Updates and Plan Implementation

2009-2010 Priorities build on 2008-09 work

Seattle Public Schools is committed to ensuring that every student in every classroom is achieving and graduates from high school ready to succeed in college, careers, and life. The District’s strategic plan, Excellence for All, provides a roadmap to raise achievement for all students, retain and attract great teachers, and increase efficiency in Seattle Public Schools. For the 2009-2010 school year, we have identified six strategic priorities to focus our efforts as we continue to implement Excellence for All. These priorities build on our previous work and include:

• Special Education and Bilingual Education: implement key audit recommendations to improve the delivery of Special Education and Bilingual services.
  
  
• College-readiness : support four key areas directed at strengthening the district's college-readiness commitment. The four key areas are: curriculum alignment, student supports, college-level course offerings, and targeted teacher professional development.
  
  
• Data and Assessments: develop a data warehouse for easily extracting student-level data and adopt district-wide assessment system to provide more frequent, formative information to teachers and principals.
  
  
• Performance Management Framework: implement the first phase of the school performance framework and build capacity for subsequent phases; release district scorecard; continue to build community understanding of performance work. Learn more below about the launch of our District-wide performance management system which will provide the information and data we need to continuously improve the quality of education and meet our Excellence for All goals.
  
  • News Release
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • District Scorecard
  • School Report Template for Elementary Schools
  • School Report Template for Middle Schools
  • School Report Template for High Schools
  • Explanation of School Reports
  • District Performance Evaluation Form
  • Performance Evaluation Diagram
  • School Board work session presentation , 11/12/2009
    
  
  
• Student Assignment: redesign the district's student assignment plan to increase access to high quality programs, improve predictability, decrease complexity, minimize transportation costs, and foster diversity where possible.
  
  
• Leadership Development: strengthen school and district leaders through implementing a new evaluation system and a leadership development program.
  

2008-2009 Strategies and Progress

For the 2008-2009 school year, we prioritized five strategies that served as key building blocks in our implementation of Excellence for All.  These strategies included: Math and Science, Assessments, Data Systems, Hiring Process, and Student Assignment/Capacity Management.

• Math and Science: Adopt an aligned curriculum in math and science
  Adopting common, District-wide materials will strengthen our teaching of math and science, provide continuity of instruction across schools, and increase our ability to support strong professional development for our teachers. Progress made in 2008-09: we adopted high school math instructional materials; high school science slated for 2009-10.
  
  
• Assessments: Implement District-wide, student academic assessments
  District-wide assessments will allow teachers to consistently track student progress and use assessment data to provide personalized instruction. Information about student academic progress will be available to teachers more frequently and in a more timely manner. Progress made in 2008-09: selected new benchmark assessment system - Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) - to use in all schools grades K-9 in math and reading.
  
  
• Data systems: Update student-level data systems to provide information that teachers and administrators need to best support every student.
  Teachers and administrators need easily accessible, up-to-date information to make effective decisions. Updating our data systems will help teachers have a more complete picture of student performance and help school staff and district administrators determine which interventions can best help individual students. Progress made in 2008-09: launched Academic Data Warehouse project to improve access to student-level data; created template for annual school and district performance reports.
  
  
• Hiring process: Ensure that the hiring process is timely, efficient and attracts the highest caliber talent
  Attracting and hiring highly qualified staff will strengthen our ability to provide excellent instruction in every classroom. Progress made in 2008-09: adopted new hiring workflow and related technology to support it, making it easier to identify qualified applicants and fill vacant positions. Created new principal and central office leadership and professional development opportunities.
  

• Student assignment/Capacity management: Address capacity imbalance and redesign the Student Assignment Plan
  Balancing the District’s capacity will permit resources to be focused on fewer buildings while also increasing equitable access to high quality educational programs. Redesigning the Student Assignment Plan will create predictability for families, strengthen school communities, and simplify administration. Progress made in 2008-09: adopted new Student Assignment Plan. Addressed capacity management imbalances across the system and drafted initial long-term policy to help with future imbalances.
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  Additional information about our progress implementing Excellence for All is available in our Quarterly Board Briefings.
  September 2008 Board Briefing
  December 2008 Board Briefing
  March 2009 Board Briefing and Performance Management Presentation
  June 2009 Implementation Update
  September 2009 Board Briefing
  

Last Update:
November 12, 2009 4:43 PM