More local schools and districts – double the number from last year – are now on a federal watch list because of their scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL. By 2014, every school in the country is expected to have 100 percent of its students show proficiency in reading and math, a goal some leaders call unrealistic.
The Shoreline, Edmonds and Everett School Districts, plus 54 others statewide, did not make “adequate yearly progress”, or AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2008. The lists were released Thursday, Aug. 28.
In addition to 57 districts, 628 state schools are on the list. That’s up from last year, when 280 schools and 30 districts were on the list.
The list is growing, not because students are failing more than in the past, but because rising standards make it tougher for schools to avoid the list, said Nathan Olson, spokesman for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Under the law, schools and districts are judged not just on their overall reading and math test scores from the WASL, but on how students in individual categories perform as well.
A percentage of students classified as low-income, English-language learners, special education and those from five different races or ethnicities must pass the WASL in order for schools to make AYP.
A change in the way the students in those categories are counted has lengthened the list, say local school district leaders.
About 15 percent more students in each school must pass the reading and math WASL than in the year prior to make AYP. The passing rate goal is increased every three years in Washington, and the bar was raised in 2008.
By 2014, all students in the country are expected to show proficiency in reading and math.
“I look at the 100 percent in 2014 – is this a possible goal?” said Debi Ehrlichman, Shoreline School Board member, at a recent board meeting. “It seems crazy.”
There is talk among educators that the 2014 goal is unrealistic, said Debbie Jakala, spokesperson for the Edmonds School District.
This was the second year the Edmonds School District didn’t make AYP as a district and the first year it is in step 1 of improvement. That means officials must write a district improvement plan.
Jakala said schools are making progress but not at the level the federal government has set.
“When the bar is set as a blanket … without question you want people to look beyond the state’s check boxes,” she said.
Officials have been working on the improvement plan already, and it addresses the needs of students based on WASL and AYP data, said Tony Byrd, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.
One school in the district that did not make AYP for two years running faces sanctions: Parents of students at Cedar Valley Community School can send their child to a higher achieving school this year, with free transportation.
But there is good news in Edmonds too: Scriber Lake High School, the district’s alternative high school, came off the list this year after meeting all its federal achievement targets for the second straight year. It is one of only four schools in the state to do so.
The Shoreline School District also did not make AYP as a district this year.
“We are using those results to focus our efforts a little deeper into the data to understand where we need to direct our efforts,” said Jack Monpas-Huber, director of assessment for the Shoreline School District.
The district faces no sanctions this year. It will only face sanctions the second consecutive year it doesn’t meet AYP in the same category (for example reading proficiency or math participation) across all grade levels.
The soonest that could happen, if ever, would be in the fall of the 2010-11 school year, Monpas-Huber said.
The Everett School District did not make AYP for the second year in a row with its low income students.
The district is in step one of district improvement, which means officials must notify parents and write an improvement plan.
Hawthorne Elementary in northeast Everett is the only school in the district that faces sanctions for not making AYP. It is in its third year of improvement, so it must offer families a choice to go elsewhere, must offer supplemental services for low income students and write a new improvement plan.
The only schools that face sanctions for not making AYP are schools that receive federal funding for low-income students called Title 1 funding.
Those schools face escalating sanctions for each year they are in “improvement” status.
Hawthorne lost dozens of students in 2006 after it was placed on the list. Congress is poised to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law in the coming year, and the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is proposing changes to the way the law works.
“There is no question that every single one of our schools has room for improvement,” said Terry Bergeson, state Superintendent of Public Instruction, in a statement. “However, this year the fatal flaws of No Child Left Behind have become abundantly clear. The law has gone too far.”
Herald reporters Kaitlin Manry and Eric Stevick contributed to this story.
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