Imagine 100 percent marketable fresh apples

We reported two weeks ago that Royal High School is nearing the 2014 goal of 100 percent of students passing Washington's basic academic skills exams.

The reporting was correct, but the scores reported for last spring's testing of 10th graders were not the final word.

Principal Jack Hill and I had spoken on a Friday. He called me on Monday to say those were preliminary scores. The call came too late for our deadline.

Hill's call made me wonder how they could have preliminary scoring any way. Turns out, according to Hill, that preliminary scoring is based on the number of students who take the test. Final scoring takes into account all the students who should have taken the test.

In other words, if just one student who's eligible misses exam day, the school can't score 100 percent. It can be a student who is deathly ill or one who just flat refuses to take the exam. No matter the circumstance, one student's absence can shut a school out.

Even with the final scores, Royal High met the adequate yearly progress (AYP) of 84 percent in last spring's testing of 10th graders in two disciplines. It scored 87 percent in reading and 87.9 percent in writing.

Algebra final scoring was 66.1 percent. Geometry had a final score of 54.5. The school did not make AYP in either, but it made the safe harbor mark of 10 percent improvement over the 2009 all math score of 26 percent.

To pass the reading exam, students had to score 400 points or better (out of 525). In algebra and geometry the passing mark was 400 out of 600. In writing it was 17 of 24.

Safe harbor means a school won't be sanctioned for missing the AYP number. The AYP is a number that goes up every year to help schools climb toward that magical 100 percent in 2014. And magical it would be.

Impossible, actually.

I like the notion "No child left behind" as a goal but not as a policy. It suggests we can get every child to do what we want him or her to do.

Well, some kids will make the baseball team, and some will be baseball fans.

The first time I became aware of the 100 percent goal for every school district in the U.S. in 2014 was last fall when all the news about Wahluke's struggles was breaking.

Speaking with Hill this fall I became aware that the 100 percent rule will also apply to graduation rates. According to Hill, a high school will have to account for every freshman in a given class four years later.

In other words, if a member of the class of 2015 leaves Royal as sophomore next year and drops off the face of the earth, Royal won't make 100 percent graduation in 2015.

There will be students who do that. There were about 100 in my freshman class. About half of us made it to graduation in 1963.

I can imagine Hill was elated when there was a graduation rate of 85 percent last spring.

Yes, George W. Bush, "No child left behind" is an admirable goal. It is a ridiculous law.

One hundred percent success on state testing and 100 percent graduation rates will occur probably the same year we market every apple in every orchard.

Or when the president and Congress score 100 percent in math, balance the federal budget and pay off the national debt.