If you only glanced at the headlines late last week, you might surmise that hundreds of schools were sliding backward in Washington.
Hardly.
By a variety of measures, our public school system is performing better than ever. It’s producing high school graduates who are ready to be competitive in college, trade school or work. Reading and writing scores are strong and getting stronger on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. State students continue to lead the nation in SAT (pre-college) test scores. And the State Board of Education recently strengthened graduation requirements so that students will be even better prepared to succeed in the global economy.
Yet there was palpable gloom Thursday with the news that the number of state schools on a federal watch list mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind law had more than doubled. Results in Snohomish County generally mirrored the statewide numbers. Education experts had predicted such an outcome this year, when the law’s standards got tougher. Most of the schools on the watch list are improving, just not quickly enough.
We won’t argue that there’s not room for improvement in our schools. There’s plenty — especially in math. But if a perception of failing schools and a failing system was taken from Thursday’s news, it isn’t accurate.
No Child Left Behind, an ambitious reform adopted with bipartisan support in 2001, has the right goal: ensure that every student, regardless of race or financial status, receives a top-flight education. Its implementation, though, has been flawed, and unintended consequences are undermining the program’s goal. Congress and the next president must get right to work in January fixing those flaws so the goal can be achieved.
The law needs more flexibility. The rigid requirement that every student in every designated subset — including special education students and immigrants who are learning English — progress at the same, preassigned rate is too often unrealistic. Some students can’t be expected to progress at the same rate as others, and schools shouldn’t face sanctions if they’ve made reasonable progress. “Reasonable” needs to be redefined.
Its punitive nature also needs work. Sanctions levied against some schools, especially those with extremely high rates of poverty, may take away funding that’s needed for specialized instruction. Accountability is crucial, but one size doesn’t fit all. A way should be found to restructure schools that are truly broken without sending schools that still have promise into an inevitable death spiral.
Several hundred Washington schools may need improvement, but so does the law that made that judgment.
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