Vancouver Public Schools name-drops Stanford like it’s going out of style, so let’s explore this highly referenced study. The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University is a national database of academic performance of students in grades three to eight from 2009 to 2016 in math and English Language Arts, based on three measures of performance: average test scores, learning rates and test score trends. Taking many factors into consideration, the data presented in this study are finely calculated to produce estimates that are comparable across states, grades, and years.
Compared with other districts in the nation with similar socioeconomic status, the database reports VPS has 14 percent higher learning rates, average test scores that are 0.34 grade levels higher, and a test score trend improvement of 0.05 grade levels. Other districts in our region significantly outperform VPS, but that’s not the point. The point is that VPS highlights the highest reported percentage and conveniently adds a spotlight on graduation rates. Since VPS celebrates the OSPI-reported 85.1 percent graduation rate, it should also include the OPSI-reported 42.2 percent of students meeting math standards and 52.6 percent meeting ELA standards.
That huge disconnect just doesn’t add up. Don’t let Stanford University and that 14 percent dazzle you. VPS is capable of better.
