NEAH BAY — Two North Olympic Peninsula high schools have been given the statewide School of Distinction Award for their improvement on state assessment tests.
Neah Bay High School and Quillayute Valley School District’s Forks High School were in the top 5 percent of schools that improved on state tests during the past eight years.
The awards to 94 schools throughout the state were given by Phi Delta Kappa and the Center for Educational Effectiveness.
The criteria and award were created by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, but last year, the two private groups took over the award process.
The award not only reflects improvements over the course of eight years, but also takes into account how the schools did against the state scores.
Statewide figures
Statewide, 78.9 percent of students passed reading, 41.7 percent passed math, 86 percent passed writing, and 44.8 percent passed science.
At Neah Bay High School, 95 percent of 10th-graders passed the reading assessment, 100 percent passed writing, 55.6 percent passed science — which is not a graduation requirement — and 47.6 percent passed math in the 2009-10 school year.
At Forks High School, 74.2 percent of students passed the reading test, 40.3 percent passed math, 83.9 percent passed writing, and 38.7 percent passed science during the most recent tests.
“We have been working very hard on the improvement piece for about six years,” said Neah Bay Principal Ann Renker.
“It has been very frustrating because also this year, our high school was moved into step four of [Adequate Yearly Progress] improvements, when our high school is in such fabulous shape,” Renker said.
The Adequate Yearly Progress — or AYP — is a federal initiative that measures how well schools are improving test scores to meet state standards.
If a school does not meet standards, it is placed on the AYP list.
If it doesn’t meet for two years in a row, it enters the first year of improvements.
The first year the school must evaluate its curriculum. Each year, the penalties and action required of the district become more severe.
In stage four, the district is required to complete an entire overhaul of curriculum.
It is also possible for the district to decide to fire Renker and a significant portion of the teachers, though such a decision has not been made.
Quillayute Valley
Quillayute Valley School District Superintendent Diana Reaume said she was proud of the staff and students for their accomplishments.
“We have literally doubled our scores over the last five or eight years,” Reaume said.
“We are really pleased with our reading scores, and, of course, math still concerns us.
“Our plans for this year are really aggressive because this 10th-grade class must pass the math test to graduate.”
Reaume said that, though Forks High School is in the first year of AYP improvement plans for not meeting state standards, she believes aggressive plans for change will have bountiful results.
Because they are in the first step, the district is evaluating its curriculum and has adopted a new math curriculum, Reaume said.
“The problem with [AYP] is that it doesn’t measure a cohort of students as they go — it measures one class against the next class, so it is measuring apples and oranges,” she said.
“But we have a bigger goal of educating and making sure that all kids grow.
“Our vision is to make sure that every student learns and as part of that meets state standards.”
Neah Bay High School was moved into stage four of improvements because the middle school — which is included as part of the high school because of the small size of the district — did not improve in math in 2009-10 over the 2008-09 school year, Renker said.
“The federal process to evaluate schools does not work for us because we are a great high school but need some work at the middle school level,” Renker said.
Renker said the School of Distinction Award was reflective of other accomplishments of the district.
Gates Scholars
This year, 25 percent of all Gates Scholars — a competitive scholarship that pays for all college through graduate school — were from Neah Bay, she said.
“We also are successfully graduating 84 percent of students in four years and 87 percent of students in five years,” she said.
“We also bring college recruiters to campus to give our students tools for the future.”
Renker said she and her staff rely on the research of Carol Dweck, who wrote the scientific article “Raising Smart Kids.”
Dweck emphasized work ethic and overcoming obstacles over natural intelligence.
“It is important to stick with a task even if you find it frustrating or boring,” Renker said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
