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12/31/2023 - 2019-2023 Strategic Plan: Connecting Students with Opportunity
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6/30/2028 - 2024-2028 Strategic Plan - Approved June 27, 2024
12/31/2023 - 2019-2023 Strategic Plan: Connecting Students with Opportunity
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2019-2023 Strategic Plan: Connecting Students with Opportunity
1/1/2019
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12/31/2023
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<html> <head> <title></title> <link href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/ckeditor/plugins/lite/css/lite.css?n=5" id="__lite__css__" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/ckeditor/plugins/lite/css/opentip.css" id="__lite_tt_css__" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="https://svc.webspellchecker.net/spellcheck31/lf/scayt3/ckscayt/css/wsc.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body aria-readonly="false" data-gramm_editor="false" data-wsc-instance="true"> <h2 style="font-style:italic">Opportunity & Imperative</h2> <h3 style="color:#aaaaaa; font-style:italic">Ensuring all students have the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills they need</h3> The Washington State Board of Education (SBE) provides oversight of the Washington K–12 education system to ensure that all students have the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills they need to be become lifelong learners, take advantage of their choice of post-secondary training and education, support themselves and their families, live satisfying, healthy and productive lives, and exercise their civic responsibilities.<br /> <br /> Washington State is experiencing tremendous change in career opportunities, access to information, transportation, and mobility. Likewise, the demographics of our residents and our students are changing rapidly. While the pace of these changes appears to be accelerating, our schools have struggled to keep pace and meet the needs of our students and their families, communities, and employers in this vibrant and growing economy. <ul> <li>Over the past 10 years, we have seen a 57 percent increase in the number of English Learners enrolled in public K–12 schools.</li> <li>We have also seen increased diversity with students of color now making up 46 percent of the student population compared to 34 percent a decade ago.2 However, the diversity of educators falls well short of the student percentage, as only 10 percent of teachers report a race other than “white.”</li> <li>The rate of low-income students, as measured by the percent of youth receiving Free or Reduced Price Lunch, has risen modestly over the past decade. However, we have seen a marked increase in the share of students experiencing housing insecurity as demonstrated by a 34 percent increase in the share of students who report they have experienced homelessness in just the last five years.</li> </ul> Gaps in opportunities for all students to fully realize their potential in their education, career, and life pathways are apparent and result in performance or achievement gaps. For example, grade-level measures of science, math, and English skills; enrollment in dual credit programs; and high school graduation are all lower for students of color, students with disabilities, and students qualifying for free or reduced price lunch. <ul> <li>On the 3rd-grade English Language Arts assessment in 2018, 63.6 percent of white students demonstrated proficiency while 37.2 percent of Hispanic students demonstrated proficiency — a difference of more than 25 percentage points.</li> <li>On the 5th-grade science assessment in 2018, 23 percent of students with disabilities scored proficient while 60 percent of students who do not report a disability met the benchmark, a performance gap of 37 percentage points.</li> <li>The black-white achievement gap for Washington students from low socioeconomic homes as measured on the 8th grade NAEP math assessment grew at the second highest rate in the nation between 2011 and 2017, resulting in a gap for 2017 that is the fifth largest in the nation.</li> <li>The class of 2017 four-year graduation rate for students qualifying for the Free and Reduced Price Lunch program (70.0 percent) is nearly 20 percentage points lower than for students not qualifying for the Free and Reduced Price Lunch program (89.5 percent).</li> </ul> In addition, while the diversity of the student population in Washington State has changed, the diversity amongst teachers and the school staff has not mirrored that change. This has led to disparities in strong connections to diverse communities, full understanding of students’ cultures, identities, and social and emotional needs, and in bilingual instruction. Students and families believe that teachers and other educator role models “who look like them” are essential to creating strong, trusting relationships necessary for engagement and student success.<br /> <br /> It is imperative to bridge these opportunity gaps, remove barriers to student success, and implement new ways of providing flexibility and student-focused education to meet the needs of individual students in a rapidly changing economy. This will take more than individual teachers and counselors working to do their very best to serve all students. It will take an entire system that works — as a system — to serve all students. We can no longer tinker around the edges and expect to make marked improvement in closing opportunity gaps. This is the time to make changes in the structures of the system itself through addressing the school environment we provide, the way students are engaged in their learning, flexibility in how students demonstrate mastery and preparation for life after high school, and a funding model that directs resources where they are needed most. From the classroom level to the national level, leaders have voiced their support for these kinds of changes and the state has taken steps to establish the conditions for the changes needed in our system including: <ul> <li>Substantial state investments in our P–12 education system.