Kamiak High School freshman Rhya Milici began classes early Wednesday knowing she will need to pass rigorous 10th-grade state exams to graduate.
She’s not the only one feeling the pressure.
Entire schools, districts and states are under an accountability microscope of their own known as the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The Class of 2008 will be the first required by the state to pass Washington Assessment of Student Learning reading, writing and math exams to graduate.
“I think it’s good because it’s a challenge, but it’s also kind of scary that you can’t graduate unless you pass it,” Milici said.
On Wednesday, fewer schools in Snohomish County and across the state landed on a federal list for not making sufficient academic progress than last year.
In 2003, 42 schools in Snohomish County and two in Island County landed on the federal watch list. That number dropped to 32 schools this year in Snohomish County and one in Island County.
However, the trend could be short-lived under the federal requirements, which will get tougher next year, education leaders warn.
“It will be a lot more difficult,” said Carol Whitehead, superintendent of the Everett School District.
The new federal law requires schools, districts and states to make “adequate yearly progress” by improving test scores on the WASL tests. It also monitors several other areas, such as graduation rates or cutting down on unexcused student absences.
This year, 16 percent of Washington schools failed to make adequate yearly progress under the law. Of those, 166 schools did not make adequate progress for two years in a row. They could face consequences, starting with being forced to pay for students’ transportation if they want to transfer to another school.
A change in the law keeping more schools off the watch list this year is a federal decision to allow the state to bring scores up significantly over three years rather than incrementally each year.
Next year, schools will need to reach higher targets.
“The number of schools deemed failing has decreased this year, but it’s only a matter of time before our state’s schools will face sanctions under the so-called No Child Left Behind Act,” said Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association.
Among other things, the law requires all students to make yearly progress to the point that all of them meet or exceed their state’s standards for reading and math by the 2013-14 school year.
Edmonds-Woodway High School landed on the federal list this year because special education students didn’t score high enough on the 10th-grade reading and math exams.
With 45 special education students, with widely varying needs and abilities, Edmonds-Woodway was the only high school in the district with enough students in that category to be judged under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Some school districts believe they may have been erroneously placed on the federal list this year because their absences were wrongly reported.
For instance, at Sultan Middle School, an apparent clerical error in a report made to the state indicates that unexcused absences quadrupled last year.
“We know that isn’t the case,” said Cec Sparling, director of learning improvement in the Sultan district.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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