High-Quality Instruction and Learning Experiences

We educate the whole child through high-quality instruction and learning experiences that accelerate growth for Students of Color who are furthest from educational justice—with an intentional focus on African American boys and teens.

Whole Child education extends beyond traditional academic instruction and assessment to include recognizing and serving the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral strengths and needs of students. When we focus on educating the whole child, students are healthy—and feel safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

In addressing the needs of the whole child, a child then has the greatest opportunity to learn, grow, and achieve.

Focus Goals

Seattle Public Schools is currently focusing on two goals under the High-Quality Instruction and Learning Experiences priority.

These two goals are critical in our work to ensure every student has the academic, emotional, social, and behavioral supports needed to be successful in school and in life. Although our 2019-20 school year saw a shift from classroom learning because of COVID-19, our focus on this work has continued. It is now more important than ever to make sure our students are able to access high-quality instruction, wherever our students are learning.

Welcoming and Safe Schools

Students thrive in a school culture built on trusting relationships that provide healthy, safe, engaging, supported, and challenging environments in which they can learn to their full potential. Instruction must be high-quality, culturally responsive, focused, and aligned to standards for students to develop as independent learners. Students of Color who are furthest from educational justice will feel welcome and safe in every Seattle Public School. 

Reading at Grade Level by the end of Third Grade

We want all students reading at or above grade level by the end of third grade. Through initiatives like Seattle Super Readers, engaging families and community, access to high-quality preschool, and supporting educators with data and professional development, we will accelerate growth for Students of Color who are furthest from educational justice.

Cross-cutting Goal Strategies for Academic Strategic Initiatives

In Seattle Public Schools, the Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction (CAI) division does work in three of our academic strategic goal initiatives based on our five year Seattle Excellence Strategic Plan.

CAI has refined cross-cutting strategic categories that help focus our Seattle Excellence work across all three goal initiatives.

• We will help students become confident early readers in the 3rd grade
• We will have strong mathematicians in middle school math
• We will build strong pathways to college and career readiness during high school

Strategic Goal Strategies

The cross-cutting strategy categories are:

• Excellent Teaching and Joyful Learning
• Strong Relationships and Connected Families
• Equitable Measures and Student Supports
• Opportunity Pathways
• Expanded Learning and Enrichment

Cross Cutting Strategies for Achieving the 7th Grade Math Goal

We are already starting to improve math instruction and the systems shaping math education in SPS by focusing on five strategic areas. Each area has been informed by specific research and engagement, including National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) Principles to Action: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All and Catalyzing Change in Middle School Mathematics, Initiating Critical Conversations; Our Voice, Our Vision published by the SPS Office of African American Achievement, and the 2016 Gap Narrowing Study from the SPS Research and Evaluation department. Our strategies have also been modeled on the 3rd Grade Reading Goal strategies. In summary, these five strategic areas are a blend of the basic elements of a successful math program and new, innovative practices.

We have identified action steps in each of the five areas below to illustrate some of the what and why of this work. At the same time, we continue to co-develop the implementation of these specific initiatives with five middle schools (Denny, Aki Kurose, Mercer, Washington, Meany) and one PreK-8 (South Shore) in central and south Seattle using a targeted universalism approach, the how of this work.

Excellent Teaching and Joyful Learning – Teacher professional development and ongoing job-embedded coaching is focused on equitable math teaching practices. Recent research illustrates how educators can help African American boys and teens develop strong, powerful mathematical identities. NCTM’s guidance also highlights the importance of having students engage in mathematical discourse to develop deep conceptual understanding. We have started professional development and coaching for math educators in the six schools in summer 2022 on equitable math instruction, strategies for identifying and developing the mathematical brilliance of African American males through the “ICUCARE framework” developed by Pamela Seda and Kyndall Brown. This builds upon our investment in newly adopted and aligned K-5 math instructional materials, which is a critical foundation to improving math outcomes in middle school over time

Strong Relationships and Connected Families – We are increasing capacity of school-family partnerships to support the mathematics learning and mathematical identify of African American boys and teens and their families. As a first step, we began one-hour home visits for incoming 6th grade African American males at the six schools this past summer and are partnering with colleagues in the Office of African American Male Achievement and Family Engagement to develop scaffolded supports to our educators and families.

Equitable Measures and Student Supports – We will develop supports for culturally responsive and asset-focused tools to measure student math learning, including formative, interim, and summative measures. Educators will engage in a cycle of teaching and learning using these measures to improve instruction. We are starting this work by implementing MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) in Fall 2022 in Grades K-8 and have begun to study examples of AAM student math success. Over 80% of middle school students took this assessment and the Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction (CAI) team has issued guidance to leaders and educators on how to use this data to guide their planning, particularly in their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).

