628 WA schools do not make adequate progress

State education officials reported Thursday 628 schools and 57 districts are failing to meet federal guidelines for adequate yearly progress - double the number of schools and districts that missed the mark in 2007.

Schools are judged on 37 categories of achievement each year thanks to the federal No Child Left Behind law. Of the 390 schools in the first stage of improvement this year, about 100 of them missed adequate yearly progress in just one or two categories.

The schools and districts made the list in this preliminary report to the federal government because students have done poorly on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning exams for two years in a row. They can earn their way off the list by making adequate progress two years in a row.

Because of low test scores in at least one category - for example, Asian students on the 4th grade reading test - these schools and districts failed to meet the "adequate yearly progress" goals the state of Washington set for itself, as required by the No Child Left Behind law.

The federal law says all students in every school in the nation must be proficient in reading and math by 2014. The state of Washington measures its progress with the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, on-time graduation rates and school attendance.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson urged people to look beyond the label of "needs improvement" before deciding that a school is failing.

"They're making an assumption that one marker is telling the story of the school and it is not," she said. "If a school is on the list, don't assume that school is failing. Look underneath that signal and see the progress they are making."

Every state that receives federal education money is required to release this improvement list each August. Schools and districts on the list are required to notify parents of their status at the start of the school year.

Each year the bar is raised a little higher, as states are required to work toward the 2014 goal. State education officials warned last year that in 2008 the goals would make a bigger leap than usual. They expected the list of schools missing the mark to be longer.

Last year, the "needs improvement" list included 281 Washington schools and 30 of the state's 296 districts, a slight increase over the 2006 list.

Four schools made it off the "needs improvement" list this year: McKinley Elementary in Tacoma, Compass High School in Grandview, Visions of the Seamar Youth Center in Bellingham and Scriber Lake High School in Edmonds.

In addition to the four schools that made it off the list this year, 28 schools made adequate progress in one of the past two years, but not both.

Bergeson says the federal law is unfair to schools that are making progress but not enough to reach the 37 achievement goals.

"There is wonderful, heroic work going on in our schools, and I want parents and other members of our communities to know that they should look far beyond a school's AYP status to determine the real quality of education that is being delivered there," Bergeson said.

She said accountability is needed, but it must be fair and logical. When it's not, schools, students and parents all become discouraged and may even stop trying to improve.

"As we try to continue to make gains here, this law gets in our way," Bergeson said, adding she would keep pushing for changes in the federal law and continue to encourage schools that are making progress by handing out "schools of distinction" awards.

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On the Net:

School Improvement List: http://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/pressreleases2008/AYP/SchoolPrelimreport 8-28.pdf

District Improvement List:

http://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/pressreleases2008/AYP/DistrictPrelimrepo rt8-28.pdf