Think tank has its own Wash. schools report card

A conservative think tank on Wednesday introduced a school report card based on statewide test results, but unlike a similar site run by the state of Washington, this one ranks schools by test scores without making any allowances for poverty or diversity.

Diana Cieslak, director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's report card project, said both the state online report card and her organization's Web site are based on results from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

But she thinks the Evergreen Freedom Foundation site is more user friendly and will give parents an easier way to figure out how a school is doing and whether its test performance is getting better or worse over time.

"This is more useful because it comes with conclusions," Cieslak said. The state's report card "offers a lot of numbers and charts and figures and statistics, but it doesn't give you any real way to see how this school is doing compared to other schools."

The new site ranks schools on a 10-point scale, with a 10 meaning no school in Washington is doing a better job on the WASL and zero meaning no school is doing worse. The statewide average score is six.

Cieslak said the rankings are statistically valid and are made without any commentary or point of view.

The state site does have a comparison function that allows people to compare schools it chooses to compare, but does not offer any kind of statewide ranking system. Other organizations, including The Seattle Times guide for Seattle area schools, publish their own school Web sites that allow for comparisons.

So far the foundation's report card only includes information about elementary schools, but Cieslak said her group plans to add middle and high school data and rankings in the fall.

The foundation also plans to update the site to allow people to search by other characteristics such as poverty level so parents and educators can find similar schools that are doing better on the WASL so they can contact them to figure out why they are doing better.

The site was created with an organization that has done something similar with Canadian school test results. The Fraser Institute has online databases for both school and hospital performance.

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On the Net:

Evergreen Freedom Foundation report card: http://www.reportcardwa.com

Washington state report card: http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us

Seattle Times school guide: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/schoolguide/

Fraser Institute: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/reportcards/schoolperformance/