Opportunity Pathways – Middle schools are collaborating with their feeder schools to support African American boys and teens as they enter middle school to be successful in grade-level mathematics and to have the opportunity to enroll in Algebra 1 in 8th grade and advanced coursework in math. We have relaunched math empowerment program through summer PD, cross-school collaboration, and facilitated lab days in classrooms to foster success of African American males.

Expanded Learning and Enrichment– We will engage African American boys and teens in mathematical endeavors beyond the school day to deepen foundational skills, build grade-level proficiency, supply math acceleration, enrichment, and/or STEM/career-connected opportunities in partnership with community-based organizations. We are working on systematizing summer bridge programs with our Expanded Learning Colleagues and City of Seattle partners for incoming 6th grade African American male students at the six schools focused on strengthening foundational skills, pre-teaching of key grade-level concepts, and supporting identity development

Goal: Students Will Read at Grade Level by the end of Third Grade

Why third grade? This is a critical benchmark for students. The end of third grade is when students make the leap from learning to read to reading to learn. If this milestone isn’t met, students can quickly fall behind in other subjects. This priority goal focuses on making sure all students are reading at grade level by the end of third grade, with a specific focus on supporting students furthest from educational justice.

What does that look like? Kindergarten readiness, access to culturally relevant books, family engagement focused on reading at home and working with our community partners to spark joy in reading for all students.

Third Grade Reading Infographic

Third Grade Reading Initiatives

Engaging Families and Community Partners

We know students are most successful when they have support at school, community, and home. We want to improve our engagement practices with families and strengthen our work with community-based organizations to best support students’ love of reading and access to books.  

Supporting educators 

Teachers need collaboration time, data, support, tools, and professional development to make sure they can help every student learn to read by the end of third grade.

Using data to collaborate and inform instruction

Our educators need data to inform instruction, and we are committed to strengthening the quality of student data available for teachers to use in collaboration and improvement cycles with their colleagues. 

Providing access to Preschool

Preparing students to be successful readers by the end of third grade starts in preschool. We are developing plans to expand access to high-quality and equitable preschool opportunities within Seattle Public Schools.

How We Measure Progress

• Student assessments
• Increased access to books through the Seattle Super Readers program
• Increased access to high-quality preschool programs
• Data, support and professional development for elementary school teachers

Progress Toward Our Goal

To help meet our goal of all third graders being strong readers, Seattle Public Schools is focusing efforts on reaching students furthest away from educational justice, beginning with African-American boys.

We are working in partnership with literacy community-based groups, such as Seattle Public Library and Team Read, to help us meet our goal.

Seattle Super Readers is a reading campaign to help lay the groundwork to meet this goal. Research shows that daily reading — just 20 minutes per day — helps prepare students for success. 

Seattle Super Readers

As part of the strategic plan, Seattle Public Schools is focusing all efforts on reaching students furthest away from educational justice, beginning with African-American males.

Our universal goal is for every student in Seattle Public Schools (SPS) to receive a high-quality, world-class education and graduate prepared for college, career, and community.

As part of the 2019-24 five-year strategic plan, a priority goal is to make sure 100% of students become strong readers by 3rd grade. It is vital that all students meet this benchmark, as reading by 3rd grade is predictive of high school graduation and life success. Our mission is to help students achieve and we believe it is possible with the help of families, the community, partners, and our great staff.

To successfully support this initiative, SPS is excited to announce the launch of Seattle Super Readers, a reading campaign that is entirely focused on laying the groundwork to meet this goal.Every SPS student is a Seattle Super Reader, and summer is the perfect time to practice and build reading superpowers like learning new words, understanding what is read, and reading smoothly.Research shows that daily reading, just 20 minutes per day, helps prepare students for success. 

Early Literacy Support at SPS Schools

There are schools across the district with high representations of students of color, particularly African-American males. The district will provide priority reading support to these schools. Many of them are already doing transformational work, and these sites will be the test ground for new literacy approaches, as they lead the way in Seattle Public Schools. Summer 2019, all kindergarten through 3rd grade students at these schools received a book bag with a set of 10 high-interest books to read over the summer.

Family Resources and How You Can Help

Families are our students’ first teachers and our greatest partners in this effort. We can’t do this without you. Below are some suggestions to consider as you support your child as a Seattle Super Reader!

• Encourage your child to set a weekly reading goal; this could be number of minutes, number of books, number of days, or pages read.
• Encourage your child to read at least 20 minutes a day, every day.
• Provide choice! Let your child choose what they want to read, and they will be more engaged. Books, magazines, newspapers, web pages, comic books, graphic novels, etc. – it all counts!
• Read together and re-read favorites.
• Read books in your home language, if more than one language is spoken at home.

