Fifteen of the schools in Skagit County did not meet student performance requirements this year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In the Sedro-Woolley School District, four schools did not meet federal targets. Of those four, three met all of the goals in 2007.

Every school in the Mount Vernon School District, except for Lincoln Elementary, did not meet the federal targets. Of those schools, seven of them met federal goals last year.

The federal law requires a certain percentage of students in public schools to pass the state’s standardized test, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). The law also requires schools to track 37 testing and participation targets. But if a school misses one target out of 37, the entire school does not meet Adequate Yearly Progress, a term in the federal law that describes whether a school meets federal guidelines.

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“If you miss one cell, you’re a loser,” said Sedro-Woolley School District Superintendent Mark Venn. “If you look at a baseball player and they’re hitting 36 of 37 times they’re up (to bat), they are making millions of dollars and they’re the best baseball player in history.”

What propaganda - now if the district “team” had equals pitted against them trying to make them not hit, maybe this would fit. Last I heard, the majority of parents are on the “team” side, as are the majority of taxpayers etc.

A district is not as Venn states. A district is more like a baseball player who is ON THE SAME TEAM with every player on the field, from pitcher to outfielder, all trying to get the batter home and cheering him on. If that was baseball, I would safely guess that the majority of batters would easily score at least 1st base on 37/37 at bats. Let’s stretch this bogus analogy a bit further and make the student the ball, and the only way that ball can’t make a home run in those circumstances are batter incompetency or an unraveled ball (IE, home life or other issue which hinders the student)

GO TEAM!

I believe that the community needs to take a look at the cohort data, instead of the results that the state posts.  The cohort data shows that many classes make huge improvements compared to where they were at the year before.  No two students are the same, some learn things faster than others.  The same goes for grade levels.  A group of incoming 6th graders may not achieve as high of scores at last year’s 6th graders.  That doesn’t mean they haven’t made progress in their education.

I am not surprised with Mount Vernon School Districts poor performance.  They don’t really teach there anymore, or I should say teach subjects that students can use in the outside world.  The superintendant just can’t see or want to see, the political games being played at the high school and the dual society that is fostered there. I just hate spending money on that district.  Students walking out of classed to protest at the court house and no reprocussions. Whites and Hispanics at odds with each other.  It’s no wonder those who can afford to send their children to private schools do.  Teachers who teach “strange” versions of history and teachers who stand in front of the class proclaiming their politics. Teacher who work actively to bring in outside trouble makers to hold demonstrations in the school facilities.

What a sad state of affairs.  Problem is that the Superintendant hasn’t got the gonads to buck up and fix it!

By the way congratulations to Lincoln School.

No Child Left Behind is running right on schedule.  It’s purpose, from the start, has been to destroy America’s public school system so those who detest public entities can say ‘See?  Public schools are failing....let’s privatize’.

Same thing they are trying to doing to Social Security and the military.  Trying to make them private, corporate holdings accountable to a select few...but still subsidized by tax payers.

My how they detest what America was built on and stands for.

I don’t know that I agree with you to that degree Lee...but you are right...NCLB...sucks big green things.  I work in the education field.  We can’t just blame the feds though, Gregoire hasn’t done alot to help education and OSPI isn’t any help either.

I think that a very telling thing about Lincoln School in MV is the fact that the school has a VERY involved and engaged parent group.

The teachers can’t do it all. No school in our school district will succeed without a partnership between teachers, parents, and administrators. I commend Lincoln on its success. Parents at every other school should take note.

What we really need in this state is more school choice.  I’d love to be able to send my kid to a private school but am not sure that it will be in the budget.  The perfect solution would be a public charter school so that my tax dollars go towards educating my child outside the teachers’ union monopoly that is our public school system today.

Yes, blame the teacher’s union instead of looking at the ongoing ‘dumbing down’ of textbooks, the interference of the feds and the trend to build huge schools instead of local, community facilities.

NCLB is designed to tighten the noose as school budgets are squeezed.  It deserves an ‘F’.

Lee_USA, I completely agree with you about the dumbing down of text books, federal influence and big schools.  But, I also believe that the teachers’ unions continually fight accountability and equate more dollars spent on education with progress.  Teachers’ unions are about money, plain and simple.  But more money spent does not necessarily translate into better teachers and more student success.

BlondeBombshell - 28 August 2008 08:52 PM

I believe that the community needs to take a look at the cohort data, instead of the results that the state posts.  The cohort data shows that many classes make huge improvements compared to where they were at the year before.  No two students are the same, some learn things faster than others.  The same goes for grade levels.  A group of incoming 6th graders may not achieve as high of scores at last year’s 6th graders.  That doesn’t mean they haven’t made progress in their education.

Right on Bombshell. Cohort data (tracking how a kid does on the WASL over time) makes perfect sense in measuring the child’s growth. Trend data (comparing WASL scores of the class of 2008 versus 2009) makes no sense at all, unless of course you are a politician, then it works great. To suggest that all students can learn at the same level is laughable for many reasons.

Lee_USA - 29 August 2008 01:37 AM

No Child Left Behind is running right on schedule.  It’s purpose, from the start, has been to destroy America’s public school system so those who detest public entities can say ‘See?  Public schools are failing....let’s privatize’.

Same thing they are trying to doing to Social Security and the military.  Trying to make them private, corporate holdings accountable to a select few...but still subsidized by tax payers.

My how they detest what America was built on and stands for.

Many on the right have been attacking public schools for years. Not to sound to conspiratorial, but I think you’re on to something Lee. I’ve tried to remove that thought from my head, yet it keeps coming back.

Fletch, it has been the hard-core Right’s focus for quite some time.  Look up the Project for the New American Century -

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

signed by Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Fred C. Ikle, I. Lewis Libby, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz

One of the core missions outlined in the PNAC’s 2000 report Rebuilding America’s Defenses is “fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars.”

The report also states:

“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor”

Public schools stand in the way because what is taught isn’t filtered through a strictly controlled, far-right conservative bias.  But the textbooks that all schools must buy from a small, SELECT group of school text book makers in Texas and California have been dumbed down and civics has been eliminated as a required subject.  NCLB is another step towards privatizing all American schools...to the detriment of our great country.