ARLINGTON — With mixed results the norm statewide, Arlington School District officials are pleased with its schools’ Adequate Yearly Progress results for the 2009-10 school year.
This past year was the first year of new Washington state tests called the Measurements of Student Progress and High School Proficiency Exam.
Compared to the previous 2008-09 Washington Assessment of Student Learning scores, Arlington in 2009-10 improved its scores in third grade reading; fourth grade writing; seventh grade reading and math; eight grade reading, math and science; and 10th grade writing and science.
Arlington performed higher than the state in third-grade reading; fourth-grade reading and math; fifth-grade reading, math and science; sixth-grade reading and math; seventh-grade reading, math and writing; eighth-grade reading, math and science; and 10th-grade reading and writing.
Students at Eagle Creek, Trafton and Kent Prairie elementaries, Haller and Post middle schools and Weston High School all made adequate yearly progress, or AYP, which is a mathematical equation that measures the amount of students that need to meet federal standards in reading and math.
That leaves Arlington High School, Pioneer and Presidents elementaries and Stillaguamish Valley School as the district’s schools that did not meet AYP.
One hundred percent of Arlington students need to be meeting AYP by 2014.
“As a district, we are continuing out work in student achievement and feel encouraged by this news,” Arlington School District spokeswoman Andrea Conley said.
Washington State Superintendent Randy Dorn said that the mixed state results, which were released on Aug. 31, were expected due to a combination of a new testing method for grades 3-8 and years of budget cuts.
“Washington needs to recommit to education, and it’s not just me saying that, it’s the courts,” Dorn said. “We are facing a serious budget crisis in this state, but if we continue to cut education, the progress we’ve previously made will disappear. The state’s paramount constitutional duty is to fund education, and as long as I’m in this job, I’ll remind the governor and the Legislature of that every day.”
