washington state achievement gap
Growing Excellence
Posted on 02. Sep, 2009 by Maggie.
Saturday September 19th the Seattle Alliance of Black School Educators (SABSE) will be hosting a conference at the John Stanford Center for Excellence. Topics will address how to close the achievement gap, with special focus on knowing your child’s performance, your child’s changing graduation requirements, how to prepare your student for college, and how to help measure your school and student’s results.
It will feature keynote speaker Erin Jones, as well as a discussion panel with LEV staff Chris Korsmo, Kelly Munn, Maggie Wilkens and others.
To register, visit the SABSE website or email Ina Howell at ighowell@seattleschools.org.
Hope you can attend!
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Class of 2009 update
Posted on 18. Jun, 2009 by Heather.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn released the spring 10th grade WASL scores today, as well as graduation rates for the Class of 2008. And the news isn’t all bad, although it’s not all good either.
First the good news: 93 percent of the Class of 2009 has passed the Reading and Writing WASLs. Although not a graduation requirement, 73.4 percent of 12th graders have passed the Math WASL, an improvement from previous years.
Now, the bad news: We continue to have a dropout problem in this state — 21.4 percent of the Class of 2008 dropped out of high school. That in and of itself is disappointing, but what is even more depressing is the dropout rate broken out by subgroup. While 18.7 percent of White students dropped out, 29.6 percent of Latino, 32.5 percent of African American and 40.8 percent of Native American students dropped out. This is not OK.
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Achievement gap and WASL reports out
Posted on 13. Jan, 2009 by admin.
The HB2722 Advisory Committee (also known as the African American Achievement Gap Committee) issued it’s final report Monday. In the report, the Committee sets four goals for closing the achievement gap for African American students.
The goals are:
- By 2014, all school districts ensure that teachers, staff and administrators in schools with 20 percent or more African American students are qualified, trained and effectively meeting the academic, cultural and social needs of these students.
- By 2014, provide all African American children, birth to five, with high quality and academically focused early education to prepare them for success in school.
- Increase the on-time and extended graduation rates for African American students to reach parity with the highest-performing demographic group by 2014, and to achieve a 100 percent graduation rate by 2018. All graduates should be work- and college-ready without the need for remediation.
- By 2018, increase the number of African American students entering and completing post-secondary education and/or job training to be at or above parity with the highest-performing demographic group, and to achieve 100 percent participation by 2024.
The WASL Workgroup also released it’s final report and recommendations on the state assessment system. The workgroup makes some long- and short-term recommendations for Washington’s assessment system, namely making the system more informative and responsive.
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Final meeting of HB2722 Advisory Committee
Posted on 11. Dec, 2008 by admin.
Today is the final meeting of the HB2722 Advisory Committee, more commonly referred to as the African American Achievement Gap Committee. The committee is meeting in Olympia to finalize its report and implementation plan.
The committee set four key goals:
- Early learning: By 2014, provide all African-American children, birth to five, with high quality and academically focused early education to prepare them for success in school.
- Graduation rates: Increase the on-time and extended graduation rates for African-American students to reach parity with the highest-performing demographic group by 2014, and to achieve a 100 percent graduation rate by 2018. All graduates should be work and college ready without the need for remediation.
- Success in post-secondary education and job training: By 2018, increase the number of African-American students entering and completing post-secondary education and/or job training to be at or above parity with the highest-performing demographic group, and to achieve 100 percent participation by 2022.
- Teacher quality: By 2014, all school districts ensure that teachers and administrators in schools with 20 percent or more African-American students are qualified, trained and effectively meeting th eacademic, cultural and social needs of these students.
Check back for updates on the meeting, and the committee’s final recommendations.
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Acheivement Gap (HB 2722) meeting recap
Posted on 21. Oct, 2008 by admin.
Last week, the HB 2722 Advisory Committee met in Tacoma to continue discussion of their proposal on closing the African American achievement gap.
The committee’s Best Practices workgroup came up with five goals to be included in the committee’s proposal to the Legislature.
1. Increase the on-time graduation rates of African American students by 10 percent a year, to achieve 100 percent by 2018.
2. Reduce the dropout rate of African American students by 10 percent a year, to eliminate dropouts by 2012.
3. Increase by 50 percent the number of African American students entering higher education or other post-secondary opportunities, without needing remediation, by 2014.
4. Ensure proportional representation of African American students enrolled in all special programs (including special education and gifted programs) by 2014.
5. Provide all 3- to 5-year-old African American children with high-quality, academically focused early childhood educational opportunities by 2018.
Attached to each goal are strategies for meeting the goals. Committee members discussed the goals and made suggestions for change. Some members wanted to increase the urgency of Goal 1 and 2, changing the rate of increase from 10 percent to 25 percent. There was also a push to include in Goal 1 the idea that students not only graduate from high school, but graduate college and work ready.
After discussion of the goals, Edie Harding and Warren Smith from the State Board of Education made a presentation about the accountability plan being developed by the Board. Committee members provided feedback that they want to see more of a “stick” to get districts to improve, rather than having a plan based on voluntary participation.
Finally, Federal Way Superintendent Tom Murphy and former Clover Park Superintendent Doris McEwen Harris presented on leadership in closing the African American achievement gap. Both spoke pointedly about happenings in their districts and how leadership has and will continue to help close the achievement gap.
The committee’s next meeting is November 20th at City University’s Renton Campus.
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African American Achievement Gap Advisory Committee meeting recap
Posted on 10. Sep, 2008 by admin.
Posted by Heather
The African American Achievement Gap Advisory Committee (created by HB 2722) met at UW-Tacoma yesterday. The main attraction of the meeting was Paul Ruiz of The Education Trust. Mr. Ruiz is one of EdTrust’s experts on the achievement gap, and brought along the latest version of “Education Watch: Washington.” You can read the 2006 version here.
