South Kitsap board studies expansion of professional learning communities, new data tool for classroom instruction

At a May 7 study session at Sunnyslope, South Kitsap School District staff told the board of directors they plan to accelerate the district's professional learning community work by standardizing essential standards and learning progressions, piloting a simplified data-analysis form called the DART, and expanding teacher leadership through PLC team leads.

District staff said the work aims to make core instruction more consistent across schools and to speed interventions when students do not meet grade-level expectations. "When you think of a year ago today, where we were and where we are now, it is pretty remarkable how much work we've done," Lisa Fundenet, staff member, told the board. She said the effort ties into multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and the district goal of ensuring "every kid in the system to be successful."

Staff described several core components of the plan. First, building and district teams identified essential standards and learning progressions for reading and math; teachers will use those documents to define unit plans and success criteria. Second, staff showcased the DART (data analysis reflection tool) that lets teams enter simple counts of student performance levels and immediately produce charts showing class- and grade-level results. In a demonstration, presenters showed an example cohort at 51.2 percent proficiency on a standard and described how the DART highlights which classes produced the most advanced students so teams can examine instructional strategies.

The DART is designed for repeated use through an instructional cycle: teams set a SMART goal based on a pre-assessment, deliver evidence-based core instruction, implement interventions or extensions, and then reassess to determine whether the goal was met. "What intervention plans do we have for kiddos who are not yet proficient?" Emily Fogle, instructional specialist at Marcus, said, describing question 3 in the DART cycle, which staff said is crucial for closing gaps.

Staff urged a districtwide focus on high-quality core instruction so Tier 1 teaching meets the needs of roughly 80 percent of students; teams may set higher targets in schools that start at a stronger baseline. Kyle (staff member) and staff credited Greg Pickard with developing the DART demo used in the presentation. Staff proposed accelerating the district's cohort work with national coach Mike Matos next year rather than waiting, arguing South Kitsap has the capacity to advance more quickly.

Board discussion focused on which measurable targets the board should ask staff to track next year. Lisa Fundenet asked directors to consider narrowing the board's five broad goals—math proficiency, early literacy, graduation rate, attendance and belonging—to one or two narrower measures the board will review repeatedly. Board members debated whether metrics such as end-of-elementary literacy or specific grade-level math standards would be most useful, and several directors emphasized that belonging and attendance are closely tied to academic outcomes.

No formal vote was taken at the study session. Board members agreed to continue the topic and to return with a decision at the next regular meeting in two weeks. Lisa Fundenet said the guiding coalition would expand next year to include more stakeholders and work on scheduling and common assessments at the secondary level so interventions and enrichment do not require students to miss core instruction.

Implementation challenges flagged in the discussion included secondary scheduling constraints, the need to simplify MTSS language and processes so teachers can act quickly, and the district task of scaling successful strategies across multiple schools. Staff described plans to capture unit reflections after each cycle so teams can reuse successful interventions in future years.

The presentation included multiple school-level examples and teacher testimony about the energy and momentum behind the effort. Gretchen Wolf, instructional specialist at Mullinux Ridge Elementary, said teachers who had previously done PLC work "were excited to get back to it," and described rapid unit planning during a district workday.