Local districts feel waiver loss impacts

The impact of Washington’s losing control of federal dollars helping students in the state’s poorest schools will be felt in different ways depending upon the school district, but virtually all educators agree on one thing — helping struggling students will continue.

“We’ll keep educating kids,” out-going Medical Lake School District Superintendent Dr. Pam Veltri said in an email. “It won’t affect the quality of instruction in our schools and we will move on as usual.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan informed the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction April 24 that the state’s current waiver of accountability requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act would not be renewed for the 2014-2015 school year. The state had been operating the past two years under a conditional use waiver that enabled it to escape the Act’s requirement to report Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), an annual measurement of student achievement in state tests in reading and math.

The state must return to reporting AYP in 2014-2015, with districts that fail to meet the requirements being forced to “set aside” 20 percent of their Title I funds they may receive from the federal government. According to an OSPI news release, the money must be set aside for “either private vendors to provide tutoring or to bus students who want to transfer to a school that did not fail to meet AYP.”

Cheney School District Student Support Services Assistant Director Shannon Lawson said there isn’t a school or district nearby that meets those requirements, with possibly only two in the entire state to choice in to. Since Title I money doesn’t roll in until halfway through the school year that leaves districts reaching into their own pockets for the set aside money.

Veltri said that 20 percent would range from $35,000-$45,000, depending upon the size of the district’s Title I allocation. The requirement will likely mean there will be “less money for Title I teachers” in Medical Lake’s district.

Lawson said Cheney had been receiving around $500,000 in Title I funding, making meeting the 20 percent requirement a $100,000 need. Almost 98 percent of the funding goes into staffing, Lawson said, and the district plans to pull money from accounts for professional development, curriculum and materials to meet the set aside. Once the district knows what it will receive from the federal government for Title I, those funds could be replenished.

“We had been anticipating this happening so we planned for it,” she said. “It will not impact our staffing level. That is our main priority.”

State Superintendent Randy Dorn said the federal Department of Education made it clear that in order for Washington to get the waiver the state Legislature needed to “amend state law to require teacher and principal evaluations to include student growth on state tests, when appropriate.” The law required at least 1 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be tied to state assessment tests, but under pressure from the Washington Education Association, legislators rejected it in the 2014 short session.

Lawson said Washington has viewed student educational growth in all areas as the main measure of learning, with assessment tests serving as a “floor” to work from. The district is participating in developing a new assessment, the Smarter Balanced Field Test, along with several other chosen districts, essentially taking part in what she referred to as a “test of a test.” Scores for this year for grades 3-8 won’t be available for any possible use in 2014-2015.

Lawson and Veltri both said their respective districts will send out letters in August at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the school year informing parents of their academic options for struggling students.

“The Cheney School District provides a solid foundation for all interventions as needed,” Lawson said.

Cheney Free Press staff reporter Al Stove contributed to this story.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.