What do we want kids to know? How will we know that they learned it? What do we do as a staff to help those students who don’t get it? At Mountain View High School in the Evergreen School District, these three questions guide all teaching and learning.

Associate Principal Eric Bernstein says the answers aren’t always easy to find, especially to the last question. "But we can’t say, oh well, they’ll get it somewhere else. We need to do everything we can to help students learn what they need to know because we can’t just shift the responsibility." To help the Vancouver-area school’s more than 2,000 students get the skills they need, Mountain View offers:

• A daily tutorial period for each ninth-grader.
• After-school help: Four days a week, students have access to help in math, writing, reading and science. After-school sessions are primarily for ninth- and 10th-graders but open to all students.
• Two-week August program for incoming freshmen to get familiar with the school, learn study skills and jump-start math and literacy skills for the year. Four years ago, 11 students attended the program; this past August, more than 350 students participated.

Bernstein says the state’s school improvement efforts are pushing schools to focus on the achievement of all students, not just some. He believes the WASL has made a difference but would like change how people view the WASL: "It’s not an obstacle but a pathway to success."