Washington officials release first report for new school progress system | OregonLive.com

Washington officials release first report for new school progress system | OregonLive.com:

Washington officials release first report for new school progress system

Published: Thursday, September 27, 2012, 5:32 PM     Updated: Thursday, September 27, 2012, 5:40 PM

 By The Associated Press 
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SEATTLE -- State education officials on Thursday released their first report for a new way in looking at how Washington public schools are doing at teaching kids reading and math. 

The new school accountability system is designed to help local officials focus on closing the achievement gaps between kids of different ethnic and economic groups. It is Washington's answer to the federal education law known as "No Child Left Behind." Washington has been granted a waiver to take a different approach to identifying and helping failing schools. 

The old system labeled a school or a district as failing if they did not meet dozens of testing, attendance and graduation rate goals several years in a row. The national goal was to have every kid meet state academic standards in reading and math by 2014. 

The new system sets goals for increasing the number of kids in each group who meet state standards, with a new deadline of the 2017-18 school year. Individual goals have been set in every school for every subgroup, not just for the schools that are struggling. 

In exchange for the longer deadline, parents and concerned community members get several 


 This information is readily available, along with lots of other information about public schools, at theWashington State Report Card online. Click on AMO in the upper right hand section of the page and then choose your school using the dropdown menu on the left side of the page.