The bottom 50 elementary schools in Utah according to the Utah Comprehensive Accountability System

Published: Thursday, Aug. 1 2013 11:50 p.m. MDT

#51 - West Kearns Elementary (tie) Next » 1 of 51 « Prev
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
School district: Granite
Grades tested: 3-6

State average school performance: 435/600

School performance: 343/600

Growth points: 167/300
All students: 117/200
Below proficient: 50/100

Achievement points: 176/300

Number of teachers: 35
Enrollment: 714
Minority: 63 percent
English learners: 47 percent
Low income: 80 percent
Students with disabilities: 16 percent

>> West Kearns Elementary School in Kearns Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012.
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American Fork, UT

The correlation between income levels, English learners, minority students and school performance is pretty strong. Pretty depressing. We would all love to see educated poor minorities learning English; but so many still struggle to improve on the efforts of their parents. Dad always taught me to outperform him. Not sure why other poor people can't catch that vision from their parents. Don't smoke like I did, stay in school etc. Probably because in many cases they don't have a father to whip them into shape.

Kings Court
Alpine, UT

@Andrew, they can't catch that vision from their parents because many parents don't have that vision. The book "Understanding Poverty" by Ruby Payne correctly explains that with generational poverty, a personal mentor is needed to show people how to accomplish upward social mobility. In order for that to happen, one has to want to be mentored by accepting that they are in a lower social class and desiring to achieve more.

kearns, UT

It's all about the teachers. When I was in school I could count the number of good teachers I had on one hand. The rest were just lazy overgrown whining kids that took the easy road to life. Summers off, indoor work week, playing in the facility lounge. I hear the whining all the time, more pay, better benefits, less work, but come on, if you don't like your situation go out into the real world and see whats in store for you. I don't care about the cry baby rant that will come from you so called educators, I'll hear things like, "it's the parents that won't help". Well, the parents are working sometimes 2 jobs to make ends meet. You have only one, to educate the young. If you can't do that, find another profession. How would it be if the common everyday people asked you to come and help them with their jobs washing dishes, house cleaning or what ever? Most after a very hard day of real work, which you have never known, are busy doing laundry fixing dinner, making sure the kids are clean and fed. You lazy teachers need to do a reality check and so does the state. There IS a reason our school system is failing and to throw more money at incompetent people is not the answer. I encourage independent testing every year for all teacher and the dredges should not be retrained or rehired. Throw them back to the real world, their worst fear. Worst school, no, I say worst teachers.

Salt Lake, UT

@ jayhawker - having worked both as a teacher and in the "real world" I can assure you that (1) the vast majority of teachers are hard-working, dedicated professionals who take their job seriously and (2) the vast majority of teachers work just as hard as anyone in the "real world." I do not dispute the fact that there are some incompetent teachers, just as there are some incompetent doctors, attorneys, managers, mechanics, etc., but teacher-bashing is just a convenient way to ignore real issues such as poverty's influence on student achievement and society's over-reliance on testing to determine effective schools. Criterion-referenced testing and the DWA are narrow indicators of what a student can or cannot do. Let's work to find a better way to evaluate student learning - one that treats teachers as professionals and gives students flexibility in how they show learning. Once the blame stops the solutions can begin.

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