District Acronyms and Abbreviations
This page lists several commonly used acronyms and abbreviations you may encounter in spoken and written communications throughout the school district and its various departments.
See also our District Glossary for expanded definitions.
If there is something you could not find or would like to add to this page, please email publicaffairs@seattleschools.org.
4Cs........Collaboration, cooperation, coordination, coherence
AAC...... Augmentative and Alternative Communication
ABA.........Applied Behavior Analysis
ACA.........Augmentative and Alternative Communication
ADA.........American Disabilities Act
AL............Advanced Learning
ALE......Alternative Learning Experience
ALO.........Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program
ALP..........Advanced Learning Placement
AMMAC.....African American Male Advisory Committee
AP............Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.
APE..........Adapted Physical Education
APP..........Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.
ART.........Administrative Review Team
ASB..........Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.
ASD..........Autism Spectrum Disorder
AYP...........Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.
BEA..........Bilingual Education Act. First piece of United States federal legislation that recognized the needs of limited English-speaking ability students.
BeST.........Behavior Support Team
BEX..........Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every three years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six-year cycles).
BIL...........Bilingual
BIP.....Behavior Intervention Plan
BLT...........Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.
BOC.........Bilingual Orientation Center
BTA I........Building Renovations, Technology and Athletics Levy: The six-year capital levy program with $150 million approved by voters in 1998. It funded more than 465 projects in the areas of seismic improvements, roof replacement, window replacement, power upgrades, technology wiring and computer hardware, secondary art and science facilities upgrades, and gymnasiums and athletic field renovation.
BTA II........Building Renovations, Technology and Academics Levy: The capital levy program with $178 million approved by voters in 2004. It funds more than 600 projects related to school buildings, art and science labs, libraries, technology and athletic facilities.
CAI............Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction Department, a subdivision within the division of Teaching and Learning
CAICEE.......Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Raj Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.
CBA..........Collective Bargaining Agreement
CBI....Community Based Instruction
CCC...........Center for the Collaborative Classroom. K-5 literacy instructional materials adopted in 2017-18.
CDHL.....Center for Childhood Deafness and Hearing Loss
CIP I...........Capital Improvement Program: The bond program with $64 million, approved by voters in 1984. It funded major modernization, building additions, building replacement and new construction at 15 schools.
CMP.............Connected Math Project
CSIP............Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.
CTE.............Career and Technical Education (formerly Voc Ed)
DBI......Databased Individualization
DBT......Dialectical Behavior Therapy
DD.....Developmentally Delayed
DEEL..........Department of Education and Early Learning for Seattle
DI Sub.........District Initiated Substitute
DIS.....Designated Instruction Services
DHH............Deaf and Hard of Hearing
DLI..............Dual Language Immersion
DoTS...........Department of Technology Services
DRA.............Developmental Reading Assessment
DRS............Department of Retirement Systems
DWA............Direct Writing Assessment
EALR............Essential Academic Learning Requirement
EAP..............Employee Assistance Program
ECE..............Early Childhood Education
EDM.............Everyday Math, the board-adopted instructional materials for elementary math
EDSs.............Executive Directors of Schools, staff members that oversee 100+ schools in district and provide supervision and instructional support to principals
EE.....Emergency Expulsion
EGP..............Easy Grade Pro
ELA.............English Language Arts
ELL..............English Language Learners
EOC.............End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduation
EOG.............Eliminating Opportunity Gaps and Ensuring Opportunities for Greatness
ERAC...........Equity Race Advisory Committee
ERP...Emergency Response Protocol
ESA....Education Service Agency
ESD..............Educational Service District. Seattle is in the Puget Sound ESD (PSESD).
ESEA............Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law that governs education, includes the NCLB accountability provisions.
ESIS.............Electronic School Information System
ESIT.... Early Support for Infants and Toddlers
ESL..............English as a Second Language
ESSA............Every School Success Act. Federal law effective in 2017-18 school year that replaces No Child Left Behind law.
ESY.........Extended school year
e-STEM........Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math with an Environmental focus
e-STEAM......Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math with an Environmental focus
F&P..............Fountas and Pinnell reading level assessments
FEPP............ Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy
FFS...............Formulas for Success
FLASH..........Family Life and Sexual Health
FEL...............Families and Education Levy
FACMAC.......Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.
