Columbia and Sunnyland Elementary Schools Honored
Columbia and Sunnyland elementary schools were recognized Wednesday for their students’ marked improvement on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
The two schools were named Schools of Distinction and given the new State Superintendent’s Learning Improvement Award.
They are joined by 84 other schools around the state, which together represent the top 5 percent of schools that improved on the test.
“Our staff and parents have worked diligently to provide the best education for our students,” said Columbia Principal Missy Ferguson in a joint statement with Sunnyland Principal Mary Anne Stuckart. “We have aligned our practices with the state standards while keeping the whole child in mind.”
To be considered for the award, schools needed to meet the federal benchmarks in reading and writing for all students. Officials then looked at the schools’ gains on the state Learning Improvement Index, which is a measure of a school’s performance in each subject.
To determine the gains, officials averaged the math and reading Index scores from 2001 and 2002 and compared them to the 2007 scores.
“We truly care about our students and believe in their abilities as learners,” Ferguson and Stuckart said Wednesday afternoon on their way back from the statewide recognition ceremony in Des Moines.
The new award comes only months after many schools and districts around the state missed federal benchmarks required by the “No Child Left Behind” law because of a change in the way progress was calculated. Critics of the federal legislation have argued for a number of years that schools should be recognized for their improvements year after year, not on whether they can get a high enough percentage of students passing the test in multiple demographic groups. Via partially bellingham herald.