Spo-CAN! Part II: Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad Schools….We Make You Feel No Good

It seems to me like the WASL scores are running late this year. In years passed I would have seen in-depth articles from the Seattle papers and the Tacoma News-Tribune by now, and those haven’t come out.

However, the scores themselves are starting to float around. The Spokesman, acting on a report from OSPI, has released the names of the eight schools in Spokane County that didn’t make AYP this year and are “needing improvement.” You may notice a pattern:

• Phoenix Alternative School, Nine Mile Falls
  
• West Valley Contract Based Alternative School, West Valley
  
• Mead Alternative High School, Mead
  
• Bryant Center (an Alternative School), Spokane District 81
  
• Havermale Alternative School, Spokane District 81
  
• Glover Middle School, Spokane
  
• University High School, Spokane
  
• North Central High School, Spokane

There are certainly things about No Child Left Behind that make no sense, and the idea that an alternative high school could be a failing school is one of them. These are the toughest schools that serve the very toughest kids; is there any possible sanction that would change that fact?

Where would these kids transfer to that could meet their needs? They’ve typically already failed in a traditional setting.
What would “restructuring” possibly accomplish?
So you fire the entire staff—do you really think there’s anyone else looking for these jobs?

Digging a little deeper, the reason that Glover Middle and University High are on the list is because of special education scores (math and reading for Glover, math for University). It’s another one of those things that make no sense; the entire school is labeled because of the performance of kids with identified disabilities in a subject. And as the bar gets higher closer to 2014, it’s something that you’re going to see more and more of.

This is why the battle over the reauthorization of NCLB next year is going to be so important.