Thursday, March 02, 2006

Seattle School District to Close Schools?

The Seattle school district is talking again about closing schools. They even list the criteria they will consider in making the decision.
Academic achievement, building condition and enrollment are among the criteria that will determine which schools may close.

But wait.... further down in the article:
• Academic achievement: a school's record in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, Washington Assessment of Student Learning results and other test scores.

So by academic achievement, what they mean is everyone does the same regardless of race. So... it sounds like if one group does really, really well and another group does ok, that is not as desirable as all groups doing poorly.

So what is my connection to this? Well Andrew goes to one of the schools that was on the first list of schools to close, even though his school is at capacity and has the highest test scores in the district, outside the APP school. It's easy enough to go to the Seattle School Districts web site and see what schools do well and which do not. This is probably the best site to compare individual schools.
Just do not be fooled that test scores will really be used as criteria in closing schools because that just aint gonna fly in P.C. Seattle.

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