Contact: Lisa Shin
(206) 937-9691
lshin@washingtonpolicy.org

The Annual Public School Achievement Index

SEATTLE — In 2009, the Washington state legislature directed the State Board of Education to create a School Achievement Index to inform parents about the quality of the state’s 2,097 public schools.   

Results for the 2014 School Achievement Index, for school year 2013-14, are now available.

In 2013, the State Board of Education significantly changed how the Achievement Index ranks schools. The changes reflected the requirements of the U.S. Department of Education and anticipate results from the federal Smarter Balanced test taken by Washington students this past spring, 2015.

• Nearly half of Washington public schools, 921 schools, or 44 percent, received a D ranking or lower
• 818 schools, 39 percent, received a B or C ranking
• Only 91 public schools, 4 percent, received an exemplary A ranking
• 267 schools, or 13 percent, were not rated

Governor Jay Inslee has recommended “a system in which every school in the state receives a letter grade that’s accessible to parents.” The purpose is to let parents and the general public know how well public school administrators are fulfilling their paramount duty to provide for the education of every child. 

The six rankings used by the State Board of Education are Exemplary, Very Good, Good, Fair, Underperforming and Lowest 5 percent. Following Governor Inslee’s recommendation for letter grades for public schools, Washington Policy Center reports these at A, B, C, D, F and F-. 

In creating the Achievement Index, the legislature provided: “The SBE [State board of Education] has responsibility for implementing a statewide accountability system that includes identification of successful schools and districts, those in need of assistance, and those in which state intervention measures are needed.”   

“According to state figures, school administrators have assigned 53,873 students to the lowest-performing schools in the state. Many people believe that is not fair,” says Liv Finne, Director for Education at Washington Policy Center. 

Lawmakers in some states, like Nevada, have provided fully-funded Education Savings Accounts to parents, so they can send their children to better schools. Lawmakers in Washington should consider a similar program, so every child can have access to a quality education. 

The 2014 Achievement Index, where you can look up the grade of every school in our state for school year 2013-14, can be found on Washington Policy Center’s website here. 

WPC's Policy Note explaining changes the State Board of Education made in 2013 to its methodology of ranking of schools may be found here. 

Results from previous years can be found here.