</li> <li>Systemic reform in the how the state organizes work to support children and families with the creation of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.</li> <li>A system of accountability designed to identify and support schools based on need.</li> <li>Consensus among policy makers, educators, and stakeholders about the urgent need to address systemic challenges that lead to inequitable outcomes for our students.</li> <li>The College Bound Scholarship program demonstrates that early commitment to the State Need Grant to provide financial assistance for post-secondary education can lead to greater success in K–12 and greater likelihood of college attendance.</li> <li>We have also seen promising work connecting to careers through “Grow Our Own” programs to encourage students of color to become teachers and programs like CorePlus that link high school students directly to career pathways.</li> </ul> <h2 style="font-style:italic">Goals</h2> The overarching goal for our education system, as expressed in our Vision Statement, is to ensure students are engaged in personalized education path-ways that prepare them for civic engagement, careers, post-secondary education, and lifelong learning. The strategic plan also lays out a set of goals connected to the priorities identified by the Board. These include: <ul> <li>All students feel safe at school, and have the supports necessary to thrive.</li> <li>All students are able to engage in their schools and their broader communities, and feel invested in their learning pathways, which lead to their post-secondary aspirations.</li> <li>School and district structures and systems adapt to meet the evolving needs of the student population and community, as a whole. Students are prepared to adapt as needed and fully participate in the world beyond the classroom.</li> <li>Students successfully transition into, through, and out of the P–12 system.</li> <li>Students graduate from Washington State high schools ready for civic engagement, careers, post-secondary education, and lifelong learning.</li> <li>Equitable funding across the state to ensure that all students have the funding and opportunities they need, regardless of their geographical location or other needs.</li> </ul> The Board monitors educational system progress toward meeting aspirational and achievable, system-wide performance goals. The educational system monitoring allows the Board to annually determine whether or not the state is on track to meet the Educational System Health goals4 aligned with Washington’s ESSA consolidated state plan, and make recommendations to target areas for improvement.<br /> <br /> System progress is evaluated based on indicators articulated in the Education System Health report, developed in collaboration with other state education agencies. The six primary indicators (Kindergarten Readiness, 4th Grade Reading, 8th Grade Math, High School Graduation, Remedial Course-taking, and Post-secondary Engagement) provide an annual snapshot of the Washington education system beginning in kindergarten and extending into higher education and work. The indicators are intended to provide a state level look at key trends; however, they are not comprehensive. The OSPI Report Card provides detailed information down to the school building level. In addition, the state has recently adopted a new assessment in Science. While not every discipline has a state test, educators assess student progress toward the state standards in 14 subjects. <h2 style="font-style:italic">Priorities</h2> The Board has identified a set of five priorities (see page 7) to guide our work over the next five years. State-wide goals will not be attained by agencies, organizations, and other entities working independently. All of this work must be approached from a viewpoint of system collaboration, leading to collective impact for the benefit of the students we serve. To this end, there is work that the State Board of Education leads, and work that the State Board of Education advocates for or otherwise supports. Our comprehensive strategic planning process drew on the work of the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee; Expanded Learning Opportunities Council; Career Connect Washington; Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction; Professional Educator Standards Board; Center for the Improvement of Student Learning; Washing-ton Student Achievement Council; Washington State School Directors’ Association; Department of Children, Youth, and Families; Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board; and others, entailed extensive input from and collaboration with partners, input via a public survey and community forums, and in-depth Board and staff dialogue. The State Board of Education is committing to actions and advocacy in five priority areas for this strategic plan. For each of these areas, there are clear goals, indicators of progress toward the goals, actions the Board encourages and supports that may be led by partner organizations, and actions the Board will initiate. To implement this plan the Board will develop specific initiatives and statements of support through agency budget requests, legislative requests, and an annual legislative agenda.<br /> <br /> Ongoing outreach to and engagement with education partners including agencies, organizations, communities, families, and students will be essential to ensure that systemic changes are equitable and meet the needs of students. Success will be assessed through a number of indicators designed to measure the degree to which: <ul> <li>Young children are prepared to learn as they transition into the K–12 system.</li> <li>Students have access to quality schools and programs.</li> <li>Students receive the opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge to be prepared for civic engagement, careers, post-secondary education, and lifelong learning.</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> <br /> </body> </html>
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