Submitted by John Arbeeny.
Lakewood CARES is providing an academic-based response to schools highlighted in the Clover Park School District (CPSD) “#SuperSchoolShoutOut“articles in The Suburban Times. This is data you will not find elsewhere in CPSD community relations pieces, School Board meeting agendas or monthly “Inside Schools”. This week’s CPSD “beaming with pride” article covers Custer Elementary School which was featured in a Suburban Times article on 7 November 2024:
This is yet another example of a threadbare Community Relations (CR) puff piece by CPSD’s propagandists without giving a hint of academic performance. It amounts to a half-truth, an intellectual sleight of hand: a deception. Instead of some academic “meat” we have a few nice words about a teacher and 4th Grade student. There are however a few hints of items that need discussion.
The article states that teacher Jeremy Aldana “…incorporates technology into his lesson plans to prepare students for a technocentric future.” He is quoted as saying, “I want them to function in a world that’s digital and fast-moving…”. “I focus on 21st century skills like adaptability and independent learning.” Technology certainly has its place in education, but there is a difference between technology literacy and technology dependency. Young children, especially in elementary school, need the developing brain’s mental exercise that comes with mastering the basics by themselves intellectually. Memorization of multiplication tables, literary passages, spelling, punctuation rules, science facts and the like are everyday necessities and the equivalent of “weight training” for young minds. Indeed I’d suggest most grade school kids know a lot more about technology than the adults around them.
We are seeing this technology driven trend play out where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly substituted for original, thoughtful, knowledge-based student performance. Learning to hit the right “button” on a screen is not an education. Turning students loose on computers for “independent learning” seems more to the benefit of teachers rather than the students. It gives teachers time to do “teacher stuff” other than instruction while students are “teaching” themselves. How much actual face time instruction is lost by students staring at a computer monitor? We know how that worked out during COVID.
Here’s a graphic representation of Custer’s academic performance since 2015:
Custer Statewide Academic Performance
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/WA/schools/0141000251/school.aspx#google_vignette
It’s not clear what transpired between 2015 and 2017 academically. However in 2017 Custer was academically ranked at 5.6 percentile and by 2024 had gradually risen to 27 percentile. That trend appears to have plateaued. There has certainly been academic improvement, but it is still well below the state average. CPSD is academically ranked at 25.9 percentile, so that puts Custer about average in the District which is to say mediocre: 73% of State elementary schools outperform Custer academically.
These concerns are mirrored by the data contained in the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) “Report Card” which can be viewed at the following URL:
https://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ReportCard/ViewSchoolOrDistrict/102222
Custer OSPI Report Card Academic Performance
NOTE: “Students on Track for College-level Learning Without Needing Remedial Classes Spring 2024” is the equivalent of previous “Students Meeting State Standards”. This is a confusing, unnecessary name change.
NOTE: “Students Showing Foundational Grade Level Knowledge and Skills or Above Spring 2024” is a new OPSI academic metric which includes below-average, average and above- average student academic achievement. This inflates apparent academic performance and is misleading.
The average percentage of Custer students meeting state standards in ELA (43.2%), math 33.0%) and science (29.6%) is 35%: 65% of Custer students fail to meet these state standards. What students fail to learn in elementary school follows them into middle, high school and after graduation into adult life.
Custer OSPI Attendance and Per-pupil Expenditure
Custer’s 54.8% attendance rate (2022/2023) is probably part of what is holding back Custer’s academic progress: you can’t learn if you don’t attend school. In 2019/2020 attendance was at 79.3% and has declined every year since.
The next figure of $28,992 “Per-pupil Expenditure 2022-23 School Year” is shockingly high especially considering the low attendance rate. It is the highest expenditure per student in any elementary, middle or high school in CPSD by over $8,000 per student annually! The average cost per student in CPSD elementary schools is $20,670, middle schools $20,468 and high schools $19,354. Elementary school shouldn’t be as expensive as a college education. Does the CPSD have an explanation for this level of spending in one elementary school? Tax payers and parents deserve an answer!
Custer OSPI Student Growth Percentile (SGP)
Custer’s Student Growth Percentile (SGP) during 2023-2024 for English Language Arts (ELA) was 45.1%, for math 41% and somewhat evenly distributed across racial and ethnic groups. This SGP is average when compared to the CPSD SGP for ELA (44%) and math (43%). However, 50 percentile is considered the median SGP which means Custer is not keeping up with its peer group schools academically in Washington State. In 2015-2016 those SGP numbers were 55% for ELA and 59% for math so there is a lot of academic ground to make up.
In 2016-2017 those SGP numbers plummeted to 31% ELA and 28% math which coincides with the drastic fall in academic ranking from 45.6 percentile to 5.6 percentile, a drop from which Custer has never fully recovered. What happened to cause this drop in academic ranking and SGP? Does CPSD even know that it happened, or how it happened? Or is it shrouded in the mystery of an opaque distant past? It is absolutely vital that CPSD investigate such occurrences and take systemic measures to prevent their repeat.
Unfortunately, the School Board; Superintendent and administration; and Community Relations Department, in particular, lack transparency about the District’s academic performance. Instead of truthfully addressing the District’s overall and school-specific poor academic performance they obscure it. Bureaucracies tend to protect themselves. Take a look at the CPSD website for its “academic assessment” page, and you’ll discover not a single academic statistic for any subject, for any school or the entire District! Indeed, an academic assessment is missing from the CPSD academic assessment page. Ironic!
https://www.cloverpark.k12.wa.us/cms/one.aspx?pageId=23550067
Lack of transparency on academic performance has systemic impacts, especially on parents. They have been lulled into apathy with respect to the school’s and District’s academic performance. Why fret? Everything is fine; only it isn’t! CPSD presents a distorted, one-sided view of reality that has become something of an “opiate of the masses”. Then CPSD complains about the lack of parental involvement.
