According to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, only four of 10 of North Kitsap School District schools and programs met Adequate Yearly Progress goals in reading and math proficiency.
As required by No Child Left Behind, or NCLB, Washington state has developed a system to measure whether schools, school districts and the state as a whole have made Adequate Yearly Progress in reading and mathematics achievement. The system is designed to ensure that all public school students in grades 3-8 and 10 are assessed; all student groups reach the state’s proficiency level by 2013-14; and schools and districts that do not meet the state’s adequate yearly progress requirements are identified as needing improvement.
Those passing: Chief Kitsap Academy, Middle School Options, PAL (Parent Assisted Learning), and Special Programs.
Some educators in other districts say there is some confusion about what “failing” letters mean for their child’s school and for their child.
That confusion subsides when parents look a little closer: If 100 percent of students don’t meet state-drafted standards, the entire school flunks, triggering the failure letters and other steps. Now, consider that Kingston High School made U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 list of Best High Schools, ranking 1,561st of 21,000 high schools nationwide and 43rd of 600 high schools in Washington state. And consider that five district schools earned OSPI Washington Achievement Awards this year: Pearson Elementary School, Overall Excellence; North Kitsap High School, High Progress; Vinland Elementary School, High Progress; Kingston High School, Math Growth; Middle School Options Program, Reading Growth.
Here’s the hitch: Earlier this year, Washington became the first state in the nation to have its conditional waiver of No Child Left Behind denied. The problem was that Olympia wouldn’t tie teacher evaluations to student testing.
It’s more nuanced than a teachers’ union uprising against a culture of standardized testing. The required use of poorly vetted tests to measure student achievement and linking those results to teacher performance is unworkable over the short term, however much it creates the illusion of accountability.
“There is widespread acknowledgment that NCLB isn’t working,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn said at the time. “Congress has failed to change the law at the federal level, so states are forced to come up with workarounds.”
Because of the waiver denial, $40 million the state receives from the feds will be freighted with restrictions. The Everett School District, for example, will be forced to set aside 20 percent of its Title I budget to bus students in failing schools to non-failing ones and to provide private tutors for struggling students. Money falls away as disadvantaged children get slammed the hardest.
There’s a simple, two-part remedy: On the state level, fully fund education as the McCleary decision requires. And on the federal level, change NCLB.
