Raising pay for Tacoma teachers was overdue. Raising test scores is, too.

The same day that the Tacoma Public Schools strike was nearing an end last week, as both sides resolved details of a teacher pay raise averaging 14.4 percent, the state released test scores that show a climb still lies ahead.

And it’s a mountain, not a hill, that local educators must tackle.

The state’s annual release of student test scores delivered a gut-punch reminder why Tacoma teachers and school leaders must be fully engaged for the hard work ahead. Every student, every day, as the district’s motto says.

Tacoma has celebrated eight straight years of rising graduation rates, including last year’s impressive 86.1 percent of seniors earning diplomas on time. But standardized tests provide another valid measure of achievement, and results from the 2017-18 Smarter Balanced assessments point out some sobering trends.

While Tacoma’s English language art scores show modest growth among younger students, math scores continue to drop as children move into middle school and beyond. Seventh and eighth grade math scores are on a three-year slide, with only 32 percent of eighth graders last year meeting standard — more than 15 percentage points below the state average.

It’s not surprising that lower-income, urban districts like Tacoma trail the state average in nearly every grade level and category. What’s alarming is that the gulf steadily widens as students move from grade to grade.

Tacoma teachers fought hard for a fair deal for themselves; they’ll need that same zeal to reverse persistent performance gaps in their classrooms.

They were clearly excited to get back to the heavy lifting this week, after their seven-day walkout and the giddy relief of ratifying their generous new contract on Friday.

The School Board unanimously approved the pact Monday morning while briefly addressing some key priorities for the new school year.

No. 1 in terms of urgency: a complete transfusion of the bad blood that bubbled up during the strike.

“It is time for us to put the anger and divisiveness in the garbage can — or have a funeral and bury it — and start new, beginning today,” board vice president Karen Vialle declared.

She’ll get no disagreement from us. For reconciliation to happen, however, the elected board and Superintendent Carla Santorno can’t hide behind the curtains like they did during the strike.

Board members also called again for the Legislature to fix the new state school funding formula, which placed Tacoma at obvious disadvantage compared to others in the region.

Local teachers must fulfill their pledge to go to Olympia in January and join district administration in a full-court press. They’d be short-sighted not to, given how much they could lose: potentially hundreds of jobs, based on the district’s projected $38 million deficit in the 2019-2020 school year.

Finally, School Board veteran Debbie Winskill highlighted the need for a thorough, year-long study of district administration costs. That’s a smart show of good faith with taxpayers after striking teachers chided district leaders for alleged administrative bloat — a criticism made more credible by the district’s recently retired chief accountant.

All these goals are laudable, but they’re worth pursuing only insofar as they advance the paramount duty of Tacoma Public Schools: to equip 29,000 students for success after high school, regardless of race, ethnicity, income or special needs. Statewide tests don’t tell the whole story, but they’re a widely accepted tool for measuring education quality.

Make no mistake: Tacoma’s 2,000 teachers deserved a substantial pay raise this year every bit as much as their peers in Seattle, Bellevue and Gig Harbor.

But the next time Tacoma’s on the front page for a dramatic turnaround in numbers, and the next time it celebrates closing a gap with wealthier school districts, we hope those numbers are test scores.

This story was originally published September 19, 2018 at 3:00 PM.