Accepting Average?

That’s according to a new series of state report cards by Education Week called “Quality Counts,” which gave Washington’s education system a C overall. While the C grade is indeed average among the states, only three states—New York, Massachusetts and Maryland—received the nation’s highest grade, a B. Fives states, including Oregon, Idaho and Nevada received the lowest grade, a D+ —ouch, looks like our regional neighbors have a lot of work to do.

To determine the overall grades, Education Week’s researchers averaged six indicators, including: chance for success (How does living in a certain state affect a student’s future potential? Washington received a B-); transitions and alignment (How well is system aligned to handle major transitions? Washington received a C-; and school finance (How is money being equitably sent? Washington received a D+).

Supt. Terry Bergeson was most worried about the D+ in finance, but noted, “We’ve made great achievement gains in the past decade. But in the last two years we’ve begun to plateau while other states have made gains. We must regain our momentum. To do that, we need the support of the Legislature and the people of this state.”

Coming from someone for whom this news really stung, I hope that both citizens and the Legislature can see this rating as a grade to challenge and not simply accept as status quo.

To read OSPI’s news release about the Education Week grade visit their website.