Closing the Achievement Gap - Washington State School Directors ...

The Washington School Research Center’s Bridging the Opportunity Gapreport of March 2002 identified 16 schools that demonstrated higherstudent achievement as measured by fourth grade WASL scores thanschools with similar demographics. Among the sixteen schools in the study,eight had 50 percent or more of their students qualifying for free or reduced-pricelunch and the other eight had 25-49 percent of their studentsqualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. These schools had as many as89 percent of their students meeting reading, writing and mathematicsstandards.Whitney Elementary, in the Yakima School District (www.ysd.wednet.edu),for example, has 73 percent of its students on free or reduced-price lunch.In 1999, only 26 percent of the fourth grade students met standard on theWASL reading, math and writing. In 2000 that increased to 42 percent,and in 2001, 63 percent of the fourth graders met standard in these threeareas.100%90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%Larrabee Elementary in the Bellingham School District(www.bham.wednet.edu) is another example. With 31 percent free orreduced-price lunch, they were able to increase the percent of fourth gradersmeeting math, reading and writing standards from 56 percent in 1999to 81 percent in 2001. The average in 2001 for schools with 25-49 percentfree or reduced-price lunch was 51 percent of the students meeting thesestandards.14CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: A POLICY ACTION GUIDE