"Life Ready" Graduation Goals

 "Life Ready" is just one of the key goals under discussion at tomorrow's Special Board meeting to set "Goals and Guardrails" to use from 2025-2030. Agenda

Please allow me to digress for a minute. If "life ready" is a joined idea, it needs a hyphen. So it would be "life-ready." 

Here are the basics:

The Superintendent is recommending a total of three goals, each of which are detailed below. In narrowing the proposals, the Superintendent prioritized goals and measures the can be used to drive progress and organize strategies. These goals will:

• Put students on a trajectory towards life ready: Goals are recommended at key grade level(s) and in particular subjects that indicate students are on a trajectory to be life ready.

• Influence adult behavior: Goals are recommended that can influence adult behavior at the district, school, and classroom level in a way that will positively impact student outcomes across the system.

• Guide resource and strategy allocation: Goals are recommended that will guide resources to high-leverage strategies to have the greatest impact on student outcomes.

The Superintendent is recommending three goals.

• Recommended under three-goal scenario: 3rd grade “strong start" goal

• Recommended under three-goal scenario: 7 th grade “steady progress” goal

• Recommended under three-goal scenario: Life Ready “strong finish” goal

If the Board wishes to limit the number of goals to only two, the Superintendent would prioritize the goals as follows:

• Recommended under two-goal scenario: 3rd grade “strong start’ goal

• Recommended under two-goal scenario: Life Ready “strong finish” goal

Themes from the Community Vision informing this goal: Key themes from the Board’s community survey and listening sessions included:

 Graduates of SPS should be:

o Academically prepared in core subjects to succeed in higher education and future careers.

o Able to meet academic standards in core subject areas, particularly in reading, writing, and math, but also in science, social studies, foreign language, technology, and arts.

o Independent critical thinkers who are lifelong learners, consider multiple perspectives in solving problems, and are adaptable, thoughtful, and informed citizens.

 Educational Equity means:

o High quality instruction with high expectations, effective pedagogy, engaging curriculum, and differentiation to support individual student learning needs.

o Equity should be measured by academic performance, including standardized tests, with an emphasis on closing gaps between groups.

Wait, for "educational equity" the only measure is academic performance? I find that troubling and weird coming from this Board.

Plus, they use this term "adult behavior" which sounds somewhat pejorative. I'm not sure I would call teaching and administrating "behavior." It's the staff action that occurs in school buildings.

The document also states that "teachers are the greatest influencers in schools on student achievement." Nothing new there. But then it goes on to state that "school leaders are the second greatest influencers..." I'd like to know where that came from because parents are generally number two. That this document speaks little to the role of parents is odd.

The stated role of principal:

School-level SBA and MAP data will help school leaders better understand which teachers need more support and help central office leaders learn which school leaders more training and guidance. Increasing principal’s knowledge of the curriculum, high quality math instruction, and the use of assessment data will improve their instructional leadership and leaders’ ability to conduct observations, evaluate staff, and provide actionable feedback to lead to improvements in the quality of teaching.




The following would be great, if true:

Understanding what is working, faster: Creating systems to use MAP and curriculum-embedded assessment to monitor student progress will allow for timely support for students and schools. Finding out from this assessment data which students need additional support in foundational mathematical skills will help teachers and their professional learning communities plan more effectively future lessons and units.




But here's a topline fact that is shocking - 70% of seniors who graduated in SPS in 2024 had waivers to do so. 

This came out in the last Audit Committee meeting. As a friend said to me, it's important to remember that these students were 9th graders when COVID hit. Do we give that many kids a pass because of that event? 

On Diplomas

Putting students on a trajectory towards life ready: The “Diploma Plus” criteria seek to build on state graduation requirements by expanding the choices available to students while raising the bar to better ensure readiness for postsecondary success. The premise is that students who meet the Diploma Plus criteria would be more likely to enter college without needing to take developmental or remedial courses, and/or would possess the skills necessary to be successful in their chosen field after high school.

Many SPS students require waivers to graduate. For the Class of 2023, approximately 42% of AAM and 35% of SoCFFEJ required one or more waivers to graduate. Raising the bar from on-time graduation to readiness is necessary. House Bill 1599 (2019) required pathway fulfillment aligned with HSBP. 

To be Life Ready or “College and Career Ready” in the greater metropolitan Seattle area – i.e., to be “Seattle Ready” – requires a significant degree of preparation for our graduating students. Adding content-specific requirements within the advanced coursework metric raises the bar from the prior topline measure.

The Superintendent has an interesting recommendation for "Life Ready Goal." I would like your feedback on this one.