If you have a student who attends Custer or any of the other failing CPSD school and want a change in academic performance, then you’re going to have to get involved! You deserve more in return for your hard-earned tax dollars. It’s the future of your children! Find out for yourself why Custer and CPSD are failing academically and what it is going to take to turn that trend around. School board members are your elected representatives, not just a rubber stamp for the hired CPSD employees. Contact them and hold them accountable.
Wondering who your CPSD Board member is? Try contacting the Board’s President, Alyssa Anderson Pearson, via email form at:
https://www.cloverpark.k12.wa.us/cms/One.aspx?portalId=236158&pageId=61380455
I’m sure she’ll welcome the opportunity to answer all your questions.
NOTE: All Lakewood CARES Suburban Times articles back to 2021 are archived at the URL below for easy search and access. https://thesubtimes.com/author/lakewood-cares
John Arbeeny well-presents an apparently researched and fair assessment worthy of reasoned response. As American public education comes increasingly under critical lens at every level, it is important to reflect on its vital historic role in developing informed, caring and capable citizens able and willing to shoulder the responsibilities of democracy and prove the institutional excellence of place – Lakewood.
Mr.Arbeeny, One of the things you do not take into consideration about Custer Elementary, when you look at the expenditure per student , is that there is a wing of special needs students at that school. They have occupational therapists , physical therapists, speech therapists, and various other professional people for example a therapist who works with the blind and teaches the student Braille, or extra para professionals who take one on one care of a student. When the amount per student is averaged out , it is averaged through out the building. Therefore making it look like so much more per student.I really wish you would go visit these schools before you get on your soapbox about how terrible everything is. It is very frustrating as a parent and grand parent who have children in these schools and see how well they are succeeding academically and how hard the teachers are working to make that happen and have you continually bash what they are doing. Just my opinion, and you have yours.
Thank your for that clarification about cost per student. I appreciate it and will take it into consideration. A public information request will be headed to CPSD on this matter.
What chance do you think I would have to visit any school in the District to wander around in a fact finding tour. Indeed not even the Board members are permitted to show up on a fact finding tour without the Superintendent’s permission. How much better would it have been for CPSD to recognize the disparity in cost per student and provided the public an explanation in their “Shout Out” puff pieces to education the public on what’s going on inside schools that is otherwise hidden from view? That doesn’t happen.
I am not on a soapbox. I deal in facts and when the facts don’t look so good I say so. Facts are not opinions. There is nothing “negative” about facts, they are just facts. I am not “bashing” teachers and students anymore than I would blame passengers for the sinking of the Titanic! Teachers and students have to survive in a system that is “captained” by a Board, Superintendent and administration that has not provided the environment for them to succeed to the greatest extent possible. The facts prove it.
This kind of information should be applauded. Maybe some aspects need further discovery, but the school district’s failure to perform is so huge that nitpicking is not appropriate. CPSD’s performance would not be tolerated in any business environment. Why is it tolerated in Lakewood?
CPSD has Special Education classes spread across the entire district now. The cost per student average should have leveled out due to this. It was the case, until this year, that some schools had significantly higher populations of Special Education students. Evergreen Elementary on JBLM is another elementary with a much higher amount of these classrooms.
Just an FYI.
Thanks!
I have submitted a FOIA request to CPSD to sort this issue out from the Custer’s special education budget and policy perspective.
Perhaps the problem arises from the fact that the OSPI Report Card has a number of varying dates for the a lot of the data listed: it is not the most up to date. In the case of student expenditure the date is 2022-2023 so it is quite possible that a later date policy change on where to put special education students might have occurred closer to 2023-2024.
It may well be that you are both correct.
My child attends a CPDS elementary school and I assure you, students are still being required to memorize times tables, take spelling tests, and learn punctuation. Their time on computers in the classroom is limited (emphasis on limited) to educational games. For research, my child was taught how to identify credible sources, both online and in print. I have yet to observe any technological dependency. Further, her teacher has instituted a classroom economy, where students apply for and are assigned “jobs” for 2 week periods. They also earn points (akin to dollars) for good behavior, academic performance and general helpfulness to their classmates, and must learn to budget these points to pay the required “desk rent.” There are teachers working in strategic and creative ways to ensure that our kids are learning real world skills.
I would also add that academic success also depends on a community rallying around kids. Those individuals who feel particularly strongly that kids are getting too much screen time might consider volunteering to work with students by leading a student club, volunteering as a coach, or offering to tutor.
Thank you for your observations about computer use at Custer Elementary. I suspect that computer usage may increase in middle and high school especially with block scheduled classes. the first portion of a block scheduled class is often face-to-face teacher-to- student instruction while the second portion turns many of the students towards self paced independent study on the computer. It also gives the opportunity for teachers to give personalize instruction to those who need it while the rest of the class is “self instructing”. We know how “self instructing” worked out during COVID: it didn’t.
There is a lot of literature pro and con dealing with the use of computers. Indeed just a few years ago it was suggested by the educational establishment that student should be supplied with calculators to assist in mathematical calculation rather than expecting students to do it in their heads. My point is that technology is not a unmitigated blessing: it depends how it is used and not abused.