Mr. Ruiz made a number of interesting and thought-provoking points during his presentation to the committee. Here are some of the highlights:
- Not all kids learn the same way, but all should learn to “respectable levels.”
- Kids should leave high school with ability to pursue options (college, trades, etc).
- When looking at NAEP and WASL scores, Washington is telling two different stories about proficiency (Of 4th graders, 77 percent passed the 2007 Reading WASL, compared to 37 percent scoring proficient or higher on NAEP).
- The faculty of low-income/high-minority schools should mirror the faculty at affluent schools (meaning our teacher workforce should be more equally distributed).
- We shouldn’t force teachers to teach where they don’t want to go, but the Legislature can set money aside to be used by high-poverty schools as incentives to attract teachers.
- In order to improve student achievement, the Committee (and State) should set goals and then allow districts and schools to figure out to meet those goals.
After a brief Q-and-A session with Mr. Ruiz, the Committee broke for a working lunch to discuss the efforts of its three workgroups.
Next, we heard from Janell Newman (of OSPI) and Dan Barkley about district and school improvement and accountability. Dr. Newman and Mr. Barkley gave a presentation on Washington schools in improvement steps (as defined under No Child Left Behind) and how the State works with some of those schools. In the data recently released by OSPI, we learned 628 schools (of 2,115) are in an improvement step. This is up from 280 schools last year and 180 schools in 2005. And while OSPI only has the resources to help about 100 schools, they were able to make progress with those schools.
The big challenge here is the State cannot intervene in schools in improvement steps unless it is asked. If all goes well with the State Board of Education, Washington will have a new accountability system that gives the State the ability to intervene when schools are struggling. To learn more about the effort of the SBE, click here.
The Committee ended by reviewing its interim report, due next week. These are typically status reports, and the Committee seems on track to meet its final draft deadline in December.
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Live blogging: Achievement Gap Advisory Committee
Posted on 21. Aug, 2008 by admin.
Posted by Heather
After finalizing presentations, each work group reported on its work. First up was Data, with Annie giving an abbreviated version of the presentation she prepared for the work group. Her presentation focused on WASL participation and proficiency rates and SAT scores for African American and White students. She also discussed a slide demonstrating how characteristics impact performance on the Grade 10 Math WASL. Trish added the recommendations of the work group, namely that teachers demonstrate mastery of EALRs and a GMAP-like accountability system for schools be developed. Deborah Wilds asked about 10th grade WASL score data including retakes (it did not but the data is available). Mona asked about a better data system, and the recommendation of a P-16 data system was added.
The Communications & Community Engagement work group was next. They began by presenting on town hall meetings, which will occur. The goals of the town hall meetings are to 1) educate and inform and 2) provide a call and response opportunity. The town hall meetings will be held in Pierce County (October 14 at Evergreen State College, Tacoma campus), King County and Eastern Washington (Spokane and/or Tri-Cities). James Smith asked about including questions about teacher quality in the town hall meetings. Mona asked about including outreach strategies beyond town hall meetings (other outreach methods are included in the communications plan).
Then we heard from the Best Practices work group. The work group has drafted a report which I don’t yet have a copy of. The draft addresses a P-16 framework, early learning, teacher quality, curriculum, and higher education. The work group also wants to meet with district superintendents. The group will also recommend that the definition of basic education be rewritten to require equity for all students, closing the achievement gap be a requirement for accreditation from State Board of Education, an oversight advisory committee be created to monitor the implementation of this group’s plan, and a cultural competency be added to teacher certification requirements.
The committee transitioned into a review of the draft outline of the interim report and gave suggestions to staff on organization.
After some other administrative items, the meeting was adjourned.
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Live blogging: Achievement Gap Advisory Committee
Posted on 21. Aug, 2008 by admin.
Posted by Heather
During lunch, Jennifer Priddy of OSPI gave a presentation on school funding in Washington and the work of the Basic Education Finance Task Force. Jennifer’s presentation is not online yet, but a similar PowerPoint is available here (slides 1-18). Much of Jennifer’s presentation focused on staffing ratios and Learning Assistance Program funding (two big drivers of school funding). The committee seemed to take to heart the funding crunch facing districts and asked some policy questions, specifically about funding and CORE 24.
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Live blogging: Achievement Gap Advisory Committee
Posted on 21. Aug, 2008 by admin.
Posted by Heather
As a data nerd, I joined the Data work group in the hopes of learning more from WSIPP’s Annie Pennucci. Annie, as usual, did not disappoint and presented depressing stats on the achievement gaps in our schools. In math, we see an achievement gap of about 30 percentage points between White and African American students. In reading, the gap is a bit narrower, averaging around 20 percentage points. Annie’s presentation is not yet available online, but you can see similar graphs on our site here. While going through Annie’s presentation, members of the work group (Trish and Rosalund Jenkins) highlighted the need for more/better data tracking in the State.
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LIVE BLOGGING: Achievement Gap Advisory Committee
Posted on 21. Aug, 2008 by admin.
Posted by Heather
After introductions by the chairs of the Achievement Gap Advisory Committee (Trish Millines Dziko and Mona Bailey), the committee heard from CJ, an alumnus of the Seattle MESA program. CJ shared his powerful story of attending Seattle Public Schools, participating in the MESA program and graduating from the University of Washington.
Janet Hayakawa, of the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning, gave some general housekeeping updates. Most interesting was the notice of the inclusion of this committee and impending study in the funding adequacy lawsuit.
The committee will break into work groups for the next hour. The three work groups of the committee are: Best Practices, Data, and Communications & Community Engagement.
