providing critical 

wraparound supports for vulnerable families. 

Nevada proposes to improve and expand 

Pre-K programs in “High-Need Communities”, 

starting in Year One (1). Nevada’s experience 

and current quality half-day day Pre-K 

program is a project-ready system prepared 

to expand into full-day high-quality Pre-K. The 

most significant gain in quality structural 

measures to Nevada’s existing Pre-K 

program will be the increased number of 

programs improved from providing instruction 

to children a minimum of 10-hours a week, to 

programs that provide a minimum of 25-hours 

a week or 5-hours a day. This ambitious, yet 

achievable, plan will result in Nevada serving 

a total of 2,990 children in high-quality full-day 

Pre-K programs and the infrastructure to 

sustain Pre-K in Nevada long after the grant 

period. Nevada’s proposal includes a more 

than 50% match increasing to 80% by year 4, 

and will allow for sustainability after the grant 

period. 

Project Objectives and Activities: 

NDE’s proposal to build infrastructure for new 

high-quality Pre-K seats and to improve 

existing half-day seats to full-day, high-quality, 

utilizes a multi-pronged approach. 

Lead Agency 

Nevada Department of Education 

Year 1 Federal Award Amount 

$6,405,860 

Plan Period 

January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018 

Preschool Development Grants will support
 

states to build, develop, and expand voluntary,
 

high-quality preschool programs for children from
 

low- and moderate-income families.
 

There are two types of grants.
 

Development Grants: For states that 

currently serve less than 10 percent of fouryear-olds and have not received a Race to 

the Top – Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC) grant 

Expansion Grants: For states that currently 

serve 10 percent or more of four-year-olds or 

have received a Race to the Top – Early 

Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) grant 

First, NDE has identified sub-grantees from 

LEAs, private entities, non-profits, charter 

schools, and faith-based programs. This will 

allow Nevada to offer a variety of Pre-K seats 

for the most vulnerable children in our 

community, under the 200% FPL, in highneed communities. NDE is proposing to subgrant 75% of grant, 10% higher than the grant 

requirement, as much of the initial 

development process has been completed in 

Nevada. Secondly, NDE will be utilizing 25% 

of grant funds to build the infrastructure and 

capacity by providing monitoring and 

evaluation; professional development to 

This abstract was submitted as part of Nevada’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 1 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DEVELOPMENT GRANTEE: NEVADA 

expand to full-day; training; working as part of 

the team to identify physical space; 

wraparound services; direct support to 

partners; coaching and direct services to build 

a comprehensive Pre-K system. 

The following highlight Nevada’s objectives: 

1.	 Nevada is a WIDA Consortium State 

funded to support linguistically diverse 

students through high-quality 

standards, assessments, research and 

professional development for 

educators. The WIDA Consortium will 

work to link all standards for culturally 

and linguistically diverse students 

across each measure of early learning 

and beyond, for all schools; 

2.	 Crosswalks have been established 

between the Early Learning Guidelines 

and Pre-K Standards, between the 

Pre-K Standards to the Nevada 

Academic Content Standards, and 

Pre-K Standards to Teaching 

Strategies Gold,TM Nevada’s 

Kindergarten Entry Assessment with 

the objective of having one set of 

comprehensive ELD standards for 

children birth through 3rd grade; 

3.	 Nevada’s State Pre-K program has 

longitudinal data since 2002 that 

demonstrates significant student 

achievements – Nevada will be 

including all sites into the data system; 

and 

4.	 Nevada will build upon the existing 

Silver State Tiered Quality Rating and 

Improvement System to align with 

districts and will further align the 

district TQRIS model to the Nevada 

School Performance Framework. 

Project Goals 

Nevada’s priority is to enhance state capacity 

to implement and sustain high-quality Pre-K 

programs. As the first step in building a 

continued Pre-K infrastructure for Nevada 

communities Nevada proposes to increase 

high-quality Pre-K slots by 58% within four (4) 

years and serve approximately 15% of the 

state’s four-year-old population living under 

200% of poverty. In addition, Nevada is 

working to build sustainable workforce 

development; professional development and 

outreach; standardized assessments; 

comprehensive Kindergarten Entry 

Assessment; enhance Early Learning and 

Development Standards, Parent engagement; 

Coordinated linkage for all sites into State’s 

Longitudinal Data System; Implement a 

comprehensive learning system; and support 

for sustaining a statewide P-3 investment. 

High Need Communities to be Served 

under Nevada’s Plan 

Churchill County	 State Public Charter 

School Authority Clark County 

United Way of Community Service 

Southern Nevada Agency 

Washoe County Lyon County 

Nye County 

This abstract was submitted as part of Nevada’s Preschool Development Grant Application. 2