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Students.jpg
Enrollment is up in Seattle Schools. For the 2012-13 school year the district's 95 schools added 1,400 for a total of 49,864. In the next decade, the district expects to add 7,000 students. (AP file photo)

Seattle Schools' students are 'thriving,' despite evidence

November 2, 2012 @ 6:54 am (Updated: 7:30 am - 11/2/12 )

A report card on Seattle Public Schools' shows the district is not on track to reach any of the performance goals it set almost five years ago.

The new Seattle Schools Superintendent, José Banda, says the district is "thriving, with enrollment on the rise and test scores increasing."

There are more students and test scores are up in some areas, but the district will not meet any of the performance goals they sent almost five years ago.

In 2008, the district set goals for "academic growth and student outcomes" which is education speak for improving how well students do on standardized tests.

By 2013, the district expects 95 percent of 10th-graders to pass the state's reading exam. With a year to go before the deadline, only about 79 percent passed, according to the latest data.

The goal was to have 80 percent of seventh graders pass the state math test. It's unlikely that'll happen with only 67 percent passing now.

The district hoped 80 percent of high school students would graduate within four years, but right now about 74 percent graduate on time.

Were the district's goals too lofty?

Although SPS won't hit any of them, student performance is improving.

On the state math test, the fourth-grade-passage rate has gone up from 56 percent to 67 percent. About 67 percent of seventh graders are passing, which is a big bump up from 53 percent four years ago.

When it comes to spending money on kids, the district planned to spend about 81 percent of its budget on students by 2013. Currently, 77 percent is spent on instruction. About 7 percent goes to the central administration staff.

Enrollment is up in Seattle Schools. For the 2012-13 school year the district's 95 schools added 1,400 for a total of 49,864. In the next decade, the district expects to add 7,000 students.

By LINDA THOMAS, a mom to two SPS kids

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (12)


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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    It's as important to consider the progress as it is the shortfalls....
    November 2, 2012 7:31 am
    So the Seattle Schools are falling short of the goals they set five years ago. That's unfortunate. However, in striving to meet those goals the test scores, etc, are moving substantially in the right direction.

    We achieve more altitude by aiming for the stars and falling slightly short than we ever will by deciding to aim for the sidewalk so we can be sure to hit the mark.

    Now it's time to raise the bar. Set even higher goals, and continue making progress toward them.

    K-12 education is a 13 year process, not an event. You can't just wave a magic wand and improve the education the middle school and high school kids have already received. As long as the district is striving for improvement and making both measurable and substantial progress, that's as much as we can realistically expect.

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  • cigarfan wrote...
    Seattle is wise
    November 2, 2012 10:46 am
    The idea of a private for-profit$ school system is the real failure. Seattle wants local control -not unaccountable control over tax dollars -which is the goal of for-profit approaches. Seattle has professional (BA & MA) teachers who are able to use their professional degrees. Private Charter approaches use less qualified instructors (non-professionals) to teach because that would eat into the Corporate executives profits. Kids want professional Teaching, not "McInstruction" to make private executives rich.
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  • mnpat wrote...
    Until the monopoly goes away, the public school systme will never change
    November 2, 2012 2:53 pm
    I do agree with Chuck regarding the issues he states as the school systme must take all the bad with the good, until the time comes when we are willing to pursue ramifications to those that disrupt others, the students/parents will feel that they are entitled to create the headache.
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  • O-town listener wrote...
    Hate it when you make me join with AJ
    November 3, 2012 8:53 am
    But, sometimes I have to. The problems I have with this are 1) What exactly is the standard to pass? I've tried looking at various places online and if I'm reading this right the tests are "graded" on a scale of 1 - 4 with 1 being far below, 2 being below, 3 being above and 4 being far above state standards. So, is a 1 and 2 considered passing? If so, what percenage of students are geting 4's vs. 3's? How many are "barely" passing?

    Secondly, I recall various articles about our standards dropping, or the tests being revamped. How comparable are the tests during these two periods? For example, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125682837972516125.html

    To these points, the article above says, "On the state math test, the fourth-grade-passage rate has gone up from 56 percent to 67 percent." I can't tell if this is over the 4 year period or what, but according to NAEP, our scores for 4th grade math haven't really changed since 2005. That's 6 years of flat. Where is the 10% increase in performance? To me it sounds like it is in the reduced standards or kids going from barely failing to barely passing.

    And cigarfan, if you want any level of credibility, don't cite the stranger. Read the hate towards corporations in their first paragraph and it is hard to trust anything they say after that. Just because a corporation is involved does not automatically mean bad.

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  • O-town listener wrote...
    correction..
    November 3, 2012 8:56 am
    Above I stated, "So, is a 1 and 2 considered passing?" I meant, "So, is a 3 and 4 considered passing?"

    I would appreciate if anyone can give me a good place to see what is truly required to pass state tests as I have not gone through this yet as a parent. Is it a 100 question scenario? Are 40 questions right passing? 50? 60? I can't seem to find this defined anywhere.

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  • cigarfan wrote...
    Change
    November 3, 2012 10:05 am
    When you move from professional educators to Non-professional educators, the change resulting will only help the pockets of the private for-profit school executives. The kids interact with less qualified instructors (who probably can't even be legally called "teacher" due to lower training and pay.
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