Group compares schools with similar challenges

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School District compared well with other schools for the 2004-2005 state assessment in an alternative look at data.

Just for the Kids Washington compares performance of schools by comparing Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores with highest performing schools in the state facing similar or greater challenges. Schools are matched based on the percentage of low-income students and bilingual students attending.

Garden Heights Elementary scored highest out of 483 other schools in the state. The North Elementary scores are the highest in reading and math out of 43 schools. Chief Moses Middle School scored highest in reading, writing, math and science out of 32 schools. Frontier Middle School scored highest in math out of 50 schools. Moses Lake High School scored highest in math and science out of 21 schools.

District Superintendent Steve Chestnut said the State Superintendent's Office has the same data, but navigators must manually set the criteria. Just for Kids automatically chooses the criteria to compare schools.

"I think it's more of an 'apples-to-apples' comparison," Chestnut said.

Moses Lake School District is compared with Mercer Island School District, but the schools do not face the same challenges, he said.

"Poverty's a big factor in student achievement. We know it," he said.

Income is not a predictor of individual achievement, but it is a predictor of group achievement, he said.

"It doesn't mean we're satisfied," Chestnut said. "We still have a long ways to go."

He said the district expects to do well when Just for the Kids updates its Web site to include 2005-2006 data.