As your child explores both nonfiction and fiction books, here are some questions to better understand what your child is thinking and help them make sense of what they are reading.

Ask your child questions such as:

For Fiction Books (stories)

• What is happening so far in the book?
• Where does the story take place?
• Who is your favorite character and why?
• Does this book remind you about anything in your own life?
• If you were this character, would you say/do/feel the same way? Why or why not?
• What was your favorite part in the book? What makes that your favorite part?

For Nonfiction Books

• What do you already know about (topic)?
• What new information did you learn?
• What surprised you about _______?
• If you were going to tell someone about _____, what would you tell them?

Goal: Students will Feel Welcomed and Safe in School

If we want our students to be successful in school, we need to create welcoming and safe environments for learning.

When a student feels valued, welcomed and safe in school, they are more likely to participate, stay in school and learn. Significant increases in academic outcomes for students furthest from educational justice are possible when trusting educator student relationships exist and social, cultural, emotional, and behavioral needs are met by educators that share an unconditional belief in the potential of every student they serve.

Welcoming and Safe Schools Infographic

Welcoming and Safe Schools Initiatives

Shifting Adult Beliefs and Practices

We address implicit bias, foster the use of restorative practices and challenge systemic racism by providing our educators, administrators, and staff with:

• Training and materials
• Direct support to racial equity teams in schools
• Onsite coaching and consultation

Interrupting Disproportionate Practices in Discipline

We work with our– educators, administrators, and staff to disrupt racist systems and teach and use practices that enable welcoming and safe school environments. We do this by:

• Analyzing racial inequities in discipline and access to services
• Shifting to preventive discipline and restorative practices and procedures
• Applying a racial equity lens to existing policies and practices

Supporting the Whole Child

We are committed to promoting a strength-based and accurate narrative students furthest from educational justice, and normalizing excellence and making sure African American boys and teens have the resources and support they need to reach their fullest potential.

We appreciate and serve the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral strengths and needs of each student by:

• Ensuring each student is on a pathway to academic excellence through challenging, comprehensive, and engaging curriculum in all content areas
• Using data to make decisions and services to meet the needs of students
• Using qualitative and quantitative data to ensure students receive supports matched with their individual needs
• Finding positive interventions and supports to help each student
• Partnering with families to establish positive interventions and supports for each student
• Focusing on care coordination, including access to school-based health clinics, and mental health supports

How We Measure Progress

Moving forward, we will continue to monitor our progress using:

• Student attendance rates
• Disciplinary data
• Student culture and climate surveys
• Equitable access to services

Progress Toward Our Goal

Over the last four years we’ve seen behavior incidents decrease, on average, per year, due to targeted efforts to reduce suspensions and expulsions.

Our continued focus on this work to keep kids in school includes these measures:

• Shifting educator mindset through training on identifying and interrupting their implicit bias as a root cause for the over-identification of African American boys and teens as disciplinary issues
• Shifting educator mindset by offering social, emotional, and behavior focused professional development in support of minimizing lost classroom time instructional time for students
• Analysis of racial inequities in subjective disciplinary practices (i.e. disrespect, disobedience, rulebreaking, etc.)
• Shifting to preventive discipline and restorative practices and procedures
• Applying a racial equity lens to existing policies and practices
• Using school-wide Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports (PBIS)
• By providing whole child supports to students through care coordination, school-based health clinics, and mental health supports
• Integrating social-emotional learning throughout the school day

Strategic Plan Priority: Culturally Responsive Workforce

We will build a culturally responsive workforce. Our teachers, leaders, and staff will effectively support students and families utilizing culturally responsive practices.

Through training, our educators and school staff will gain skills to make learning more culturally relevant and recognize and celebrate the unique gifts of each student. Culturally responsive practice helps students feel safe, valued, and more ready to learn. It helps reduce gaps in opportunities for students and creates a warm, welcoming environment for students, families, and staff.

We will not only develop a culturally responsive workforce, but one who actively engages in anti-racists practices.

Seattle Public Schools is also focused on recruiting and retaining more teachers and staff of color, to ensure a diverse workforce representative of our broader community.

Focus Goal

• Our current focus goal for this priority is to focus on staff improving their culturally responsive professional practice through training.

Continuing area of focus

In addition to our focus goal, we are continuing to work on:

• We will intentionally recruit and retain educators of color and diversify our staff and leadership at both schools and central office.

Focus Goal Infographic

We created this infographic to further illustrate and communicate our intention, tactics and progress for this focus goal. Feel free to download, share and print.

Culturally Responsive Professional Practice Infographic

Culturally Responsive Professional Practice

Goal: Educators will improve their culturally responsive instruction to make sure every student at Seattle Public Schools feels safe, valued, and ready to learn.

