The KSD administration and school board have worked since January developing these 11 proposed North Star goals to guide the school district for the 2011-12 school year and beyond.
These 11 proposed North star goals are being presented to the community for review and comment. KSD will provide community input forms for citizen evaluation of each goal during the month of April.
KSD citizens is publishing the goals, a calendar for community input and a generic version of the community input form as a service to Kennewick citizens and KSD staff.
Kennewick School District Strategic Planning
For an organization to remain healthy and growing, it must be constantly setting goals and striving to achieve those goals. This is certainly true with school districts and most certainly with the Kennewick School District. For more than a decade, the Kennewick School District has been setting goals, developing strategies to reach those goals, and attempting to achieve those goals.
As we look ahead to the decade in front of us, there are a number of challenges that the Kennewick School District intends to tackle. Some of the goals will be a huge stretch for the district, while others will require us to rethink dramatically the way we do things in Kennewick. In any case, we think that these are the right goals for the students of the Kennewick School District as we attempt to prepare them to be successful in their lives after graduation.
Goal Number 1 – Ninety percent of KSD students report that they feel safe at school on an annual KSD student safety survey.
In order for students to be able to excel in their schoolwork, they must feel that they are safe at school. This means that they must feel physically safe and also feel protected from emotional or social mistreatment as well. KSD administration will develop specific 15-20 question student surveys for grade bands (3-5, 6-8, 9-12) around safety issues at school. The surveys will be administered annually and the results will be studied to determine what areas of student safety need to have additional focus by teachers and administrators. The ultimate goal is that ninety percent of students will report that they feel safe at school, and schools will have plans in place to ensure that the feeling of safety remains high.
Goal Number 2 – The KSD incurs 40 or fewer reportable incidents annually and 45 or fewer accepted claims annually.
Workplace safety is of great importance to the Kennewick School District for a number of reasons. First, we don’t want any of our employees to be hurt at work because this keeps them from being able to do the job we hired them to do. In addition, when an employee is injured, district financial resources have to be spent to compensate the employee for their injuries. That takes away funds that could be used for the education of our students. It is important that KSD employees are trained to do their jobs in the safest way possible, and managers are diligent about training employees to make sure that they do their jobs in a manner to avoid injury. Our expectation is that employees comply with safe workplace habits. Currently, our four-year reportable incidents average is 65.5 and our four-year accepted claims average is 81.25.
Goal Number 3 – Eighty percent of entering kindergarteners score 30 points or more of the Kennewick School District’s Kindergarten Readiness test.
In order to achieve many of our academic goals, we need students to come to kindergarten prepared. Our expectation is for students to arrive at kindergarten knowing something about letters and the sounds that they make, and numbers and the values that they represent. We have found that when students arrive at kindergarten able to score 30 points or more on our Kindergarten reading readiness assessment that over 97% of those students also meet our 3rd grade reading goal. Students who come in with a score of fewer than 30 points are already in a battle to catch up to their peers. This is both challenging for the student and teachers and costly for the district. Currently, fewer than sixty percent of our students arrive able to score 30 points or more on that assessment.
Goal Number 4 – Ninety percent of third graders achieve a score of 200 (representing the 50th percentile) on the NWEA reading test in the spring of each school year.
A student’s ability to read and understand complex text is the key to success throughout his/her educational life. Students spend the first few years of their educational lives learning to read. They spend the rest of their lives reading to learn. If they aren’t reading on grade level by third grade, they are constantly behind and struggle in their school work, as so much of the material they need to learn is presented in print.
For more than a decade, the Kennewick School District has had a goal around reading. Originally, the goal was set at the 40th percentile. We now believe that for students to be successful in school and have the full array of choices in life after high school, we need to raise that expectation. This will be an exceptionally challenging goal, as over 20 percent of our students currently qualify for either special education or bilingual support. But not learning to read at this level will impact students for the rest of their lives, and thus we feel that it is a goal worth pursuing.
Goal Number 5 – The KSD is in the 75th percentile of all schools in achieving annual growth.
One of the most important expectations we have is that every student achieves a year’s academic growth for every year that they are in school. We also know that students don’t always grow in exactly equal segments each year. Some years they may attain a little more than a year’s growth; other years they may grow a little less. The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) tracks annual growth for all students using their assessment system. From that data, we can learn how our schools are doing in achieving growth for our students compared to how other schools are doing in the area of achieving growth. Our goal is for our schools to be in the 75th percentile of all schools in achieving that growth. Currently, some of our schools at certain grade levels are achieving this goal, but we want this to be system wide.
Goal Number 6 – Seventy-five percent of students who are behind are caught up to state standard within three years.
