Pasco principals highlight social-emotional learning, early-grade literacy gaps and attendance steps during State of the Schools reviews

Assistant Superintendent Goble opened the Pasco School District State of the Schools review and introduced presentations from Mark Twain Elementary, 3 Rivers Elementary, Chinook and Whittier elementaries that the schools said focused on social-emotional learning (SEL), early-grade literacy and attendance initiatives.

School leaders told the review session they are emphasizing SEL and a tiered support system while monitoring inconsistent early-grade academic results and ramping up attendance incentives. "Our focus really has been the SEL," a presenter identified as Principal, Mark Twain Elementary said during their table presentation.

The principals said the district-level tiered system is being used to track students who need additional academic and social-emotional supports. One presenter described a tiered-fidelity inventory and reported that roughly half of their student body met the measured benchmark on the inventory: "When we look at our data...you have 50% of our students," the Principal, Mark Twain Elementary said. That presenter and others described ongoing progress monitoring in first grade and noted a drop in proficiency between first and later elementary grades: "I told you 60% of them are proficient, but it drops," the same presenter said, describing a downward trend in math and other measures that principals said they are continuing to investigate.

Whittier Elementary, a kindergarten-through-second-grade school, reported different assessment metrics because its students do not take the district SBA assessments. Whittier's presenter said the school saw high self-reported safety results in a student screen: about 89% of students reported feeling safe at school. "We just put our literacy goals saying that we wanted our second graders..." a presenter said while describing literacy targets and efforts to align teacher teams.

Principals also described practical constraints. Presenters said they lacked some classroom equipment and curricular materials, and one noted that a visit to Curie (mentioned in the presentation) revealed teachers who had pulled together supplemental materials to fill gaps. Attendance strategies such as regular reinforcement and parent engagement were credited with improving attendance in some classes; presenters urged continued emphasis on consistent daily attendance as part of academic progress plans.

District leaders and school presenters framed the presentations as reflective practice: they thanked principals for sharing both growth and remaining challenges. "We would like to thank the principals from Mark Twain, 3 Rivers, and Whittier Elementaries for being here...and sharing so much valuable information with us," a district representative said in closing.

The study session concluded and the board announced it would resume the regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m.