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Thursday, September 02, 2010
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| 5/12/2009 5:01:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article
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| Ocean Park School |
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Are local elementary schools up to snuff?
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation rates some local schools below average
Observer staff report
LONG BEACH - A new ranking of Washington's public grade schools finds need for improvement in Pacific County.
The conservative/libertarian Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Olympia has just released its "Report Card on Washington State's Elementary Schools 2009." The report card ranks 1,130 kindergarten through sixth-grade schools based on Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) results from 2007-08 and earlier years.
Pacific County's highest-rated school was Naselle, which scored 7.3 out of 10, compared to 5.9 in 2004 and a five-year score of 6.4. A rating of 6.0 is considered average. The 7.3 was good enough for a 32-way tie for 227th in the state, or 28th place after considering the large number of other multi-way ties. This is a big improvement from Naselle's 422nd rating over the last five years. These results were enough to earn Naselle the county's only assessment as being a grade school on an upward trend, one of 123 in Washington that have "improved significantly" since 2004.
Raymond Elementary was second in the county, with a statewide rank of 372 out of 1,130, up from 422 in the last five years. Raymond earned a rating of 6.7 out of 10 on the 2008 report card, up from 5.0 in 2004.
Long Beach Elementary ranked 615th in the state and has shown steady progress in improving its test scores in recent years to now rank as third in the county. There wasn't enough data for a full five-year comparison, but Long Beach's rating climbed from 5.5 in 2006, to 5.7 in 2007 and 5.8 in 2008.
Willapa Valley's grade school in Menlo ranked 678th in the state, based on a sharp drop in its overall rating to 5.6 out of 10 in 2008, down from 6.7 in 2007 and 7.0 in 2005. WASL critics have noted that these year-to-year comparisons can give a false impression of a school's quality, as a relatively small number of poor test scores from one year's class can make it seem like the whole school is slipping. Evergreen Freedom Foundation concedes "smaller schools can be significantly affected either for better or worse by the results of a small number of students."
South Bend's Chancey Davis Grade School came in 894th in the state, with a 2008 overall rating of 4.6, the same rating it has managed since 2006. South Bend's statewide rank has slipped from 750th over the past five years.
Ocean Park came in 1,002nd in the state, with its rating falling to 3.8 in 2008, down from 4.9 in 2007 and 5.6 in 2006.
Evergreen contracted with Fraser Institute in Vancouver, B.C., for preparation of the report card, which Fraser has done in Canada for several years. It will release report cards on Washington's middle and high schools this fall.
Evergreen denies that its report card is just a way to distinguish the "have" schools from the "have not" schools. "While it is sometimes easier for schools to successfully teach children who enjoy many advantages at home, each year the report cards identify many schools with students that have very good results even though they serve students whose families do not have a high income level or high level of parental education."
Nevertheless, the 15 schools that managed to earn a perfect score of 10 out of 10 are clearly clustered in high-rent areas like the Seattle suburbs of Mercer Island and Redmond, while many of the lowest-rated schools are on Indian reservations and other places where people are financially struggling.
The report card tries to acknowledge this, by showing how many of each school's students are from low-income or ethnic-minority families. Naselle has one of the county's lower percentages of students from low-income families, 51.3 percent, and is 89.8 percent white and 6.3 percent Hispanic. Naselle's number of WASL results below state standard was 30.3 percent in 2008.
In Raymond, the low-income percentage is 61.3 percent, whites account for 67.5 percent of the student body and Hispanics for 20.5 percent. Raymond's number of WASL results below state standard was 32.3 percent in 2008.
In Long Beach, the low-income percentage is 58 percent, whites account for 79.2 percent of the student body and Hispanics for 11.7 percent. Long Beach's number of WASL results below state standard was 39.6 percent in 2008.
In Willapa Valley, the low-income percentage is 48.4 percent, whites account for 85.4 percent of the student body and Asians 6.6 percent. Willapa's number of WASL results below state standard was 42.1 percent in 2008.
In South Bend, the low-income percentage is 62.4 percent, whites account for 50.5 percent of the student body and Hispanics for 32.9 percent. South Bend's number of WASL results below state standard was 50.7 percent in 2008.
In Ocean Park, the low-income percentage is highest in the county at 71 percent, whites account for 81.7 percent of the student body and Hispanics for 14.6 percent. Ocean Park's number of WASL results below state standard was 55.3 percent in 2008.
Compared to Ocean Park, only about 90 grade schools in Western Washington serve higher percentages of low-income students. One school, in Tacoma, has a percentage of 95.8. Evergreen notes that of the 282 schools serving the highest proportion of low-income families, just 19 achieved a rating of average or above.
For the complete report card and a detailed analysis of WASL test results, see (http://tinyurl.com/qp2yvr).
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Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Article comment by:
Suzanne Knutzen
The answer to question #16 is very enlightening,
and it should be printed in the paper. Statistically, this is only fair information for the public to understand:
The frequently asked question is this:
Is it true that in small schools just a couple of poor exam results can negatively affect the school's overall rating?
A: Yes, smaller schools can be significantly affected either for better or worse by the results of a small number of students. Particularly when considering the performance of smaller schools, you should consider all the historical results so that you have a better picture of how the school has performed over time.
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