When students are behind and only make annual growth, they stay behind. Catching them up to their grade level is one of the most important things we do. A sustained focus on this goal by the schools and district is important, because students who are behind generally stay behind. This may put them on a pathway to low-income jobs, economic struggles, and periods of unemployment for a lifetime. Therefore, making an effort to get them caught up is important both for the student and for society. As national and state goals are set in academic areas other than reading and math, it will be the expectation that students in the KSD are meeting standards in those areas as well.
Goal Number 7 – Seventy-five percent of eighth graders take math at the level of Algebra 1-2 or higher and earn a grade of C or better.
Numerous studies have shown that attainment in math is the best predictor of success in college level academic work. Most colleges – including community colleges – expect that students will have mastered math at least at the level of second year Algebra and probably at the level of Pre-Calculus for admission without remediation. Since generally over 60% of Kennewick School District graduates end up attending college in the year immediately after graduation, it is important that they head to college prepared. Introducing students to Algebra earlier allows them to master enough math content so that they can enroll in the college of their choice and not have to take remedial math. Currently, about forty percent of our middle school students take math at the level of Algebra 1-2 or higher.
Goal Number 8 – The Kennewick School District will provide broad opportunities to its students in rich co-curricular programs and both competitive and non-competitive extra-curricular programs.
As our students are mastering our core academic curriculums, they should be able to choose from a wide array of vocational and fine arts opportunities, as well as participate in a variety of extra-curricular programs. The goal of the Kennewick School District is to provide the widest variety of programs possible based on student interest and availability of resources. The district will continue to monitor student participation in the programs and adjust resources to those programs accordingly.
Goal Number 9 – The Kennewick School District’s extended graduation rate is at least 90%.
Failing to graduate from high school is devastating to a student’s future. US Census Bureau statistics show that a person with Bachelor’s degree earns about $2,100,000 over his or her lifetime of work. By comparison, a non high school graduate will only earn about $1,000,000 over a lifetime of work. In addition, unemployment rates for non high school graduates are usually 2-3 times higher than the rates of those with some additional training. Again, the US Census Bureau reports that in 2008 (before the Great Recession), those with a Bachelor’s degree had an unemployment rate of 2.8% while those with less than a high school education had an unemployment rate of 9.1%. Thus, it is critical that all students in the Kennewick School District earn a diploma, and are prepared for additional training after high school. This is not only important for the district and the student, but also for the country, as the costs of unemployment are huge, both financially, emotionally, and socially for individuals and families. The extended graduation rate is basically the number of students who graduate on time plus those who graduate after their class has graduated. Currently, the Kennewick School District has an extended graduation rate of 76%.
Goal Number 10 – Eighty-five percent of students state that they are well-prepared for their declared post-secondary education, training, and work objectives.
Throughout high school, students’ goals for their lives after high school change. Therefore, it is important that students constantly receive high quality information and counseling on the courses they need to take to ensure that they are ready for their next steps after graduation. Those next steps may involve going on to a four-year college, to an apprenticeship, or to the military, each of which requires a certain specific kind of preparation. No matter the post high school plan, the goal is that eighty-five percent of seniors are able at their “Navigation” conference to honestly assess that they feel prepared for their next step after high school. In this way, the KSD will know if we are meeting the needs of our students to prepare them for life after high school.
Goal Number 11 – The KSD’s unreserved, undesignated fund balance is at least 5% of total budget.
Responsible fiscal management is vital to our ability to operate a district in a way that allows everyone to focus on providing rich, meaningful educational opportunities for students. A key to that fiscal management is having adequate reserves in the bank to weather occasional variations in funding, both at the national, state, and local levels. Over the last few years as the federal and state governments have experienced financial hardships, the district has been very careful to be building a solid fund balance. We don’t want to experience the pendulum of hiring employees only to have to lay them off the next year, or to begin programs only to have to cut them back the next year. Financial distress within the school system causes insecurity in our employees and our programs, and distracts us from our primary mission.
Currently, the district is in excellent financial shape to withstand the expected cuts in state and federal funding. Because we have built our unreserved, undesignated fund balance to 4% of total budget, we will be able to continue many of our programs without interruption even in the face of revenue cuts. Increasing the unreserved, undesignated fund balance to five percent of total revenue will give us a greater cushion as it is expected that it will be a minimum of 3-4 years before the national and state economies stabilize.
Currently, our unreserved, undesignated fund balance is at 4% or $5,820,868. Our total fund balance is 16.8% or $24,649,838.
Summary
Our mission is “to send our youth into the future ready to reach their potential as adults through a lifetime of learning.” It is through these proposed strategic goals that the District endeavors to carry out this mission. We want to be the best school district we can possibly be, meeting the needs of each and every student, and helping them reach their academic goals. We welcome your input as we work to finalize this plan that will guide our work over the next decade.
