How high a “Priority” is academic achievement in Washington’s schools?

At a recent school board meeting there was recognition of some of the scholars at Todd Beamer High School. There was a National Merit Semi-Finalist, the first in the school’s history, and 20 Advanced Placement Scholars. About the same time in “Education Week,” the national newspaper for K-12 education that is not well read in this state, there was an advertisement for a new superintendent of Chappaqua School District in New York State. It stated that their high school, Horace Greeley, had 15 National Merit Semi-Finalists and 30 Advanced Placement Scholars. Horace Greeley has 1250 students and Todd Beamer has approximately 1750 students. Horace Greeley’s SAT scores were in the mid 600’s and Federal Way’s are just above 500.

Clearly there must be an emphasis upon academic achievement at Horace Greeley that is different than that seen at Todd Beamer. In fact I would guess that to find 15 National Merit Semi-Finalists in South King County, with a high school enrollment of over 20,000 might be difficult. Perhaps the football and basketball teams at Todd Beamer are better than those of Horace Greeley?

Let us remember that the motto of the Federal Way School District used to be “Every student world class.” Several years ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the achievement gap that America has when measured against Singapore. In the article they quoted a high school principal, in Singapore, who stated, “He was disappointed with the achievement levels of his students and so he cancelled Christmas vacation to work on improving these scores.”

Is there a high school principal, school superintendent, or school board in America that would do this? If they did who would be most upset? Teachers who had other plans for the holidays? Students who look forward to vacations? Or parents who have made vacation plans for skiing or beaches? Clearly while our State’s constitution proclaims that we have the “Highest Priority” or the “Paramount Duty” for education this priority isn’t as high as that of a Singapore high school principal. In fact Washington State is 35th in the nation in “High School Completion” according to “Education Week.” Clearly in Singapore there would seem to be a higher, even than “Paramount,” priority for achievement.

Why is it that Horace Greeley has so much higher levels of achievement than our local high school? I picked Beamer only because the achievements mentioned were made public. Educators will quickly point out that Greeley doesn’t have the “Minority” population that Beamer has. Is being a “Minority” a handicap when it comes to academic achievement? The same educators would vehemently deny that this is the case! If this is the case the familiar phrase, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” comes to mind.

Is it that the parents of Horace Greeley have a different vision of high school success than the parents of Todd Beamer? If you ask parents of Todd Beamer, at least most of the ones I have talked to, about the quality of Todd Beamer they will tell me that it is a “good school.” How good is it when compared to Horace Greeley? If I were a college admissions counselor would I prefer a Greeley graduate over that of a Beamer graduate? In fact the Greeley College Admissions website lists the colleges that require SAT subject tests to be considered for admission. I have not seen this information on any high school website in Washington, but I haven’t looked at all of them.

What would it be like if the Principal of Beamer were to share these statistics with ALL of the parents of students contemplating attending Todd Beamer, or any other high school in the district? What if he were to state that the schedule for next year at Beamer will depend upon the levels of achievement that are attained this year? What if he suggested that the length of the school day would depend on the level of achievement of each student? Some kids might have school from 7:30am to 6pm while others could come in at 10:00 and leave at 2:00. How would this fit the “Priorities” of students, teachers and parents? I would suggest that the enrollment at Beamer just might drop significantly as this kind of “Priority” doesn’t seem compatible with many of the Beamer parents.

Currently there are two significant films about this in the area. “Race to Nowhere,” and “Waiting for Superman.” In “Race to Nowhere” the theme is that we are pushing our kids too hard with all of the academics, sports, and other social activities. I believe that this is probably true, but the producers of this film suggest that we should reduce the emphasis on academics to accommodate for this! Not my contention if we are to be “World Class!” Clearly the international community would point out that our high schools include a great deal of activities that they would consider distractions. “Waiting for Superman” takes a quite different view of this, and suggests that successful schools concentrate on academics to prepare their students for the international competition. To do this they suggest you have to engage parents in the realities of the real world. This film isn’t very popular with educators.

I close with the question. How high is the priority for an academic education in Federal Way? As high as that in Chappaqua, or Singapore? If not, why not?

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Getting a quality education for your child is not a spectator sport!