When Mountlake Terrace High School split into five small schools in fall 2003, fueled by a grant from the Gates Foundation, the change was supposed to achieve several goals.
Among them: increased academic performance and attendance, and reduced discipline problems and drop-out rate.
A look at the numbers over the four years that Terrace has had small schools paints a complex picture.
“Our WASL scores are better by and large than before small schools,” said Greg Schwab, Terrace principal. “Overall, the data shows we still have more work to do.”
From spring 2003 – the last year before small schools began – to spring 2007, some WASL scores climbed and others stayed steady.
In reading, scores jumped from about 56 percent of students meeting standard in spring 2003 to about 83 percent in spring 2007. In writing, the numbers rose from 51 percent meeting standard to 88 percent.
Math scores budged upward, moving from almost 43 percent meeting standard in 2003 to 48 percent in 2007. Science went up from about 31 percent to 35 percent of students meeting standard.
In 2002-03, about 27 percent of Terrace students had above a 3.5 GPA. In 2006-07, that number dropped to about 21 percent.
Between 2002-03 and 2006-07, the number of students with GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5 climbed slightly from almost 21 percent to 24 percent.
The number of students with GPAs of 2.0 to 2.5 stayed steady, at about 14 percent.
Students with less than a 2.0 GPA dropped about half a percent, from 20.1 to 19.4 percent. To complicate the picture, in 2002-03, the school didn’t give F’s, but gave E’s. It now gives F’s.
As for discipline referrals and unexcused absences, the numbers are difficult to interpret.
There were roughly 600 more discipline referrals recorded in 2006-07 than 2002-03, but in 2002-03, the school recorded only certain kinds of discipline referrals, whereas it now records all types.
Also, the school has gotten better at catching violators in discipline and attendance, which distorts the numbers, Schwab said.
As for the on-time graduation rate, the percent of students who graduated in four years in spring 2003 was almost 71 percent.
For the graduating class of 2006, who were in small schools for three years, the on-time graduation rate was about 76 percent. (The numbers for the class of 2007 are not yet available from the state.)
For the class of 2004, the first year of small schools, the on-time graduation rate was 59 percent.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
