The top reported proficiency rate is 85% in English language arts. The lowest is 38% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Smalley James E & a Rae Es
Smalley James E & A Rae Elementary sits on Paradise Hills Drive in the eastern reaches of Henderson, a city that has built itself outward from Las Vegas through decades of master-planned community development. The school is part of the Clark County School District, the vast system that stretches across the Las Vegas Valley and into surrounding communities. Henderson itself is Nevada's second-largest city, a mostly residential place defined by neighborhoods like Green Valley, Anthem, Inspirada, and Cadence, with logistics, manufacturing, and financial services anchoring its economy. The Paradise Hills area where Smalley sits is firmly suburban, car-dependent, and connected to the rest of the valley by major highways.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade with a total enrollment that ranks among the larger elementary populations in its area. Its student body is predominantly white, with a substantial Hispanic presence and smaller shares of students identifying as Asian, Black, or two or more races. Every student at Smalley qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which places the school in the category of serving a uniformly economically disadvantaged population. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not reported, so those population shares remain unknown.
On state assessments, Smalley's academic results in the core subjects are a genuine bright spot. In mathematics, proficiency among tested grades runs well above what most Nevada schools post, and in English language arts the results are stronger still, placing Smalley among the higher-performing elementary schools in the state on those measures. Participation rates are solid across both subjects. The picture shifts in science, where proficiency drops to a level that is considerably lower than the school's own math and reading results. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, since the gap between science and the other subjects is wide. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent an improvement, a plateau, or a recent shift.
No program offerings were listed in the data provided. The school's grade band means it has no graduation rate, no AP or career-technical course access, and no dual-credit pathways, simply because those are secondary-level measures. We looked for information on staffing ratios, discipline incidents, attendance patterns, and civil-rights data and found none reported, so those aspects of school life remain unaddressed here.
Henderson's housing market shapes the context for any family considering this school. The zip code around Smalley carries typical home values above both the Nevada and national benchmarks, though the gap has narrowed slightly as values have dipped modestly year over year. Renting is somewhat more expensive monthly than owning at current mortgage rates, though the difference is modest. The price-to-income ratio sits above the national norm, meaning homes here stretch local incomes more than in many parts of the country. Rents have crept up slightly while home values have eased, a pattern that leaves families weighing purchase decisions in a market that is expensive relative to incomes but not currently surging.
The Clark County School District is enormous and complex, and the district brief returned no specific parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, bond measures, or policy updates. That absence means families should look to the district directly for current information on anything affecting Smalley's operations or feeder patterns.
What emerges from the available data is a school where economically disadvantaged students are producing reading and math proficiency rates that stand out in a positive way, set in a suburban Henderson neighborhood with housing costs that run above state and national medians. The science results are the clearest soft spot. For a family evaluating this school, the strong literacy and numeracy outcomes are the strongest signal, and the science gap is the question most worth asking about on a visit.
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