Tiresome to the left and right

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation (or whatever it's now called) is an organization that follows WA state politics, including education.

They rank schools. Here's my school's ranking.

2008-09 Rank 71/431 Rank in the most recent 5 years 105/382

School Information
Grades	6-8
Enrollment	646
Low Income (%)	15.7
Ethnicity (%)	Wh: 58.2 As: 12.1
Tests not written not exempt (%)	0.3

Academic Performance	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	Trend
Avg level: Reading	3.1	2.9	3.0	3.1	3.1
Avg level: Writing	2.6	2.7	2.8	3.0	3.2
Avg level: Math	2.6	2.5	2.6	2.7	2.8
Avg level: Science	2.2	2.5	2.5	2.6	2.9
Tests below standard (%)	39.8	39.7	34.4	30.3	26.6
Low income gap: Reading	n/a	n/a	n/a	N 0.5	N 0.6	n/a
Low income gap: Math	n/a	n/a	n/a	N 0.7	N 0.7	n/a
Overall rating out of 10	6.5	6.5	6.9	7.3	7.5

Those 2 and 3 scores are on a 4-point scale. 3 and 4 are at and above standard.

The score they list is the average for that whole grade level.

Nice, too, that they tell how many tests were failed in the year.

Most of my colleagues don't like EFF. They're a conservative group that thinks school teachers get paid too much and accomplish too little, so the thinking goes.

I'm more bothered that they simply offer up the same kind of material (data, I guess it is) as anybody else.

Won't anybody with any policy weight discuss this any differently?