Serving Franklin County, WA
Serving Franklin County, WA
RITZVILLE — The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction recently released its 2023-34 report card for public school students for grades K12.
The report card analyzed different data trends from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
And the report card doesn’t look good for area schools when it comes to attendance and consistent grade-level knowledge.
The report card also shows the amount of money school districts are spending per pupil. Interestingly, the amount does not necessarily correlate with student achievement.
Here are some of the highlights of the report card:
Kahlotus
The Kahlotus School District spends a whopping $57,916 per student. Yet, according to the report card, only 30.8% of students show consistent proficiency in math at their grade level and only 23.1% in science.
When it comes to English, 50% show consistent grade-level knowledge.
In Kahlotus, 80% of teacher have at least a masters degree.
Lind
The Lind School District has a large discrepancy in the amount it spends per-student, in part due to its partnership with the Ritzville School District. Academic achievement is also notably different from its elementary to middle to high school students.
The district spends $29,939 per student in Lind Elementary.
Notably, only two-thirds of students in the school have 90% attendance.
When evaluating students for consistent grade-level knowledge, only 25.6% reach the threshold in English, 32.6% in math and 33.3% in science, and that’s with three-quarters of all teachers having a master’s degree or higher.
When it comes to Lind-Ritzville Middle School students from Lind, the district spends $40,441 per student.
Only one third are consistently proficient in English at grade level. In mathematics and science, the percentage drops to only 25%, meaning only 1 in 4 students are consistently reaching grade-level expectations in those subjects.
High school students from Lind attending Lind-Ritzville High School, are doing much better in English, where 75.0% are consistently at grade-level. But only 30.0% are consistently at grade level in math.
High school students here also have a lower attendance rate, with only 49% attending school at least 90% of school days.
Othello
Students in Adams County in the Othello School District are struggling, too, according to the report.
District-wide, only 29.8% of students are consistently grade-level proficient in English, 25.0% in mathematics and 20.0% in science.
The district spends $16,890 per student, according to the report, with 59.1% of teachers here having at least a master’s degree.
District-wide, three-out-of-four students attend school at least 90% of the time.
The district operates two high schools — Desert Oasis and Othello. At Desert Oasis, only 44.4% of students are attending class nine-out-of-10 days. At Othello high school, 75.8% are on-campus 90% of the time.
Student achievement is the lowest in Adams County at Desert Oasis, where only 13.8% of students are consistently at grade-level in English, and 10% in mathematics and science.
Othello High School isn’t much better, with 37.6% consistently at grade level in English, 14.4% in match and 20% in science.
Ritzville
The Ritzville School District spends the least amount per student at the middle school level. According to the report, the district spends an average of $8,911 per student.
The per-student amount increases to $19,509 for Ritzville Grade School students and $27,561 for Lind-Ritzville High School students from Ritzville.
Student achievement is weakest at the middle-school level, where only 38.1% of students are consistently at grade-level for English, 21.6% in math and 18.2% in science.
Ritzville Grade School students were much stronger in their grade-level consistency, with 48.2% in English, 50.6% in math and 70.4%% in science.
Lind-Ritzville High School students from Ritzville also fared better, with 66.7% consistently at grade level in English and 60% in science.
However, only one-third of Ritzville high schoolers were consistently at grade level when it came to mathematics.
Sprague
Sprague also spends a considerable amount, with the report card showing a $35,546 per student expense in the elementary level and $43,884 at the high school level.
Not all of the data for the school was included in the report card. However, at the elementary school level, only 35.3% of students were consistently at grade-level in mathematics.
When it comes to English, only 33.3% of students districtwide are consistently at grade-level skill, according to the report.
And less than half of elementary school students — only 42.1% — have 90% attendance or better.
Washtucna
Washtucna is in the same boat, with only 33.3% of students consistently at grade-level in math and 21.4% in science.
Washtucna spends an average $42,922 per student.
Interestingly, in Washtucna, only two-thirds of students have 90% attendance, according to the report card.
Here, two-thirds of teachers have a master’s degree or higher.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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