Northshore School District reviews early-years access and K–3 literacy, math data

Northshore School District officials presented data on Goal 1 — the district’s early‑years work for preschool through third grade — at a study session, laying out enrollment trends, assessments used to measure reading and math, and strategies the district uses to support young learners.

The presentation included program enrollment counts, an estimate of eligible but unserved preschool‑age children in the district, results from I‑Ready and state SBA testing at grade 3, and descriptions of WA Kids (GOLD) kindergarten readiness checks and Panorama social‑emotional measures. Chief Academic Officer Obadiah Dunham said the session focused on preschool through third grade and the district’s five measures for goal 1, and introduced staff who would present the data: Executive Director Doreen Milburn, Director of Research and Evaluation Craig Foster and Executive Director Amity Butler.

Why it matters: District leaders said the data is meant to inform targeted classroom supports and school‑level plans. Officials and board members repeatedly urged using the beginning‑of‑year to end‑of‑year (pre/post) assessment window to measure growth for specific student groups and to target interventions where subgroups are persistently behind.

Enrollment and access

Executive Director Doreen Milburn summarized early‑childhood enrollment and special‑education counts and said the district is serving fewer students in Ready Start than in recent years while Head Start is fully enrolled. Milburn reported that January counts for students with individualized education programs (IEPs) were 245 in one year, rose to a record 286 in a subsequent January, and have since dropped to 233. She also said the district had about 130 children in the largest promoting‑to‑kindergarten cohort in 2023–24 but expects about 88 this year.

Milburn said the district’s planning estimate from Puget Sound Educational Service District (Puget Sound ESD) shows roughly 254 children in the district could be eligible for free preschool; the district calculates its “unserved” number by subtracting enrolled students from that estimate. "We potentially have 254 students who are living within North Shore that could be eligible for free preschool programming," Milburn said.

Milburn described program capacity and enrollment features: Head Start was fully enrolled at 114 slots at the time of the presentation; the district has transitioned 57 ECAP spots into Head Start slots. For Ready Start classrooms she said a typical seat mix is roughly half students served under IEPs, about one quarter tuition‑paying families and about one quarter free preschool spots. The district is actively recruiting families through community partners, pediatricians, local preschools and its website, Milburn said.

Assessment approach and literacy findings

Dr. Craig Foster explained how the district reports literacy results and why staff use multiple approaches. The district uses the state SBA (spring only) as a high‑level comparison with other Washington districts and I‑Ready fall‑to‑spring data for cohort growth. Foster described four reporting approaches — end‑of‑year status, a five‑level placement approach (I‑Ready bands), pre/post cohort growth, and underlying scale scores — and said each has tradeoffs for interpreting progress.

Foster said the district showed an overall gain after implementing I‑Ready reading supports and that gains have largely held year‑to‑year. "We had a nice boost overall in with the inter reading implementation ... and we didn't really see a dip, we saw a gain," Foster said. He noted that kindergarten patterns are noisy because some fall assessments are optional for kindergarten teachers, so cohort N sizes differ in different analyses.

Disaggregated literacy slides showed persistent gaps by ethnicity and by other demographic groups that tend to widen by third grade. Board members and staff discussed using the fall‑to‑spring window to detect growth and to drill into subskills (for example, comprehension or phonics) where cohorts or subgroups need additional support.

Mathematics findings and gender differences

Foster presented parallel analyses for mathematics. The district’s grade‑3 SBA math performance showed a modest uptick in recent years. I‑Ready cohort analyses showed substantial within‑year growth produced by classroom instruction and interventions, while scale‑score trends highlighted limited summer gain and clear in‑school growth.

The presenters noted a gender pattern that differs by subject: females outperform males in literacy beginning in early grades, while males modestly outperform females in early math measures. Executive Director Amity Butler described professional development supports — Building Thinking Classrooms and the Math Genius Squad materials used in some buildings — and said the district is evaluating those offerings to decide whether to expand them.

WA Kids (GOLD) kindergarten readiness and MTSS supports

Milburn and Butler described WA Kids (GOLD) kindergarten screening, which teachers complete once in early fall and which reports on social‑emotional, cognitive, language, literacy and math readiness. Butler explained the GOLD items are scored from teacher observations over time and used to communicate initial readiness and next steps to families. She said the district uses WA Kids to view whole‑child readiness and then transitions to I‑Ready for ongoing progress monitoring.

Staff emphasized multi‑tiered systems of support (MTSS): strong curriculum and tier‑1 instruction plus targeted tier‑2 and tier‑3 interventions. Presenters listed classroom‑level diagnostics, progress monitoring, small‑group instruction and differentiated supports as main strategies. The district also reported targeted funding sources and partnerships — Title allocations, a Puget Sound ESD grant to fund English‑language support in Head Start, and coordination with community providers — to expand supports for multilingual learners and students from low‑income families.

Board discussion and next steps

Board members pressed for clearer, actionable reporting: they asked the superintendent and staff to translate assessment findings into focused priorities (for example, number sense or story‑problem competency) and to return next year with evidence of whether targeted strategies moved the needle for specific subgroups. Several directors urged prioritizing initial‑to‑final (beginning‑to‑end of year) cohort measures for tracking growth and asked staff to explore how to merge academic (I‑Ready) and social‑emotional (Panorama) data to create coherent, school‑level action plans.

No formal actions or votes were recorded during this study session; the meeting was a data briefing and discussion.

The district will continue recruitment for Ready Start and Head Start, evaluate pilot professional development programs for early math, and refine reporting to highlight targeted, cohort‑based growth for groups the board has prioritized.