Colfax, Endicott, Palouse receive distinction awards

Improving local students from Colfax, Palouse and Endicott have earned their schools state recognition.

Colfax Junior-Senior High School (grades 7-8), along with Endicott/St. John Elementary and Middle School and Palouse Elementary have been named as 2013 Schools of Distinction.

Outstanding improvement in student achievement in reading and math over five years led to the honor for 99 schools in Washington, all receiving this year’s School of Distinction Award from The Center for Educational Effectiveness (CEE), the Association of Educational Service Districts (AESD), the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP), Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) and Washington State School Directors’ Association (WSSDA).

The 2013 School of Distinction award winners include 55 elementary schools, 24 middle/junior high schools and 23 high schools. This is the seventh annual School of Distinction award recognition in Washington state.

“These schools represent the top five percent of improvement of all schools in Washington state,” noted Greg Lobdell, CEE President. “These schools are from all regions of the state, all sizes of towns and with two percent to 100 percent poverty and enrollment of English Language Learners as high as 49 percent. These schools demonstrate that significant improvement is occurring all across our diverse public schools.”

Colfax Junior-Senior High School Principal Buck Marsh said the award is especially gratifying after moving the seventh and eighth grade from Jennings Elementary to the high school building before the 2012-13 school year.

The award comes from test results from that year.

“It’s a huge honor,” Marsh said, crediting teachers, parents and students. “A lot of hard work went into that transition last year.”

Mike Dunn, Superintendent of Spokane E.S.D., noted the “success and hard work of these highest improving schools across our state needs to be celebrated and shared in order to support improvement efforts across Washington and make this difference for all students. This is a testament to the staff, students, leaders and communities serving these students.”

The award’s performance measure is calculated using the Measures of Student Progress (third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade), and for 10th grade, the High School Proficiency Exam in reading and the End-of-Course exams in math.

Using data from 2008 through 2013 provides six data points which identify five improvement steps.