District Performance and Our Plan for Improvement

Education is a priority for our community, our state and our nation. Making sure that every student achieves academic success will take a broad-based effort. Schools can’t do it alone; parents and the community must partner with us.

Why is the district creating an improvement plan?

Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as No Child Left Behind), Federal law requires that the nation’s schools and districts meet certain benchmarks each year. 

If a school or a district doesn’t meet the benchmarks for two years in a row, it is said to be not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Despite the hard work of our students, staff and administration, we have missed AYP as a district for the second year in a row, and are in Step 1 of “district improvement” according to OSPI and No Child Left Behind. In Step 1, districts are expected to develop a ‘District Improvement Plan.’

It’s important to remember that Federal Way Public Schools has been doing the work called for in this legislation for the past ten years. Developing a District Improvement Plan is a natural extension of our ongoing work to evaluate where we’ve been, and where we still need to go. 

What’s happened so far? What’s next?

During the 2008-2009 school year, the district assembled a team to develop the district's improvement plan. School staff, principals, parents and the public, as well as the school board reviewed the plan’s elements and offered input. The plan was approved by the board on June 9, and is scheduled to be implemented during the 2009-2010 school year. The results will be monitored and the plan revised as necessary.

More about No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress:

No Child Left Behind requires that students in grades 3-10 take a yearly test. Each state determines which test they will use – in our State, it’s currently the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).  The number of students passing the test helps determine whether a school met the benchmarks for Adequate Yearly Progress.

NCLB requires that an every-increasing percentage of the students in a school and district pass the test in each of numerous categories. This complicated matrix includes categories representing five ethnic backgrounds, special education students, and low-income students. It also has categories dealing with drop out rates, on-time graduation and participation -- 95% of all students must take the test. Schools are evaluated in up to 37 categories, and districts in up to 111 categories.  Larger, more diverse schools and districts have greater hurdles to jump.  Miss the requirement in any of the categories – test participation, for example – and the school will not make AYP.

A school moves into “improvement” status if it misses its AYP goals for two consecutive years in the same subject, in any of the categories.  A district moves into “improvement” status when it misses making AYP for two consecutive years in all three grade spans (elementary, middle, secondary) in any category in the same subject area. Of the 390 schools statewide in Step 1 of improvement this year, about 100 of them missed AYP in just one or two categories. 

Federal Way is in good company.

When you understand the complexity of the requirements, it’s not hard to understand why, despite the hard work of our students, staff and administration, FWPS missed AYP as a district for the second year in a row in 2008. 

Last year was a particularly challenging year for all schools statewide. Schools in Washington were expected to increase student scores in each category by much larger percentages than in other years. This is a major reason that 628 schools and 56 districts in the state were designated in improvement status last year -- a significant jump from 2007, when 280 schools and 30 districts were in improvement status.

Remember, if schools and districts miss AYP for two years in a row, they move into Step 1 of improvement. This year, 152 districts across the state missed AYP for the first time and will be designated in “improvement” next year unless they can meet AYP in all categories. Along with the other 56 districts already in improvement, over 70 percent of the state’s districts were unable to meet AYP this year.

All of FWPS’ secondary schools except Federal Way Public Academy and some of our elementary schools are, likewise, designated as ‘in improvement.’ Read Federal Way’s AYP Notification Letter for additional details.

More change may be coming

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is coming up for renewal again. There continues to be considerable discussion across the country about how to maintain what’s right about the 2002 NCLB provisions of the act, and  “fix” what’s wrong with it.

Last fall, when the 2008 Washington State AYP results were announced, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson also released a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education calling for radical reform to the NCLB legislation.

The proposal says, in part, ““Educators in our state have worked diligently to implement the letter and spirit of No Child Left Behind, because we all believe in the goal: ensuring every child gets the best possible education we can offer. But the unintended consequences of this law are undermining its intent. Accountability is essential, but it must be informative, rational and fair.” If you want to provide comment to your United States Senators and Representatives about NCLB and AYP, go to the:

• Washington State Senators webpage
• Representatives Directory (search by zip code)

Resources and Additional Information

• The District Improvement Plan || Printable PDF (59K PDF)
• Family & Community Partnerships - Addendum to the District Improvement Plan - Final (35K PDF)
• Feb. 24, 2009 Board Presentation (500K PDF)