Every student can achieve and every student is valued. To ensure our students feel safe, valued, and ready to learn, we will make sure all teachers and staff have the skills to make learning more culturally relevant.

We will focus on making sure our teachers recognize and celebrate the unique gifts of each student. This culturally responsive practice helps reduce gaps in opportunity for students and creates a warm, welcoming environment for students, families, and staff.

Culturally Responsive Professional Practice Infographic

Culturally Responsive Professional Practice Initiatives

Requiring Foundational Coursework

We will implement specific training for teachers and school-based staff to become culturally responsive practitioners. Educators will learn a common language and shared vision of practice for culturally responsive instruction and anti-racist teaching practices. Teachers will foster a classroom environment where students develop their full academic and social potential.

Supporting Building Leadership Teams (BLT)

School-based teams include teachers, support staff, families, and school leaders working collaboratively to make decisions about school-based functions. New training will be developed that focuses on decision making using an equity lens as teams develop budgets, professional development, and Continuous School Improvement Plans (C-SIP).

Establishing Teacher Leadership Core Teams at Every School

Teacher leaders will be identified at each building to support coaching, mentoring, and professional development. This program enables teachers to lead in their schools and across the district while continuing their roles in the classroom.

How We Measure Progress

• Continued professional development
• School-based staff working condition surveys
• Student and family culture and climate surveys
• Equitable access to services (i.e., special education, English language learners, and highly capable)

Progress Toward Our Goal

In addition to recruiting and attracting educators of color, we are working to provide our staff with training that fosters a learning environment where students thrive. From the books in our libraries to building off of the cultures and customs of all of our students and families, this goal is aimed at ensuring our schools are welcoming and safe for every student.

Currently we are in year two of the foundational coursework (Seattle 101), with the rollout of the next two (Seattle 201 and 301) over the next two years. Work completed so far:

Professional development around cultural competency.

• Seattle Teaching 101 with first year teachers, 76% completed at least four of the five modules.
• Seattle Teaching 201 with a focus on educator racial equity literacy, relationships for communities of practice, and conditions for culturally responsive instruction – grounded in the SPS Foundational Beliefs. 34% of 2nd and 3rd year teachers participated.
• The Racial Equity Literacy (REL) trained 1,355 educators across 25 schools this year. There were a total of 20 teacher leader facilitators for this series.

Strategic Plan Priority: Predictable and Consistent Operational Systems

We will develop district-wide operational systems that provide a predictable and consistent experience to meet the needs of students, families, staff and allow them to focus on learning.

While this priority focuses on operations and the internal systems of the district, the outcome should be felt directly by our students, families, staff, and community. As part of this priority, we will manage district operational functions – such as transportation, nutrition services, student assignment — in a culturally responsive, service-oriented, and cost-effective manner.

We will ensure operational teams plan, establish, communicate, and consistently meet high service levels that provide school leaders, students, and families the information and daily experience that allows them to experience a safe and productive day of learning.Our operational functions, like making sure our buses are on time, that we offer healthy nutritional meals, and have clear enrollment and student assignment processes are critical to our school communities.

Goals

• Increase satisfaction with students, families, staff, and the community
• Improve communication to students, families, school leaders
• Improve overall performance of operational systems in support of student learning

How we measure progress

To help measure the effectiveness of our operational goals, we will track customer satisfaction surveys. We will look at data around overall service quality levels informed by performance indicators unique to each individual operational function. Our goal is to make sure our operations are running efficiently and effectively, and at the end of the day, support our students.

Strategic Plan Priority: Inclusive and Authentic Engagement

Seattle Public Schools will proactively and consistently work in partnership with students, families, and communities to best meet the needs of students of color who are furthest from educational justice. In doing this work, the district will form partnerships to identify needs, determine solutions, and support the implementation of the initiatives needed.

We will use culturally responsive ways to engage so we build trusting relationships and empower the voices of those who can help us meet these needs.

Goals

As a district, we value listening to and learning from our community. We will seek ways to make sure all voices can be heard, especially those that might be underrepresented in our community. While much work will be done in this area, we are focusing on two goals under this priority.

• Students of color who are furthest from educational justice will have meaningful voice and leadership in school and district initiatives
• Families and communities who represent students of color furthest from educational justice will have meaningful voice in school and district initiatives.

How we measure progress

To determine if we are making progress on seeking and engaging with our diverse communities, we will look at growing not only representation and participation, but also ask specific questions about how we are doing in engaging with our students, families, staff, and community.

• Representation in school-based leadership groups
• Student participation surveys
• Family participation surveys
• Community partner participation surveys
• Presence in community (e.g., # of meetings in community/feedback loop)