Ephrata, Soap Lake schools win award

OLYMPIA - Math and English trends going in the right direction earned two Columbia Basin school districts an award from a consortium of education organizations.

Ephrata middle and high schools and Soap Lake High School earned a School of Distinction award from the Center for Educational Excellence, Association of Washington School Principals, Washington Association of School Administrators and Washington State School Directors Association. The press release announcing the award said it was given to schools that raised achievement test scores over a five-year period.

Ephrata and Soap Lake were among 99 statewide that received the award, the press release said. It was based on the schools' ability to raise their test scores consistently in that period, the release said.

Officials from the North Central Washington Education Service District will visit the schools to present the award in person, Cindy Duncan, the ESD assistant superintendent for academic excellence, said.

"Pretty cool," Soap Lake Superintendent Dan McDonald said. But the award highlights a contradiction in the process - Soap Lake High School has been identified as a "priority" school, which means they are among the 5 percent of schools statewide with the lowest performance on achievement tests.

McDonald said the contradiction comes because the two assessments are measuring different things. "The critical piece is the trend of improvement," he said.

"It's not about where you are. It's about the improvement you've made," Duncan said.

McDonald said the key to improvement and getting out of the school improvement process is finding the weak spots at school and working to strengthen them. That takes training for teachers, he said, to know how to strengthen those weak areas. But it also takes support from parents and district patrons, he said.

The award proves Soap Lake district patrons are giving that support, he said. "The bottom line is, it (the effort to improve) is showing."