— from the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction (OSPI) —
Orcas Island High School wins the Washington Achievement Award for Overall Excellence again!
The Washington Achievement Awards celebrate the state’s top-performing schools and are given to the top five percent of all state schools. Awards are awarded based on three years of student scores on state tests.
Orcas Island High School also won a second award for High Progress. Other award categories are:
• High Progress
• Reading Growth
• Math Growth
• Extended Graduation Rate
• English Language Acquisition
Award-winning schools have at least one thing in common: the power to
profoundly affect student learning. Award-winning schools are identified
through the revised Achievement Index, criteria set in the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver, and criteria approved by the State Board of Education (SBE).
In a message to school staff, Superintendent Barbara Kline said,
“This high school award is the culmination of the work of all staff K-12. Everyone works to be sure that these students value graduation from high school so that students will work to earn the credits needed for graduation. And everyone works to see that students have the skills needed to earn those credits.
This is a shared award. Congratulations to all of us!”
Overall Excellence, also Most Improved. Yes, this is fine. Nice record-keeping, OSPI. On the real side, our graduates state they were fully prepared by OHS for very difficult, first-year university courses (“College is HARD!”). What I want to comment on is my abrupt reaction to the headline. No one calls OHS “Orcas High.” What is this–“Grease?”