I was recently reading the Seattle Times and saw a story where Seattle Public Schools were doing better than the state average in standardized testing results. So I decided to use the same database the Times used for their statistics and take a quick look to see how the Federal Way Public Schools district was doing compared to the state average. I have to say I was shocked by the results.

Where the Seattle schools are reporting upwards of 10-12 percentage points above the state average, FWPS are reporting 14-17 points behind the state average. In fact, this year’s results are worse than last year’s results. So what on earth is happening in the Federal Way school district that is causing such a significant difference?

Claire Wilson and the rest of the Federal Way School Board have been patting themselves on the back for increasing the number of high school graduates in the district. While this may be good news, I also have to wonder: Is the school district rushing our kids through the system without proper education just to generate higher graduation rates? Something needs to be done about how poorly our school board is handling a situation that has been getting worse since 2013.

Claire Wilson is touting her “success” as school board president as a reason to be elected to the state Senate. Lower test scores are not a success.

Judy Walsh

Federal Way