FERPA.........Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy
FMP.............Facilities Master Plan: A plan identifying the use for Seattle Public Schools’ facilities through the year 2010, the improvements needed to those facilities, and the timing in which improvements should be accomplished.
FRL.............Free and Reduced Lunch
FTE.............Full-Time Equivalent
FY................Fiscal Year
GLAD...........Guided Language Acquisition
HC...............Highly Capable, designation for students identified by testing to be significantly ahead of peers in terms of ability
HCC.............K-8 Highly Capable Cohort, students qualified as HC-eligible apply to be part of advanced learning pathway that they may follow through graduation
HIB. ............Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying
HR...............Human Resources
HQT.............Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law
HSPE...........High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation
HVAC...........Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning: Types of mechanical systems that provide heat and air in school buildings.
IA................Instructional Assistant
IB................International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.
IBX..............Accelerated International Baccalaureate program.
IDEA............Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education
IEP...............Individual Educational Plan, a federal requirement for students with disabilities (special education)
JSCEE..........John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, SPS center administrative building named for first African-American Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools John Stanford, 1995-98.
LAP..............Washington State Learning Assistance Program
LID..............Learning Improvement Day
LLD..............Leadership Learning Day for school building leaders
LLI...............Leveled Literacy Intervention
LRE..............Least Restrictive Environment, an educational setting that is closest to the general education setting and still allows a student to benefit from special education instruction.
MAP.............Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.
MSP.............Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8
MTSS...........Multi-Tiered System of Support
NCLB...........No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration
OER.............Open educational resources. These are free and not protected by copyright.
OSPI............Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
PAR.............Peer Assistance and Review
Para.............Para-professional who is non-certified but supports teachers
PASS............Principals Association of Seattle Schools
PBIP.............Positive Behavior Intervention Plan
PBIS.............Positive Behavior Intervention and Support
PCP Time.....Planning-Conference-Preparation Time
PD................Professional Development
PERS............Public Employees' Retirement System
PGC..............Professional Growth Cycle
PG & E..........Professional Growth and Evaluation, the teacher (and principal) evaluation procedure
PLC...............Professional Learning Communities
PPS...............Professional Practice Standards
PSESD..........Puget Sound Educational Service District. Thirty-five school districts in King and Pierce counties
RET...............Racial Equity Teams
RIF................Reduction in Force
RIT................Rasch Unit - scoring used in MAP testing
RTI................Response to Intervention, the old name for MTSS
RFP................Request for proposal issued to vendors
RttT................Race to the Top, see Arne Duncan
RULER...........Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing and Regulating emotion, a social and emotional learning program used by the district
SAEOP...........Seattle Association of Education Office Professionals, a subgroup of SEA
SAP................ Student Assignment Plan
SATP...............Student Assignment Transition Plan
SBA................Smarter Balanced Assessment
SBAC.............Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, name for high school test required for graduation in certain subjects
SBE................State Board of Education (or BOE)
SEA................Seattle Education Association (Seattle Teachers' union)
SEAC..............Special Education Advisory Committee
SESCE............Southeast Seattle Education Coalition
SHA................Seattle Housing Authority
SIT.................School Intervention Team
SPED..............Special Education
SPP.................Seattle Preschool Program
SPP Plus or SPP+….Inclusion model of preschool for students with IEPs that are placed with general education preschool students and provided additional classroom staff support
SPS.................Seattle Public Schools
STAR Mentor…Staff Training, Assessment and Reflection mentor, teachers who work with new teachers to provide support, advice and direction
STEAM...........Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics
STEM.............Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
STR.................Seattle Teacher Residency
T&L................Teaching & Learning
TRS.................Teachers’ Retirement System
TSS.................Transportation Service Standards
UNEA.............Urban Native Education Alliance
WASL............Washington Assessment of Student Learning (former state test)
WSF..............Weighted Student Formula, the old method of determining school funding
WSS.............Weighted Staffing Standards, the current method of determining school funding
WSSDA..........Washington State School Directors Association