Submitted by John Arbeeny.
I received the November 2022 issue of the CPSD monthly newsletter “Inside Schools” which is replete with statistics about demographics, highly qualified staff, career and college readiness and graduation rates. This is a level of data specificity that is missing in the 2022/2023 School Improvement Plans (SIP’s).
However there is a glaring omission of data in both the November “Insides Schools” issue and the individual annual School Improvement Plans (SIP’s) just passed by the CPSD Board over the objections of Directors Anderson and Wagemann. That glaring omission is District and school academic performance data. There is but one small paragraph 3” x 3” “Assessment” on page 5 of the November 2022 “Inside Schools” issue which represents less than 1% of the 8 pages of printed space. That lone paragraph cryptically states “CPSD’s spring 2022 Smarter Balanced assessment scores decreased, along with many comparable school districts.”
While that statement may have an element of truth it is also a half truth that tends to hide the whole truth. To find the whole truth about the District’s academic performance this tiny paragraph instead suggests the reader go to the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction (OSPI) Report Card website.
The question is: Did you? Did anyone?
As an alternative, the article suggests “…contacting Community Relations at (253) 583-5040” which I did only to be told to go to the OSPI site to find the data or view past Board meetings.
If the District has the data why wasn’t it published?
Making you do the work of the District is one way of concealing the facts from the general public. Despite the alleged emphasis on academics in the September 2022 Inside Schools issue (no academic data there either) the District is unwilling to present academic performance data to the public.
Why is that? It simply cannot be ignored any longer.
We don’t have schools simply to talk about demographics, staff, career and college readiness and graduation rates and wonderful programs. We have schools to provide our children with an academically challenging educational experience which prepares them for adult life, in the family, trades, business or college. So how is CPSD doing with respect to the academic standards mandated by OSPI?
Not so good to put it mildly.
Since 2016 CPSD slid from 44.6% to 27.9% academic ranking statewide among all school districts. That’s near the bottom quarter of all school districts in the State. Every school district statewide had to deal with the impact of COVID yet CPSD declined far worse than did State averages. CPSD’s slide academically started long before COVID during 2016-2018 when there was a change in Superintendent and administration. That decline has continued through 2022. This is not to say that all CPSD schools declined since 2016 but rather that the academic decline and disparities between schools is shocking and has yet to be addressed by the Board, Superintendent and administration.
There are four categories of CPSD schools below with academic rankings relative to all schools in Washington State between 2016 and 2022. These rankings are based upon data contained in OSPI and Schooldigger websites. The percentages (%) shown reflect the academic ranking in 2016 and then again in 2022 as an average for the schools in that category:
Category #1: High performing schools that increased their academic ranking since 2016: Meriwether, Carter Lake, Beachwood, Rainier. (60% 2016, 70% 2022) (Incidentally all on JBLM)
Category #2: Relatively better performing schools in 2016 that had a significant loss of academic ranking since 2016: Harrison, Lakes, Thomas, Custer, Hillside, Idlewild, Lake Louise, Oakbrook. (54% 2016, 37% 2022):
Category #3: Schools with precipitous drops in academic ranking since 2016: Hudtloff, Dower, Evergreen, Tyee Park. (52% 2016, 14% 2022):
Category #4: Schools that chronically performed poorly since 2016: Clover Park, Lochburn, Four Heroes, Lakeview, Park Lodge, Tillicum. (12% 2016, 7% in 2022).
Eighteen of the 22 schools (82%) profiled above have significant or precipitous drops in academic ranking or chronic under achievement in academic ranking since 2016. Such low academic performance and huge disparities are indicative of a Board, Superintendent and administration that have lost control of the District and its schools. Apparently annual SIPs and 5 year academic improvement plans recommended by the Superintendent and passed by the Board have not worked over the last 6 years. What makes anyone think that academic performance will change for the better given historical trends? How bad does it have to be for this Board and Superintendent to be moved to real action? It’s our children and future that are at stake.
Thank you so much for this careful watchdog approach to our schools. My comment is that the pandemic showed the inequalities, insufficiencies and gaps in our institutions (health care, education, employment). And sadly this probably explains the downward trend in the schools you highlight. In terms of the data — YES!!! All this must be easily available and transparent. It’s hard enough for parents and taxpayers to keep track of their own lives let alone follow local education and politics and be engaged citizens. Everything must be made as easily accessible as possible, for reasons of equity, accountability, and transparency. I hope the districts respond and make sure this information is easy to get. I assume you sent information to the Board?
Thanks for your comments Michelle!
