The Rainier Beach Success Story
Update: I realize my original headline that did contain ("no thanks to the district") and was not fair. The district DID create the IB programs at Ingraham, Chief Sealth and now Rainier Beach. It just that they don't support them in the way those programs should be supported if they expect them to thrive. Again, the district creates programs they do not support (like IB and dual-language.) end of update The Times owns up to something good happening in Seattle Public Schools (without charters or a state turnaround order). Tangled in bureaucracy and tradition, public schools need years — often the better part of a decade — for real turnaround, so skeptics may wave off the spike in graduation rates at Rainier Beach High as a mere blip. Or ignore its ballooning enrollment. Or shrug at the dozens of students on track to leave with college credit for advanced studies. No marker is more stunning than Beach’s 25-point increase in graduation r...