The top reported proficiency rate is 16% in English language arts. The lowest is 8% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Bailey Charter School
Bailey Charter School sits on Gentry Way in Reno, serving kindergarten through sixth grade. It is a small school by any measure, with roughly two classrooms per grade level and a single class at the top grade. The enrollment is overwhelmingly Hispanic, and every student in the building qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. For a parent considering this school, those two facts together tell you something about the community it serves: this is a school educating children from working-class families, many of them likely from Spanish-speaking households, in a part of Reno where household incomes run well below what the broader metro enjoys.
Academically, the most recent state assessment results are sobering. In math, the proficiency rate among tested students in grades three through eight is very low, with only a handful of students reaching the proficient threshold. English language arts results are somewhat higher but still well below what most parents would hope to see, with roughly one in six tested students demonstrating proficiency. Science results were suppressed, likely because so few students were tested in that subject at this school. Participation rates were solid, so the picture is not distorted by large numbers of opt-outs. These numbers are the school's own results on Nevada's SBAC assessments. A parent may want to look into this further with the school directly, asking what instructional approaches are being used, what supports are in place, and how leadership plans to move these outcomes. The data we have does not include prior-year results, so there is no way to tell from the available information whether the school is improving, holding steady, or losing ground.
Several categories of information that would help a parent round out the picture are simply missing. No individualized education program data was reported, so the share of students receiving special education services is unknown. English learner figures are also absent. There is no information on attendance, discipline, staffing ratios, or course offerings beyond the standard elementary curriculum. No neighbor comparison was provided, so the school cannot be positioned against nearby charters or traditional public schools in Washoe County. We looked for program offerings and found none listed, so we left that out rather than guess.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. That is expected for a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school and reflects nothing about its quality.
Reno itself is a city in the middle of a long transformation. Publicly reported sources describe it as a mid-sized city whose downtown core still revolves around casino resorts and tourism, anchored by the Truckee River and landmarks like the Reno Arch. The broader metro has absorbed major investments from companies such as Tesla, Amazon, Panasonic, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, shifting parts of the regional economy toward logistics, manufacturing, and technology. The University of Nevada, Reno adds a large academic and institutional presence. Most of the city outside the downtown core is car-dependent and sprawling, which means getting to and from school is likely a driving decision for most families.
Housing in the school's zip code is moderately priced by Reno standards but above the national benchmark. Typical home values sit below the state median, and rents are in a range that a family earning the area's median income could manage, with rent absorbing roughly a third of a typical household's earnings. Buying is considerably more expensive than renting at current mortgage rates, which is a pattern seen across much of the region. Home values in this zip code have dipped slightly over the past year, while rents have crept upward.
What this school appears to be is a small, community-focused charter serving a predominantly Hispanic, economically disadvantaged population in a growing but uneven Reno neighborhood. The academic results are weak in the most recent year, and the available data does not explain why. A family whose priority is a small, familiar environment with a shared cultural background among peers might find the setting appealing, but the proficiency numbers warrant serious questions before enrolling.
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