BISD gets an ‘F’ from feds

Published 7:00 pm Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Bainbridge Island School District may boast students who far exceed state averages on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and excel on college entry examinations, but it received a failing grade this week from the federal government.

Shortly after WASL, SAT and ACT test results were released, Bainbridge was one of 57 Washington school districts, encompassing 628 schools, informed that they were falling short of Adequate Yearly Progress standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Administered through the U.S. Department of Education, the program dictates that test results in state reading and math assessments must improve each year for 45 subgroups of students, with the goal of 100 percent of students showing proficiency in those subjects by 2014. Subgroups include students from low-income families, students from different ethnic groups and students with disabilities.

This year Bainbridge met 43 of the 45 AYP benchmarks, and students well exceeded requirements in most areas. Both of the areas it failed in related to students grades six through eight who are enrolled in special education programs.

One of the factors Bainbridge administrators pointed to as a reason for the missing the standard, was that AYP benchmarks in Washington jumped significantly in 2008. This year, 65 percent of students with disabilities were required to pass the WASL for their grade level.

Clayton Mork, assistant superintendent for instructional support, told the school board Thursday night that the district wants its students with disabilities to succeed at a high level but the WASL requirement was unreasonable.

He said one of the criteria for students enrolling in special education is that they test several grades below their age group, so it is illogical to require those students to pass the WASL for their grade.

“It’s just not fair for schools and districts,” Mork said.

Making it harder, he said, is the requirement that students with disabilities must take the written test unless they are physically unable. Only 12 BISD students were physically unable to take a pen and paper test, and were allowed to submit a portfolio of work instead.

With those restrictions it will be extremely difficult for the district to get 65 percent of disabled students to pass the WASL, Mork said.

This is the first year the district has failed to make AYP, and there are no consequences yet.

If it continues to fall short of AYP – which administrators say it likely will barring a rule change – then penalties can be handed down.

The district could be forced to send notices to parents that it is failing federal standards, portions of Title 1 federal funding can be directed to failing areas, and eventually it could have to offer transportation to any nearby district that is meeting federal standards.

BISD received better news this week from the College Board’s release of SAT and ACT results.

On the SAT Reasoning Test, students’ scores improved from 2007 on all three areas tested: reading, mathematics and writing. The greatest improvement came in math where the average score was 596 out of 800 possible points, up 10 points from 2007.

Bainbridge scores were higher than the state average, and Washington State was ranked first in the nation in SAT scores, among states in which more than half of eligible students took the test.

An increasing number of Bainbridge students have been taking the ACT, which is billed as an indicator of how well a student will perform at the college level. This year 110 students took the exam compared to 67 in 2007.

Bainbridge’s average composite score was 25.6, topping the state average of 23.1 and the national average of 21.1.

Meanwhile, the district was sorting through student-by-student WASL reports this week, looking for clues as to why scores fell at many lower grade levels, especially fourth.

After the Washington Assessment of Student Learning debuted in 1997, passage rates by Bainbridge fourth graders climbed steadily for 10 years.

But this year the passage rate of Bainbridge fourth graders tumbled in reading, writing and math. In the math and writing the passage rate was more than 9 percent lower than in 2007, and math scores were the lowest since 2002.

The 2008 results showed less dramatically slumping scores at all grade levels except for sixth and 10th.

Since there were no major changes to the assessment this year and since the same class had tested well a year ago as third graders, the results are an enigma to Bainbridge educators.

“It’s still puzzling to me,” Associate Supt. Julie Goldsmith said “We’re really not sure what happened yet.”

Goldsmith said Bainbridge will use the individual WASL as a starting point for addressing the issue.

“We’re really trying to get in and identify individual students who need support and taking the next steps to helping them pass,” she said.

Significantly fewer Washington fourth and seventh graders passed the reading and math portions of the WASL in 2008 than in 2007, while other elementary and middle school students overall showed mixed results, according to the Office of Superintendent for Public Instruction.

In a Tuesday press release, State Supt. Terry Bergeson said students at those grade levels may be overburdened by federal standards. The 2009 WASL will be made shorter for grades three through eight she said.

At BISD, sixth-grade WASL scores stood out as most improved. In reading, 91.2 percent of sixth graders passed, while 77.3 percent passed mathematics, up roughly 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively, over 2007.

High school sophomores improved slightly in all areas of the WASL this year, and again ranked among the top performers in the state.

Despite the dropping scores at lower levels, district administrators and board members were enthusiastic that most students in the district who did pass WASL, notched scores well exceeding the required level.

“We’re not just having people get over the hump,” board member Dave Pollock said. “They are clearing the bar by a lot.”