press release:
The majority of high schools in Seattle Public Schools showed strong academic growth during the 2010‐2011 school year, Interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield reported today, thanks to great principals, great teachers and involved families who are connected to their schools.

“Improving student achievement at the high school level poses a particular challenge for any school system,” Enfield said. “The gains we are seeing at our high schools are a testament to the tremendous instructional leadership of our principals and assistant principals and the dedication and talent of our teaching staff.”
Seattle schools are ranked by their absolute performance and year‐to‐year growth from Level 1 (low) to Level 5 (high). A total of 20 schools overall achieved the highest ranking, Level 5, including two high schools, which reached that level for the first time. In addition, the number of schools at the lowest levels declined sharply, as schools improved enough to move up. No high schools were ranked at Level 1, and only two were ranked at Level 2.

Seattle School Segmentation, 2010‐2011
High schools throughout the city showed robust improvement: Ballard High School and The Center School moved from Level 3 to Level 5; Nathan Hale High School moved from Level 3 to Level 4; and Chief Sealth, West Seattle, Ingraham and Cleveland high schools moved from Level 2 to Level 3.

“Principals and teachers have focused carefully on student progress, using data on student achievement to plan the best ways to reach out to individual students,” said Heather Swanson, the president of the Principals’ Association of Seattle Schools (PASS). “These segmentation results show that those efforts are succeeding spectacularly. I am so proud of the work that is happening in our schools.” Seattle Public Schools celebrates strong growth in high school performance

Every year, Seattle schools are ranked from Level 1 (low) to Level 5 (high). This ranking system allows the District to design customized support for schools and students, while providing clear measures of success for families and community members. The rankings are based on both absolute scores that show how close schools are to achieving District‐wide 2013 targets; and growth scores that show each school’s rate of improvement, as well as the progress students are making based on the progress of similar students at other schools.

Lower‐ranked schools (Levels 1 and 2) receive more oversight from the District office, and may receive targeted interventions to help students improve. Higher‐ranked schools (Levels 4 and 5) receive more autonomy in terms of professional development and discretionary spending. Please see http://bit.ly/SPS_SchoolReports for more detailed information.

SUCCESS STORIES: Three schools
Ballard High School’s focus on 9th grade transition leads to school‐wide success.
At Ballard High School, which moved up from Level 3 to Level 5, the percentage of students meeting standard on the state reading test increased from 86.6 percent in spring 2010 to 91.7 percent in 2011; in science, the percentage meeting standard went from 63.1 percent to 71.4 percent. For juniors and seniors, the percentage taking college admissions tests (the SAT or ACT) increased from 59.0 percent in 2009‐2010 to 72.2 percent in 2010‐2011.

Ballard principal Keven Wynkoop credits the school’s 9th grade transition program for helping to launch these successful trends. “This is the sixth year that Ballard has utilized a 9th‐grade mentoring program known as Link Crew,” Wynkoop said. “We were the first Seattle high school to commit to this program and we have seen dramatic improvement in the grades and disciplinary rates of our 9th graders.”
Wynkoop also pointed to the Ballard High School staff’s commitment to collaboration, noting that Ballard uses its early dismissal days as an opportunity for teachers to work together in subject‐area Data Teams, which design curriculum and measure student success; and interdisciplinary Professional Learning Communities, which organize themselves around a topic of study for teacher improvement.

Center School focuses on rigor, relevance and relationships at The Center School, which also moved up from Level 3 to Level 5, principal Oksana Britsova uses one word to describe her school’s success: “focus.”
“We focus on the three R’s,” Britsova said, “rigor, relevance, and relationships.” This focus led to significant gains between 2009‐2010 and 2010‐2011. The number of Center School graduates who had taken a college‐level course (AP or IB) increased from 66.7 percent to 95.1 Seattle Public Schools celebrates strong growth in high school performance percent, and the percentage of test‐takers who successfully passed a college‐level test during high school (in AP or IB) increased from 68.2 percent to 75.0 percent.

For underclassmen, the percentage of 10th‐grade students meeting standard on the state reading test increased from 90.8 percent to 96.0 percent; and the percentage meeting standard in writing increased from 90.9 percent to 96.0 percent.

Britsova noted that students’ performance was a direct result of increasing rigor in the classroom. “All our staff strive toward excellence,” Britsova said. “We have high expectations for student work, and we make sure students know that.” She pointed out that The Center School has developed a reputation as a college‐focused, academically‐oriented school, and teachers and staff work hard to help students succeed.
On the second of the three R’s, relevance, Britsova pointed out that The Center School’s arts integration focus provides a natural way to make academics relevant to students.

“We have a goal of involving at least two community members in each unit to show how our lessons relate to the world around us,” she said.

Cleveland High School students make academic gains on state test
At Cleveland High School, which moved up from Level 2 to Level 3, students have shown impressive academic growth after their first year of participation in both the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program and the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program.

Their success is illustrated by their performance on the statewide reading and math exams taken by students in grades 9 and 10: In reading, the percentage of students meeting standard increased by 6 percent from spring 2010 to 2011, rising from 63 percent to 69 percent; and in math, the school saw a 218 percent increase, as the number of students meeting standard increased from 17 percent to 54 percent.

Since the state changed some parts of the state’s high school math test, it is impossible to fully compare Spring 2010 and Spring 2011 math results until Spring 2012, when the students will have taken the same test for a second year in a row. Even so, Cleveland students have made significant progress in just one year. Cleveland principal Princess Shareef said that faculty are working to increase the level of challenge in the coursework, as well as providing extra math instruction to students who are not yet meeting standards.
Two other measures of successful high schools are enrollment counts and graduation rates. Cleveland’s enrollment had been declining for years, so one of the school’s goals has been to attract more students.

Those efforts are paying off: in Fall 2009, Cleveland had 738 students enrolled; by Fall 2010, enrollment had increased to 795 students. Seattle Public Schools celebrates strong growth in high school performance

Cleveland’s graduation rates are also showing progress: The school’s overall graduation rate jumped from 55 percent in Spring 2010 to 68% in Spring 2011. Shareef notes that staff focused on closing the gap in graduation rates between Anglo‐American students and students of color.

High schools throughout Seattle are making progress
Ballard High School, The Center School and Cleveland High School exemplify the focused attention to student achievement that is helping to drive student gains throughout the District:
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Students taking college admissions tests (SAT or ACT) increased from 63.0 percent to 69.5 percent between 2009‐2010 and 2010‐2011.
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Graduates taking a college‐level course during high school (AP or IB) increased from 58.8 percent to 64.8 percent between 2009‐2010 and 2010‐2011.
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Students graduating in four years or fewer increased from 66.7 percent to 72.6 percent between 2009‐2010 and 2010‐2011.
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10th graders scoring proficient on the state science test increased from 46.0 percent to 52.4 percent between 2009‐2010 and 2010‐2011.

“Paying careful attention to how we are doing has helped us to improve,” Dr. Enfield said. “We’re very proud of the progress our high schools have made, and we have high expectations for continued improvement.”