Dear friends:

Last month, parents and community members attended a Let’s Connect at Cascade High School to hear University of Washington assistant professor Dr. Magis-Weinberg talk about promoting healthy digital habits. The digital world presents both opportunities and risks. While young people today are highly familiar with technology, they cannot simply unlock all its benefits without guidance and support. Additionally, there are measures we can take to prevent online harms from occurring. Watch the live-streamed video on Parent University.

I also want to highlight some great scores from our Kindergarten students. The WaKIDS Whole-child Assessment identifies the skills, knowledge, and characteristics of kindergarten children at the beginning of the school year to support 6 areas of development: social emotional, physical, language, literacy, cognitive, and mathematic growth. It is an observational assessment embedded into instruction and learning. Teachers engage with and observe children in the 6 areas of development and learning to collect information about the level of the child’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.

In addition to the percentage of students meeting the kindergarten standard in each domain, the number of total domains met is monitored. In the fall of the 2023-24 school year, 52.6% of Everett Public Schools’ kindergarten students met standard in 6 out of 6 domains. This exceeds pre-pandemic levels by 5.3%. Another 14.7% of students met 5 out 6 domains, bringing the total percentage of students meeting standard in more than 5 domains to 67.3%, a 3.1% increase from 2019.

You can find out more by reviewing the board presentation from January 23, 2024, or reading the Herald article that covered Transitional Kindergarten, which is one of the programs that contributes to our excellent scores.  

Stay safe and be well,

Ian
Superintendent
425-385-4019