Seattle schools chief apologizes for false figure

Seattle Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson publicly apologized Wednesday for reporting that just 17 percent of the district's graduates met the entrance requirements for four-year colleges, when the number was actually much higher.

"I would like to publicly apologize for the confusion that this has created and let you know that we take ownership for the mistake," Goodloe-Johnson said at a school-board meeting. "We are also making changes to ensure that this does not happen again."

The district originally published the 17 percent figure in 2008. It was meant to be a measure of how many students were prepared to succeed in college, but that's not how the district described it for at least a year — apart from one reference deep in the appendix of its five-year plan. District officials later quietly stopped using the number then recently revised it, without comment, to 46 percent.

The 17 percent figure caused a lot of concern in Seattle's education community. A number of community groups and politicians referred to it in speeches, letters and newspaper editorials. As late as last August, former Mayor Norm Rice used it in arguing for changes he wanted to see in Seattle's new teachers contract.

Some of those people now have expressed embarrassment that they spread incorrect information.

Goodloe-Johnson said Wednesday that district officials have called about 20 people to date to apologize to them personally. District officials say they plan to contact another 20-25 as well.

She said it is the district's responsibility to ensure the public understands the measures the district uses.

One of the people who received an apology call was state Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle.

"In my view," he said, "it's really the first time I have seen this administration finally acknowledge a level of ownership of a really important mistake."

The district, he said, didn't realize the number had become such a touchstone.

"I used it in committee many, many times," he said. "I used it on the House floor. And I'm really profoundly personally embarrassed for my community and my district and my city."

Carlyle said he sent his own apology to his colleagues on the Legislature's Education Appropriations Committee.

Goodloe-Johnson wrote a letter to the community explaining what had happened with the 17 percent after a story about it appeared in The Seattle Times.

But that letter did not include an explicit apology. Members of the Seattle School Board's Executive Committee later asked her to make a public apology.

In her remarks Wednesday, Goodloe-Johnson said it is the district's responsibility to ensure that the community understands the figures used to evaluate schools and the district overall.

In the future, she said, the district will make sure that all definitions of the numbers in its reports are "crystal clear." To that end, she said, the district wanted to make it clear that, in its new school reports, it measured test-score gains based on students' performance compared with their academic peers, not their past performance.

She also said that when the district makes changes to data, it will make sure those changes are clearly reflected in district materials, and on its website.

"We pledge to continue to learn from these and inevitable future bumps in the road as we fulfill our commitment to transparency with our families and community," she said.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com