Written by Congratulations to the students, teachers, parents, and leaders in the Renton School District. And a big thank you to their many supporters in the Renton community as well, which pretty much includes everyone. Test scores are on the rise in our school district, and we have all the ingredients to see them go much higher. Renton has well-educated citizens, and has many high-tech and professional jobs. We host the headquarters of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Our school district can and should be tops in the state. Our school and community leaders know this, and everyone is making a major push to enhance the district’s performance. Our School Superintendent and our School Board have provided us new ideas and great leadership. Our representatives in Olympia have rallied for Renton education under leadership of 41st District State Representative Marcie Maxwell, a former Renton School Board member herself. And Renton businesses have challenged one another to give deeply to the Renton School district, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for valuable programs. Citizens challenged one another as well, and have donated many thousands of dollars to support student, build new programs, and keep existing assets such as the pools at Hazen and Lindbergh. I’m grateful to everyone who has contributed to our district’s successes and improvements, and I’m proud to be part of Renton.
Here is some more information in the Renton Patch.
I’m glad things are improving – it’s hard to imagine them getting any worse. The article is rather short on specifics, and given a cursory knowledge of statistics, it could be hiding a lot. For example – the school district says “place district scores above state averages on seven of the tests.” The smart reader would know that there’s 19 tests, so by inference the school district is not even meeting state averages in 12 of the tests.
If this ‘report’ is an indication of the districts mode of operation, the my assessment is that the Renton School District would be better served if it’s leadership came to terms with it’s true performance, and was a bit more honest with itself and it’s students.