In another letter titled “Lower test scores are not a success” it mentioned that Claire Wilson is touting her successes as school board president by stating that graduation rates are increasing while our standardized test scores are dropping.

USA Today reports that while we should applaud high graduation rates, we should care even more that those rates are legitimate, “While graduation rates can be useful indicators of performance, just like standardized test scores, there is a key difference. State tests are thoroughly validated, statistically and procedurally, against cheating. Graduation rates don’t have similar safeguards.” The article also mentions that often teachers change grades at the end of the school year to inflate personal success rates or to accommodate pleading students who want to graduate.

On the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction website you can fact check this yourself. The Washington State Report Card which lists out the percentages of students that are “meeting the standard on the general state assessment in 2018.” From there you can compare the percentages between the state averages and the Federal Way School District’s averages.

The Federal Way School District is in fact behind the state average by 10-12 percentage points in almost every category and year. In the recent Federal Way Mirror candidate forum, Sen. Mark Miloscia focuses on these numbers as a better indicator of our current school success than the numbers given by his opponent Claire Wilson.

Claire Wilson is attempting to inflate numbers and mislead voters. For me the choice is clear, vote Mark Miloscia.

Rob Barrans

Auburn