Pedro Martinez

Two dozen students gathered in a Chaparral High School classroom one recent morning, and judging by the looks on their faces, they may as well have been seated in midday detention rather than a test prep session. They were quiet, glum. A two-mile run followed by 500 push-ups would have been more enjoyable.

After more than a decade of rapid population growth followed by the worst recession in 70 years, the Clark County School District's student enrollment finally has stabilized, officials said.

Antonio Rael takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell.

Superintendent Dwight Jones, School Board President Carolyn Edwards, Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Pedro Martinez and Turnaround Leader Florence Barker recently sat down with reporters Dave Berns and Paul Takahashi to discuss the turnaround schools, the challenges of the upcoming school year and the Sun's ongoing project, "The Turnaround: Inside Clark County Schools." Below are excerpts of that discussion. To hear more of what they said, watch the video online at lasvegassun.com/turnaround.

Hispanics have become state's biggest student group, and they struggle academically. The news last week that Hispanics are Nevada's largest group of students was worrisome. OK, that sounds offensive, and not something you'd expect from me.But here's what I mean: Nevada's achievement gap ? the chasm between Asians and whites and blacks and Hispanics in academic success ? isn't like the narrow strip between the platform and the train. It's more like one of the great canyons of the West.

Five Underperforming schools are targets of extraordinary efforts to boost student achievement

The Clark County School District began following a new model last week to measure student achievement. The growth model will complement other measures of student achievement, such as the federal No Child Left Behind mandate for annual testing, said Pedro Martinez, deputy superintendent of instruction.

District takes measures to raise graduation rate . No matter how it's calculated, the high school graduation rate in Clark County is abysmal.

Nation needs to change the way student achievement is tracked, measured. The Clark County School District last week was placed on a watch list of districts that have failed to achieve standards set under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.The district made the list by failing to make "adequate yearly progress" in two of the past three years based on standardized test scores. That didn't surprise school administrators, who noted that state reading standards went up this year, which caused scores to go down significantly.

The Clark County School District has been placed on a watch list as more schools failed to show enough improvement in test scores, officials said last week.

Decline affects almost every grade, officials say, but promise improvement. Clark County School District officials attributed a significant drop in test scores this year to a more rigorous test and higher proficiency standards.

Report shows numbers much lower than claimed. When Dwight Jones was hired in November to be superintendent of the Clark County School District, he promised honesty and transparency to win over a distrustful and suspicious community.

LIMA (Reuters) - Leftist President-elect Ollanta Humala tried to soothe fears of companies in Peru's vast mining sector on Tuesday, saying he would negotiate taxing their windfall profits instead of imposing a new levy unilaterally.

Fifteen people were killed when a fire engulfed a hotel and a shop in the northern Philippines, police said.

Phillies ace Roy Halladay unanimously wins NL Cy Young, 5th to earn honor in both leagues. Roy Halladay arrived in Philadelphia to a standing ovation, a $60 million contract extension and the billing as baseball's top ace. That was before he threw a single pitch.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Philadelphia's Roy Halladay unanimously won the Cy Young Award as the National League's top pitcher on Tuesday, capping off a sparkling season that included a perfect game and a no-hitter in his playoff debut.

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay was named Tuesday as the unanimous winner of Major League Baseball's National League Cy Young Award for a year that included 21 triumphs and a perfect game.

Aces High: Lincecum vs. Halladay in NLCS opener stirs memories of most-hyped pitchers' duels. The mere mention Tim Lincecum vs. Roy Halladay stirred memories of the most anticipated pitchers' duels of all time ? Koufax vs. Ford, McLain vs. Gibson and Catfish vs. Seaver, to highlight a few over the last 50 years.

Extra points for snoring: Siesta contest aims to promote Spain's endangered tradition. Some clutched pillows or stuffed animals, others fought back giggles as they sought to take a siesta in public ? all in the name of plugging a quintessential Spanish custom endangered by the demands of modern life.

Mets fire manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya. Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and his father Fred, the team's owner, sat side by side and spoke for nearly three-quarters of an hour about responsibility, cultural change and thinking outside the box to bring winning back to an organization that has won little recently.