Oakesdale academic gains earn honor from governor

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn honored 12 Washington schools for winning national awards at a ceremony at the governor’s mansion March 13.

One recipient was Oakesdale Elementary, which was given a Title I Academic Achievement Award last fall for improved scores in mathematics.

The ceremony in Olympia was a new practice, instituted by Inslee to honor the recipients of the awards. Four representatives from Oakesdale made the trip, including Oakesdale school principal Jason Reed, Superintendent Jake Dingman and teachers Tanya Shrope and Shari Roths.

“Governor Inslee decided he wanted to bring school representatives to thank them personally,” said Reed.

The $10,000 award Oakesdale won was evaluated from results from Washington state’s annual Measure of Student Progress (MSP) tests. Title I is a federal program created in 2002 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which supports improving academic achievement of low-performing students in reading and math.

Between 2010 and 2012, Oakesdale made significant gains in the math section of the MSP.

Fifth-graders went from 44 percent passing to 92.9 percent, while fourth-graders improved from 45.5 percent passing to 100 percent. Third-graders in the two-year time period went from 77.7 percent to 100 percent.

“All of those are amazing in mathematics,” said Gayle Pauley, Director of Title I for OSPI.

“I’m proud of all these schools,” Dorn said in a statement. “The fact that what they’ve done is being recognized on a national scale speaks very well to how they’re doing and how Washington state is doing.”

Aside from Oakesdale Elementary, six other Washington schools won Title I Academic Achievement Awards last fall.

“Congratulations to each of these schools and to the teachers, school staff, parents and community members who have been such an important part of their efforts,” Inslee said in a statement.

As a school winning a Title I Academic Achievement award, Oakesdale received $10,000 to be used for professional development for improvement of the teachers’ knowledge base in an area of expertise, new area of expertise related to current position or increased expertise in effective classroom practices; team-building and teacher planning opportunities for the purpose of furthering the work on developing school-reform strategies; development of additional research-based instruction and development of additional strategies, curriculum and training models.