Submitted by John Arbeeny.
Each week as a public service Lakewood CARES will be providing the real academic situation in response to schools highlighted in The Suburban Times by Clover Park School District (CPSD). This is data you will not find elsewhere on the CPSD website, board meeting agendas or “Inside Schools”; however it is published by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The 20 March 2024 issue of The Suburban Times covers CPSD “Learning in Motion” and features Custer Elementary School 5th grade art class.
I suspect this may be an enhancement activity as part of the replacement levy just passed by voters for the next four years. Certainly art, music, sports and other enhancement activities are important for creating well rounded students. However, basic education is the primary reason we have schools. You have to have something to enhance before you can “enhance” it. So let’s take a look at Custer Elementary School’s academic, versus “enhancement”, performance.
These are the percentages of Custer students who met State standards: English Language Arts (ELA) (35.5%), math (34.2%) and science (40.9%). Nearly two-thirds of Custer students are not meeting State-mandated academic performance.
What about attendance? 54.8%! Almost one-half do not attend at least 90% of school days. You can’t learn if you don’t show up.
How about OSPI mislabeled “high” ELA (23.8%) and math (23.8%) Student Growth Percentile (SGP)? Actually it is “low” SGP, since 50% is considered the mean across all Washington elementary schools. It takes an SGP of 50% just to stay even academically with peers. This means that Custer is falling further and further behind its peer group and not actually gaining on educational performance.
How about class size? There are 316 students and 25 teachers for a calculated class size of 12.6 students. Yet I can remember having 30 students in a class and yet superior academic performance. It sounds counter intuitive: more teachers, less academic performance. Perhaps it has more to do with how and what teachers teach than how many students are in class.
Finally, what does this cost you, the tax payer? $28,992 per student annually! That is over twice to three times the cost of tuition at Washington’s state universities!
These statistics come from the Office of Superintendent for Public Instruction’s (OSPI) own website:
https://washingtonstatereportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ReportCard/ViewSchoolOrDistrict/102222
This is where your tax dollars are going. How about demanding a return on that investment? “Enhancements” may be nice to have, but academic performance is a “must” have.
John has focused on educational performance, not the puffery that the school publishes. A prior superintendent of the CP School district told me that there is no actual scientific proof that reducing class size improves educational outcomes.
It seems the only beneficiaries of the smaller class size game are the teachers unions. The CP system cost per student indicates the taxpayers are substantially overcharged for a substandard outcome. The districts published information is selectively chosen to obscure the performance failures of the district.
Anyone can use statistics to make a point. However, a number without basis can have little meaning. Custer elementary hosts some special programs for special students. This will certainly make a teacher-student ratio seem off, but special needs requires special staffing.
During my years int he CPSD, I learned about nutrition as well as identification of fruits and vegetables. One important lesson… there is a difference between apples and oranges.
Certainly a statistic “cherry picked” or taken in isolation can be misinterpreted. However a wider spectrum of statistics tends to be more representative of the situation systemically.
I have included eight different groups of statistics which are representational: students meeting state standards as percentages in ELA, math and science, attendance, SGP in ELA and math, class size and cost. OSPI seems to think them relevant because they are prominently listed on every school’s “report card”.
You have responded with an assertion regarding special education without any statistical back up. If you have the statistics supporting your assertion I’d like to see them. You may have learned that there is a difference individually between apples and oranges but I also suspect that you learned from a broader perspective that they are both fruits.
LakewoodCARES.org
The statistics of achievement show what is happening in the various areas of education, but not the reasons responsible. The reasons why almost 50% of students miss school 90% of the time has to be addressed if there is to be improvement in math, science, and the others. Changes in teaching methods and subject matter will be of no effect on students who aren’t there.