This article and a detailed, by individual school comparison between 2016 and 2022 academic performance in English Language Arts (ELA), math and science, attendance, graduation rates and academic performance rankings statewide will be provided to the Board at its 9 January 2023 regular meeting. If you’re interested in receiving this data (too comprehensive for this article) message me on my Facebook page.
COVID undoubtedly had an unfortunate impact on academic achievement but that impact was felt to varying degrees by every single school and district in the State. What’s more concerning is that Clover Park School District and many of its schools were disproportionately impacted by COVID and fell even further behind other districts and schools across the State.
For example Tyee Park Elementary dropped from 54% (a relatively good ranking) in 2016 to 6% (!) in 2022. Clover Park High School was at 13% (!) in 2016 and dropped even further to 3%(!) in 2022. How does that happen and no one notice? Why aren’t Clover Park parents up in arms over this? I think the numbers tell the tale of a District in trouble academically and the reason these statistics are not front and center for the public to see.
You have to admit there’s a problem before you can solve it.
I’m trying to chime in as well. My comments are awaiting moderation but I look forward you your comments.
CPSD doesn’t allow teachers to honestly grade student performance. Better Together really means Better If You Make the Admin and Superintendent look good.
Teachers are afraid to react sensibly- behavioral issues plague all of the CPSD schools, making it nearly impossible for teachers to teach! Administrators won’t intervene effectively citing “We prefer to have the child in the classroom as much as possible.”.
CPSD fosters keeping in classrooms disruptive and often dangerous behaviors from individual students make learning impossible for entire (over crowded) classes of students! This is where low academic performance is stemming from.
My second point is parents- simply put, do some! The job of raising an academically engaged, cooperative, well mannered, civic minded individual begins and grows with you!
Schools are not babysitting services, mental health counselors, cooks, maids, chauffers, entertainers, wardrobe providers etc. and it’s time public schools and the communities remembered this. Then, and only then can schools get back to their actual purpose.
Unfortunately an “efficient” administration that looks good doesn’t necessarily mean an effective school system that does “good”.
Discipline has taken on racial and ethnic overtones which might make the suspension and expulsion stats look better but it’s really about juggling the stats based upon lower reporting.
Parents have intentionally been excluded at the policy making level. Certainly one-on-one parent-teacher conferences are valuable for that particular student, parent and teacher. However it does not empower the parent when it comes to affecting policy. Take for example CPSD EDI policy “stakeholders” where nearly 80% were District employees and community leaders with a vested EDI interest while parents represented about 8%: who’s running the show? Where are the PTA organizations that represent parental political power at the Board and District levels: vanished. How about something as simple as the absence of homework which previously would have required parental involvement: gone.
Yes too often the District puts the emphasis on demographics, extracurricular activities, services, Christmas parades, “free lunch”, COVID and other tangential excuses for why “Johnny can’t read”. Bottom line: the District is not going a good job of educating our children and that is their “actual purpose”. It’s about time they owned up to it.
Without standards, there is no measure of performance.
That is the scheme the progressive movement has come up with to justify diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Without standards, job placement becomes a collection rather than a pursuit of excellence.
Without a pursuit of excellence, we the consumer get an inferior product/service.
You see this now as government, which has become the husband of all who are not a white man, subsidizes all that would fail otherwise.
Of course government cannot subsidize anything without confiscating from others.
Who needs standards when government can create unnecessary jobs, (non-essential as they were called during covid), and demand the same quotas be imposed on private companies?
This whole situation can be explained biologically as host and parasite.
Perhaps that is no nonger taught in public school?
No wonder covid was released upon us without a concerted demand for an accounting – madness.
The puppet-masters are having a Jolly good time making us dance to the left and to the right, only to be funneled through the same door to mediocrity or worse.
The department of public education has become a weaponized agency, with its union feeding on the opportunity that used to go to the students who could and would achieve to their actual potential.
Short of straight-out communism, I don’t see any other objective.
A couple more trillion dollars getting rammed through congress in the form of more debt obligation speaks to this mindset of failure.
Who’s going to pay for that?
One way or another, we will all pay for that, and we will recieve nothing in return.
The testing of any group should show 1/2 above average, 1/2 below average. We are so accustomed to wanting to see everyone “above average” that just isn’t the case anymore.
We need to rethink things.
I’ll grab a beer and do some deep thinking on this.
When 82% (18) of the District’s 22 schools are ranked below 50% you’ve got a problem. In 2016 11 CPSD schools were ranked above 50% and 11 below 50%: exactly as you suggested “average”. That’s not the case today.