According to the federal government’s Adequate Yearly Progress benchmark, 19 schools out of 50 schools in the LWSD are not up to standard. Kathryn Reith, LWSD director of communications, explained that AYP is “an all or nothing designation.” It takes only one subgroup not making enough progress in one subject area for a school or district to be labeled as not making AYP. Two of those subgroups, English Language Learners and special education, are by definition students who have difficulty reaching standard in the same time frame as mainstream students.
“Our vision statement is ‘Every Student Future Ready,’” said Dr. Chip Kimball, superintendent. “I am committed to the importance of working to get every student to standard. But it’s confusing to parents and the community to hear that a school that is worthy of a Washington Achievement Award for overall excellence, has generally high test scores and yet is labeled as not making AYP, which happened to two of our schools this year. The label unfairly characterizes schools that are succeeding admirably for most students as ‘failing’ if one small subgroup misses its target. That’s not a true characterization of the whole school.”
Schools that do not meet AYP targets for any subgroup in a specific area, two years in a row, go into what is called “improvement” status. Only those students that receive Title I funds, however, face specific consequences each year they are “in improvement.” Title I funds are targeted at schools with higher percentages of low-income students.
Redmond Elementary, Einstein Elementary in Redmond and Muir Elementary in Kirkland are the three LWSD schools that receive federal Title I funds and are “in improvement.” Parents of students at these three schools have the choice to send their student(s) to another school in the district that has met AYP.
Redmond Elementary did meet AYP this year. If they meet the standard again this year, the school will exit from “improvement” status.
For the complete list of schools that are “in improvement” and the categories where AYP was not met, visit www.kirklandreporter.com.
Because the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires that 100 percent of all students meet standard by 2014, inevitably, no schools will meet standard.
“Rather than applying arbritary labels, what does make sense is a focus on using data in a school, a classroom and down to the individual student level to understand what is working and where we need to make changes,” said Kimball.
“We have put targeted programs in place using test results to ensure that the students who need real help are getting it. We have data initiatives that will ensure teachers and parents alike know when students are struggling, so they can get support as soon as they need it,” Kimball concluded.
For more information about LWSD, visit www.lwsd.org.
