Lake Washington Student Scores Improving on Standardized Tests

11 Schools meet federal standards

 

Redmond, Wash. – Lake Washington School District students improved their average scores on state standardized tests in many grades in reading, writing, math and science. Scores rose in close to two thirds of the grade/content area, continuing general upward trends.   Read More >>

 “I’m so pleased to see our scores continue on a positive trend,” noted Dr. Traci Pierce, superintendent.

These scores also determined whether schools met the federal standards for Adequate Yearly Progress. Since the U.S. Department of Education rescinded a waiver for the state of Washington, it must meet the standard of the No Child Left Behind Act. That law required that 100% of all students meet state standards by 2014, this year. If a school does not have every single student at standard, they could still qualify to meet Adequate Yearly Progress if their scores were within the margin of error of 100% or if they showed sufficient improvement in both reading and math in all subgroups since the 2010-11 school year.

Eleven schools in LWSD made adequate yearly progress through the adjusted percentage based on the margin of error, via showing significant improvement in scores or in the case of one school having too few students tested in the specific grades. Nineteen schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress but were not moved to “In Improvement” status since this was the first year they did not meet the standard. Twenty-one schools are in one of the five steps of “Improvement” status.

Schools that made Adequate Yearly Progress were Environmental & Adventure School, Explorer School, Futures School, International Community School, Kirk Elementary School, Kirkland Middle School, Mann Elementary School, Rockwell Elementary School, Rosa Parks Elementary School, Stella Schola and Tesla STEM High School.

District reading scores were higher in grades five through eight and grade ten than the 2012-13 scores.  (Grade nine is not tested.) The greatest improvement came in eighth grade. About 88.4 percent of this year’s eighth graders were at standard in reading, compared to 83.2 percent in 2012-13. By comparison, 71.6 percent of all eighth grade students in the state were at standard this year, up from 66.3 percent.

Scores were down only slightly in grades three and four and were higher in fifth grade. About 87.8 percent of this year’s third graders made standard on the test, compared to 89 percent last year. In fourth grade, 85.7 percent of students made standard compared to 86.6 in 2012-13. At the state level, 72.2 percent of students made standard in third grade and 70.1 percent in fourth grade.

District writing scores rose in two of three grades tested. The percentage of students in both fourth grade and tenth grade at standard in writing improved. Seventh grade students lost a little ground as 85.8 percent of this year’s students made standard, compared to 87.4 percent last year. At the tenth grade level, 94.1 percent of students in LWSD schools met the standard in writing, compared to 85.3 percent statewide.

Math scores were split between those grades that improved and those that declined slightly. Grades four, five and six showed improvements. The most impressive was the 5.1 percent improvement in scores to 84.7 percent at standard this year in sixth grade. While grades three, seven and eight lost some ground, the losses in both grades seven and eight were half a percent or less. On the end of course exams, more students passed the math EOC 1 but fewer passed the EOC2.

Science scores rose in eighth grade from 82.8 percent at standard to 86.9 percent. In fifth grade, they fell, from 87.9 percent at standard to 85.0 percent. More students met the standard in the Biology End of Course exam, 88.4 percent this year compared to 86.1 percent last year.