Only 66.3% of ninth graders at Lynden High School passed all their classes in the 2021-22 school year. A year later, 87.4% of freshmen passed.
Lynden’s striking improvements are a result of a state-funded ninth grade success initiative and the hard work of teachers and administrators.
Passing ninth grade is the best indicator of whether a student will complete high school, said Doug Judge, a ninth grade coach at the Center for High School Success, a nonprofit that works with schools to develop success strategies for freshmen — the logic behind the state’s grant program to bolster schools’ efforts.
Judge, who supports 12 high schools in Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and Clallam counties on their ninth grade success efforts, said Lynden’s 20-percentage-point jump was “exciting and admirable.”
This year, 87% of current Lynden freshmen are passing as of January, according to assistant principal Nicolette Rinker. The Freshmen Success Team, created four years ago, developed a “freshman seminar,” where students receive direct support from a teacher on assignments and support in more practical skills, such as how to email a teacher to ask for an extension or to retake a test.
Freshman Adrian Castellon said the seminar gives him time to work on big projects and assignments. He said the program was the reason he passed the first semester, and it helps him keep up his grades. Sarah Johnston, also a freshman, said the class has also helped her navigate relationships with her teachers.
Lynden also runs a ninth grade “algebra lab” class for students who struggled with math in eighth grade. The lab offers after-school tutoring for freshmen near the end of the semester, and has weekly interventions with students who are failing classes.
Math teachers Megan Dickson and Nicole Medcalf are part of the success team. Dickson said the goal of the initiative is to “wrap around the student” and support them in all their classes, rather than just being focused on the subject area they teach.
“The goal is to make the student feel seen and not fall through the cracks, and to make sure they know we are supporting them and that we care,” Medcalf said. “If they don’t feel like they are seeing or that they matter, then they’re not going to want to be successful.”
Dickson agreed.
“It’s amazing when you know someone is looking out for you how that helps boost your ability to move forward and not just give up,” Dickson said.
But success on this front isn’t limited to Lynden High School.
Megan Lee, a counselor at Mount Baker Senior High, said 86% of freshmen were passing at the end of the district’s first trimester.
Lee said the high school’s success team had tried a lot in its four years of existence, but instituting a freshman seminar class, as well as a “credit retrieval initiative,” which allows students who just barely failed first-term classes opportunities to make up grades in their second term, has resulted in the 16-percentage-point jump from last year’s 70% ninth grade on-track rate.
That idea of “credit repair” is also happening at Meridian High School.
Ninety-one percent of freshmen were passing as of the end of first semester, said Shaun Doffing, assistant principal of Meridian High School. That’s an increase from 83.9% of freshmen who passed all their courses in the 2022–23 school year, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).
Doffing said the school’s focus has been on efforts to align grading practices and behavioral expectations, along with some student interventions and after-school tutoring.
The rest of Whatcom County school districts’ ninth grade on-track rates were between 65% and 75% during the 2022–23 academic school year, according to OSPI data: Bellingham at 74.4%, Ferndale at 65.9%, Blaine at 74.1% and Nooksack Valley at 72.9%.
Most have seen improvements: Bellingham saw a 2-percentage-point increase from 2021-22 to 2022-23, Ferndale a 3.5-percentage-point increase; and Nooksack Valley just under 1-percentage-point increase. So far this year, Ferndale’s ninth grade on-track rate was 74% in semester one, and Teaching and Learning Director Megan Vigre said Nooksack Valley’s freshmen are at 77% as of February.
Only Blaine did not see improvements on this metric: Blaine saw a dip from 83.5% to 74.1% from 2021-22 to 2022-23, according to OSPI data.
Funding for success program is in flux
Funding for the ninth-grade success grant program is in flux, however. The Washington state Senate’s draft budget includes $3 million to fund freshmen success initiatives for three years in 53 Washington schools, Judge said, but that funding is not currently included in the House bill.
Liz Trautman, the government affairs director for Stand for Children, said on Thursday, Feb. 29 that the two chambers are currently reconciling their two proposals and should bring a final budget report to both chambers next week.
“We’ve got strong champions in the House, and it’s a program that is having a really tremendous impact in school districts around the state so there’s a broad network of legislators that have seen the impact of the program,” she said.
Judge said he hopes schools will be able to continue some of this work without the funding if needed, but that they are “working to keep it funded because we think it’s fruitful for kids.”
Judge said he’s been impressed by the collaboration between Whatcom County schools. The districts meet quarterly and exchange tips and success stories. Lee said she also appreciated being able to connect with other schools and worries those opportunities to collaborate will reduce if the funding disappears.
“The ability to connect across school districts with what’s working … is really, really refreshing,” Judge said. “I think it’s increased agency [in school districts] — like, this is within our control.”
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Donte Massey in a photo caption. The story was updated to reflect this change on March 5, 2024 at 12:21 p.m. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
