District News

Tahoma students among state’s highest achievers

Tahoma School District students continue to perform at high levels of achievement, according to an analysis of comparable school districts as measured by standardized state test scores.

In 21 testing categories that include reading, math and science for grades 3-8 and Grade 10, Tahoma students finished in the top 10 in 14 categories and were no lower than 26th in any category. The comparison is for all school districts in the state that have more than 50 students in a grade level. Tahoma is fifth overall in the state in this analysis; the only school districts that had more top-10 representation were Mercer Island, Bainbridge Island, Issaquah and Lake Washington.

“Our teachers and our kids are working really hard at learning,” said Dawn Wakeley, associate director of Tahoma's Teaching and Learning Dept. “Our teachers and parents really support our students.”

Wakeley said students have benefitted from new math curriculum, along with an emphasis on providing immediate help to students who are struggling with math. In addition, the district is providing more assistance to teachers by employing math “coaches,” whose mission is to help teachers better understand and teach math skills and concepts.
Teachers also are receiving more timely information about student test scores, which helps them focus on areas where individual students need assistance. Better data and training for teachers is translating into better test scores for students.

“They just care so passionately and want to know about their students what the data says,” Wakeley said.

Because the majority of Tahoma students are performing at a high level, Wakeley said there is more emphasis on identifying students who are struggling in a particular subject or subjects and providing more help to them.

“We are at the point of providing help to individual students about individual skills” while still maintaining overall high achievement throughout the school district, she said.
Despite all of the district's academic success, it will be a struggle to maintain high levels of achievement as state funding shrinks, due to budget cuts, and the school district remains overcrowded.

“We want our community to join us in celebrating the achievement of our students,” said Kevin Patterson, public information officer. “But the community also needs to know that student achievement is occurring despite lack of adequate learning spaces in our schools and reductions in funding. It is going to be very difficult to maintain our high standards during the next few years unless we find better ways to fund schools and until we can provide more classrooms and support spaces for our students.”

Click here to view a report presented the the Board of Directors.