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Class of 2008 rises to the challenge
June 4, 2008, 5:28 pm
Filed under: K-12 data | Tags: ,

Posted by Heather

 

 

Yesterday, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson gave an update on the Class of 2008, and fortunately the news is much better than the train wreck many predicted. Of the 67,000 or so high school seniors in the state, more than 61,000 (or 91 percent) have passed the reading and writing WASL exams or the equivalent. But keep in mind, this passing rate does not include the 9,000+ students who have dropped out or the 9,500+ students who have been reclassified into other grades.

 

Below are breakdowns of passing rates by ethnic groups and special programs. The gap between ethnic groups is shrinking (now less than 9 percent); however the numbers are less encouraging for English language learner and special education students.

 

What the WASL passing rates don’t show are the number of seniors who lack enough credits to graduate. In a 13-district sample study conducted by OSPI, 62.5 percent of the 10,000+ students in December 2007 were on track in credits and passed both required WASL exams. Another 5.3 percent of students were on track with credits but had not passed both WASL exams.

 

Dr. Bergeson also spoke to dropout statistics for the Class of 2008. We don’t yet, and won’t until the fall/winter, have a clear picture of the number of kids in the Class of 2008 who have dropped out of high school. And while any dropout rate is troublesome, it looks like the cohort dropout rate for the Class of 2008 will either hold steady with or be lower than rates for the past few cohorts (average of 21 percent over the last four years). So despite the anticipated panic, the WASL as graduation requirement is not causing students to mass exodus from schools.

 

Below is a graphical look at the mobility of the Class of 2008, from OSPI.

 

 

At the end of her presentation, Dr. Bergeson talked about next steps to drive further student achievement. Along with plans to strengthen options for English language learners and struggling students, she pointedly called out the need for an increase in funding in basic education. This is a rather timely assertion as the Basic Education Finance Task Force will hear proposals from various organizations, LEV included, next week in Olympia. 

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Better than bad does not equal good
April 4, 2008, 3:42 pm
Filed under: K-12 data | Tags: ,

Posted by Heather

Two interesting reports were released this week: One on high school graduation rates for urban districts (including Seattle) and the other on state writing exam scores.

Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation, published by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, ranks Seattle seventh in graduation rates among the 50 largest cities with a graduation rate of 67.6 percent (the 50-city average is 51.8 percent). It should be noted this graduation rate does not represent a specific class’ graduation rate, or the graduation rate of districts over a specific time frame. Instead, it is an estimation based on the continuation rates of high school students between the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years. This probably explains why the report’s graduation rate is higher than the graduation rate Seattle Public Schools reported to the state. Here are the graduation rates for Seattle Public Schools, as reported through the Washington State Report Card, for the last five years available:

 

Academic Year

On-Time Graduation Rate

2001-02

53.2%

2002-03

50.1%

2003-04

62.6%

2004-05

57.6%

2005-06

44.7%

So what does this mean? The difference between the EPERC report and Washington’s report card highlight a real need for not only a uniform system of calculating graduation rates, but also a more accurate system to track students. Fortunately, all students in Washington’s public schools now have a unique student identifier, allowing the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to accurately track students and calculate graduation and dropout rates. Before, OSPI could not always identify who transferred out of the system and who dropped out, affecting graduation rates. For the Class of 2008, we will hopefully have truly accurate data to show how many of Washington’s (and Seattle’s) students are graduating on time.

In The Nations Report Card: Writing 2007, published by the National Center for Education Statistics, Washington comes out average, again. In an effort to make it sound like we are doing better than we are, references are made to the 88 percent of Washington 8th graders who scored at Basic or above. That’s like patting ourselves on the back for having 88 percent of 8th graders earn D’s or higher. The real proof of how we are doing as a state is the percentage of students who scored Proficient or higher-only 35 percent of 8th graders. Ten states performed better than Washington when comparing Proficient or higher scores, including Connecticut (53 percent), Massachusetts (45 percent) and New Jersey (56 percent). Here, again, we see Washington achieving average results with below average resources. Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey all spend more per pupil than Washington (upwards of $2,500 more), and offer higher average teacher salaries (upwards of $11,000 more).

While Washington’s system fares better than most states (and Seattle’s than other large cities), that doesn’t mean it’s “good.”

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