Four North Olympic Peninsula schools are included in the 401 statewide that earned the Washington Achievement Award this year.
Neah Bay Elementary School and Greywolf Elementary School in Sequim in Clallam County, and Chimacum High School in Jefferson County each earned the award for “high progress.”
Port Townsend High School earned the award for reading growth.
An award ceremony for the schools will be held April 28 at Spanaway Lake High School in Bethel.
Top schools
High progress awards are given to the top 10 percent of schools that made the most progress in combined performance in reading and math for all students, using the previous three years of data.
Reading growth awards are given to schools in the top 5 percent of the three-year average “median student growth percentiles” in reading comprehension.
The Washington Achievement Award recipients are the highest-performing schools in the state based on three years of academic data in the Washington Achievement Index.
“Honoring successful schools is one of the most important things we do,” said state schools Superintendent Randy Dorn.
“We know schools are doing great work and are getting better at serving all students every day,” he said.
“We may not be where we want to be, but we are making progress. These awards celebrate both achievement and growth.”
Schools may be recognized for being top performers in any of six categories: overall excellence, high progress, reading growth, math growth, extended graduation rate or English language acquisition.
Port Townsend High School
Port Townsend High School won the reading growth award for the second year in a row, showing a total of four years of continued improvement in the category.
“We’re really excited,” Principal Carrie Ehrhardt said.
The school used a strategy in which all subject materials became reading lessons, so history textbook readings also worked on vocabulary and notetaking skills, Ehrhardt said.
Chimacum High School
Chimacum High School earned the high progress award after the current junior class scored well on state exams in spring 2014, the third year in a row the school posted gains on the number of students who passed the state proficiency exams.
Teachers made two major changes to the curriculum, Principal Whitney Meissner said.
They made an effort to add more material where tests showed students were weak and aligned the curriculum for students in the eighth, ninth and 10th grades so that lessons from one year lead to the next year’s lessons, she said.
Meissner said she is seeing success across the board in every subject.
“It’s not just how well they can perform on a test on a single day,” she said.
Neah Bay Elementary School
Neah Bay Elementary School earned the high progress award.
The school has been named a distinguished school in some category each year since 2012.
“Our parents and community are extremely supportive. That plays a role,” Principal Alice Murner said.
Students are given the responsibility to use each day to learn and grow, and are given high expectations, Murner said.
“The kids are motivated. They want to do well,” she said.
Greywolf Elementary
Greywolf Elementary School in Sequim earned the high progress award after making a change in the master schedule to benefit students in the area of literacy, Principal Donna Hudson said.
The school’s target is to get every student reading at grade level by the third grade, Hudson said.
“It’s really hard work, but it’s paying dividends with our kids,” she said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
