<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Discovery Middle School aims to leave problem zone

It's on new low-achiever list, but officials cite gains

By Howard Buck
Published: January 14, 2011, 12:00am

For a second straight year, Discovery Middle School made a list of 50 “persistently lowest-achieving schools” across Washington state and thus becomes eligible for reform-minded federal money.

But Vancouver Public Schools won’t pursue any reform grant dollars this time, after its bid for nearly $9 million came up empty a year ago in competition with other Washington districts.

The district expects Discovery will pull itself out of the problem category with students’ and teachers’ hard work.

A new list of “Tier II” schools was unveiled Thursday by Randy Dorn, state school superintendent, under federal No Child Left Behind Act guidelines.

Tip: you can interact with this map using your fingerscursor (or two fingers on touch screens)cursor. Map

One year ago, both Discovery and Jason Lee Middle School made the list, based on a rolling, three-year average of annual student assessment scores and graduation rates that denote the poorest 5 percent performers.

Jason Lee escaped Thursday’s listing, thanks to better reading and math scores in spring 2010.

(That was before its English Language Learning magnet program was disbanded and ELL students returned to “home” neighborhood schools for the current school year, noted Chriss Burgess, Vancouver associate superintendent.)

Meanwhile, the district has pumped new resources and refocused effort into higher achievement at Discovery.

Leaders declared Discovery an “Opportunity Zone” school, and opened a family resource center on campus. Sixth-graders have joined a college-prep oriented Achievement via Individual Determination (AVID) program designed to improve their study and organization skills.

Longer block periods were created for math classes, supplemental classroom materials were added and teacher training was ramped up.

In September, Discovery became an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme school, intended to improve rigor and connectedness in all subject areas.

Because Discovery’s assessment results also improved last spring, even before those reforms kicked in, district and state officials expect the school to escape Tier II status in 2012, Burgess said.

“All of the indications we have show it’s going to happen,” she said.

The district dislikes reform models linked to receipt of grant dollars, namely removal of the principal and possibly several teachers, Burgess said.

Finally, Olympia expects to pass along only $7.3 million in federally-backed School Improvement Grants this year. That compares with about $49 million funded in 2010.

What’s more, nearly half that $7 million is targeted for schools tagged with the more-dire “in improvement” status, leaving scant money for Discovery and the rest, Burgess said.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.

Loading...
Tags