I am about fed up with the schools in Marysville. My youngest kids have been zoned into Quil Ceda Elementary School even though Allen Creek Elementary is close, so close we could almost spit on it from our house.
My kids are to be bussed over a mile and a half away to a crappy school on the reservation!
If you follow the link at the bottom of this post you'll see why my wife and I are up in arms. I have put in for an In-District Transfer to Allen Creek, if it doesn't go through....I will have to move. I don't want my kids in a school that apparently cannot get the job done.

What do you guys think of Arlington, Stanwood/Camano, or Lake Stevens School Districts?

Quil Ceda Report Card 2009/2010

Don't have kids in school here anymore but the Granite Falls school district has won some awards in the recent past and they have not had to put up with the teachers unions illegal strikes.

Fishy

wouldn't want my kids going there either.
you might contact the school district to see what changes are being made to improve quil ceda. such as added staff new, principal. etc
when a school is that bad they have to be on an improvement plan
let us know what happens

Marty,

By the looks of the report card, the problem at Quil Ceda is the students, not the teachers. The teachers appear to be well qualified and hopefully are also committed to their trade. The student body appears to have a very high percentage of students who are poorly qualified. That usually means too many kids showing up without enough sleep, without adequate nutrition, without enough love, and unready to learn.

Sg

As a general rule, school test scores are inversely correlated with the percentage of students on free, or reduced lunch. Poverty, poor parenting, a single parent struggling to provide... what Salmo said, being the real problem.

SG,

I understand your point, and what worries me is because those kids are not getting love, nutrition, sleep, and proper discipline (assumption) at home will that place my kids at risk? I mean that both academically and physically. I can only imagine the disruptions and lack of respect in the classroom.

LarryB,

The changes that took place include closing the other school, Tulalip Elementary, on the Reservation and combining both student bodies at Quil Ceda. What a wonderful idea...

We should find out this week if the transfer is approved.

Based on 27 years of teaching experience, I'd answer "Yes" to your question. More so academically, than physically. Disruptions, distractions, and the requisite follow up make it more difficult to progress through the prescribed curriculum. Planning time, after school hours and before school hours get filled with parental phone calls, paperwork to document disruptive behavior, and meetings with parent(s) and the entourage assigned to help the problem child. Mainstreaming the dysfunctional child into a regular classroom and declaring, "No child will be left behind!", pretty much guaranteed the poor performers would be dictating the pace of educational progress during a school year. There's a reason gifted students usually have their own classroom. One of your responsibilities as a parent is to make the best choices for your children's education. Sounds like you're working on it. Good luck.

Marty,

CedarR echoes what nearly every educator I've known has said. It's unfortunate but real. A student body with so many that are unready to learn drags down the pace for everyone.

A good public school education is (or was when my kids went) available, but you have to be mindful and take action to make it work for you. My kids elementary school had a gifted student program, then junior high was a free for all of craziness, and high school offered honors and AP classes. I think that made a huge difference. Both kids were offered admission to several highly selective colleges and universities. You know that it's worked out when the first goes off to college and calls home saying, "I've never felt so average in my life." They discover that there really are a lot of other smart kids out there, but over half of them attended private prep schools.

Has education dumbed down? You bet. Read a selection of papers written by college sophomores and juniors from the early 1900s. Most of today's college graduates have nowhere near the vocabulary or reasoning skills, "cuz everything's so awesome, dude!"

Sg

The high school I graduated from in 1969 was the rated the third hardest high school in California. I went to school with alot of smart kids from 2 parent affluent homes.