Description – Life Ready “Diploma “Plus” Pathway Development: This goal raises the bar on readiness while reinforcing students’ individual choices and opportunities by articulating a need for personalized pathways with higher predictiveness of success after high school. The Diploma Plus framework is intended to increase transparency and personalized supports for the wide array of choices and opportunities available to students, while ensuring access to high quality instruction, advanced courses, and enriching experiences, including career connected learning. Regardless of which line of interest a student pursues after high school, the development of critical cognitive skills that help students to focus in a particular area is itself critical for life success.

 Topline – Life Ready “Diploma Plus” pathway: The percentage of students in each cohort who graduate and successfully complete a personalized Life Ready “Diploma Plus” pathway aligned to their High School & Beyond Plan will increase from approximately 59% in June 2025* to 70% in June 2030.

o Life Ready “Diploma Plus” pathway completion is defined as having met all state requirements for graduation without state or local waivers, plus meeting the criteria for a personalized pathway in one of several identified categories. These categories may include, for example:

 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

 Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

 Career & Technical Education

 Dual Language

Based on our preliminary baseline analysis, we estimate that approximately 59% of All Students in the Class of 2023 graduated without waivers and successfully completed at least one Diploma Plus pathway (see chart below). For the purposes of this analysis, our preliminary criteria for Diploma Plus included, for example, completing one of the following in a pathway category (STEM, Humanities/Arts, CTE, or Dual Language):

 Passed an AP or IB exam; or

 Scored at the CCR Benchmark level on the SAT in Math or ELA; or

 Scored Level 3 or 4 on the High School SBA in Math or ELA




For "Guardrails" it is interesting mix (see page 15). They include:

- The Superintendent will not allow learning environments that do not promote physical and emotional safety.

Oh really? Well, it might be said that some high schools aren't safe. What has he done that has made a difference so far?

- The Superintendent will not allow community engagement that does not contribute to building trust and partnerships with families.

Oh really? Board directors, look what he and staff did during preliminary talk of school closures? What in those community meetings built trust?

Board Original Draft Guardrails

During the August 29 retreat, the Board drafted the following Guardrails:

1. Ethnic Studies

The Superintendent will not allow lesson plans to avoid using an ethnic studies framework.

2. High School & Beyond

The Superintendent will not allow alternatives to the High School and Beyond plan to be utilized.

3. Early Proficiency

The Superintendent will not allow 2nd graders to not be proficient in literacy and math.

4. Geographic Equity

The Superintendent will not allow geographic location to limit student opportunity or determine educational quality.

Other items of interest:

4. What's good about SPS or something working well for students that we should keep doing?

• Neighborhood and community connections in schools whose connectionwith community partners and families is caring and supportive, and who find ways to involve families in the daily life of the school

• Dual language programs and other multilingual language learning supports and opportunities

• Quality educators and staff who are committed to showing up for students and demographically reflective of the student body

• Options for Schools and Programs that offer alternative models and services that are responsive to student and community needs and which help to maintain student enrollment.

• Social and emotional learning due to the value of these skills to students, the quality of the district’s SEL curriculum, and its impact on creating more inclusive, welcoming environments.

• Promoting equity for underserved students, through either the programs that they supported or in the ways the school was oriented to support a specific group of historically marginalized students.

Groups representing ethnic studies programs, dual language schools, and schools with specializations like Recovery High School and Seattle World school each emphasized the unique contributions their schools or programs make to the support of students in SPS. Participants in the online survey also emphasized their preference for the Highly Capable Cohort model for services. The Special Education community also emphasized wanting students with disabilities to feel affirmed and valued in their community after graduation, and for students who don't have disabilities to know, respect, and value those who do; that Cascade Parent Partnership works well and should continue; and identifying disability and proactive support needs to be consistent across the district

They also list in the appendix a "List of partner organizations and community groups who met with board
directors."

- One Roof

One Roof Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena. We envision a more equitable Pacific Northwest where all young people can realize a brighter future. Through our three pillars, we work to create lasting impact in our community. We are all in this together…. Under One Roof.

- Board engagement meetings  When, how many, and who was there? Vague and unhelpful information but President Rankin had to check those boxes.

- Google AI - All I can find for Google AI in Seattle is info around traffic. Anyone?

- Ethnic Studies Now - The very org led by former teacher Tracy Castro Gill who was let go by the district because of - among other things - her apparently unhelpful behavior.

- Students at Lincoln High   Really? How many and why Lincoln and no other high school students?

- Murano Senior Living  It's a senior housing community where seniors can "enjoy attainable luxury. One bedrooms start at $5500." I have to say if I were to go ask senior citizens for input on public education, I would not have picked a high-end senior living place.