Check out the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's new report on public education in Washington state. Titled What Works? Creating Successful Public Schools, the report 1) contrasts claims and facts about student academic achievement in Washington’s K-12 public schools, 2) shows why today’s popular education reforms are failing, and 3) summarizes proven solutions.
With the teachers' union threatening strikes around the state and the superintendent of public instruction preparing to release the latest WASL scores, this is important information. Everything is not as it seems...
A brief (and I mean brief) summary of each of its three chapters follows in the extended entry.
Chapter One contrasts claims and facts about various measures of student achievement, including the WASL, federal “adequate yearly progress” standards, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the ACT, the state’s academic and curriculum standards, the high school graduation rate, math and science standards, the SAT, two international assessments, and college graduation and remediation rates.
Chapter Two compares Washington’s student achievement trends with the implementation of various education reforms like smaller class sizes, more pay for teachers, increased spending, special programs for at-risk students, increased preschool enrollment, etc.
Chapter Three summarizes proven education reforms that are working in schools, districts and states around the nation, but remain untried in Washington.
I am waiting anxiously for the WASL results. Although my youngest daughter doesn't have to pass it to graduate, I understand it will affect college admission to a certain extent. She is a junior this year, has a 3.9 grade point average and is worried about getting into a 4-year university. She is seriously thinking about going to a community college for her first two years, then transferring. Right now, I am making sure she is taking all required high school classes that she needs to get into a 4-year university.
I learned a long time ago not to trust school administration too much. It’s entirely up to me as the parent to ensure my kids get the quality education they deserve.
If parents want their children to succeed, it is their responsibility to give them the necessary tools to cope at a very early age.
Two, the author reasonably points out that we don't have as many PhD graduates in sciences as other states. My husband, one of those ivory-tower university professors, says that he and his collegues are well aware of this and have activity lobbied the state for years for another 4-year university. This state has more community college seats than any other in the country. This was great when Boeing ruled but that's not the way of the world now. The UC system has just opened yet another school - in Merced - to meet demand. UW and Wash State are stretched to the max - we can't have more graduates if we don't have the room.
But then the report veers into familiar territory - too much money spent, not enough results, bad teacher union (yes, all educational ills can be blamed on one thing - that's simplistic at the least), and we need charters. (Of course, the report doesn't have the courage to come right out and say that but there's enough there to figure it out.) But we in Washington have voted charters down 3 times which speaks to our independence and also the ability to see the lack of any long-term, meaningful results from charter schools.
We do have choice at least in Seattle Public Schools. Again, I agree with the author; why, if we have some great successes (like the John Stanford Int'l School) can't we duplicate them? I know this District well and I just don't get it. I also agree (having grown up on the border of Arizona) that immersion is the way to go for bilingual students. It does them no favor to drag out the process.
Lastly, to CC who is worried about her child's acceptance based on the WASL scores, it doesn't mean anything for her (my son is a junior too and I opted him out of all of it except the math). I have had a number of discussions with admissions officers at UW and Western Washington and they just don't seem to be concerned. Why? They need a baseline of kids who had to take and pass the WASL before they are going to put it into admissions. The only thing it will count for at this point is for the Washington Scholar awards which you need a 3.9 to even be considered. The WASL, in that case, is the least of your worries. Western is asking for the scores but is not using them as a factor. The UW admissions officer said it would be difficult to use the WASL in any meaningful way as they don't have separate admissions forms for in-state and out-of-state students and would not want to be unfair to out-of-state students.