The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in English language arts. The lowest is 6% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Dickens D L Dusty Es
Dickens D L Dusty Elementary sits on Milan Peak Street in North Las Vegas, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Clark County School District. The enrollment is large for an elementary campus, with the student body spread fairly evenly across the grade bands and a pre-kindergarten class that gives families an early entry point. Every student in the building qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which marks this as a school serving a high-poverty community. The racial and ethnic mix leans Hispanic, with a large Black enrollment as well, and smaller white, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and multiracial populations. IEP and English-learner figures were not reported in the data we received, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about special-education and language-support services.
On state assessments, Dusty shows a split picture. In English language arts, the proficiency rate sits at a level that suggests a solid share of students are meeting grade-level expectations, and that is a genuine strength for a school with this economic profile. Math proficiency comes in lower, with fewer than a third of tested students reaching proficient or above, and science results are quite weak, with only a small handful of students clearing that bar. Participation was strong across all three subjects, which means the results reflect nearly the full tested population rather than a skewed sample. No prior-year trend data was available, so we cannot say whether these numbers are improving, holding steady, or slipping. Average scale scores were also missing from the state report. The science result, in particular, is the kind of number a parent may want to look into further with the school, to understand what instruction and resources are in place for fifth-grade science.
North Las Vegas itself is a suburban city in the Las Vegas Valley, built around master-planned communities like Aliante and Eldorado, with large industrial and warehouse-distribution corridors running alongside the residential areas. The built environment is car-dependent, with civic and educational facilities spread across separate campuses rather than concentrated in a traditional downtown. Publicly reported sources note that the city has been among the fastest-growing in the United States, with population climbing steadily over the past two decades and new industrial investment continuing, including a recent concrete-tie production facility and the Apex industrial park. Parks, libraries, and regional trails along the Las Vegas Wash serve as community gathering points, and RTC Transit provides bus service, though daily life is organized around driving.
The housing market around the school reflects that growth arc. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit below the statewide benchmark, and rents are modest relative to much of the metro area. Both home values and rents have drifted down slightly over the past year, which may give families a touch more breathing room, though mortgage rates remain elevated and the price-to-income ratio is steep for the region. For a family weighing a move into the attendance zone, the cost of ownership is meaningfully higher than renting, and the gap between a monthly mortgage payment and rent is wide enough that renting near the school is the more affordable path for most households.
We searched for recent parent-relevant changes in the Clark County School District, such as policy shifts, curriculum updates, or bond measures, but found little that spoke directly to classroom-level impact, so we left that out rather than speculate. The district is the fifth-largest in the country, operating schools across the entire Las Vegas Valley, which means Dusty is part of a very large system with broad resources but also the distance and bureaucracy that come with scale.
Taken together, Dusty is a large, high-poverty elementary school in a fast-growing suburban city, doing better in literacy than in math or science. A family considering this school should weigh the strong ELA results and the near-universal participation against the science and math shortfalls, and should ask the school directly about supports for students with disabilities and English learners, since those figures were not available to us.
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