Everett district reports gains from preschool-to-3rd-grade work, outlines phase‑2 plans

Anna Arnold, lead presenter for the early‑learning strategic initiative, told the Everett School District Board of Directors on Jan. 21 that the district’s preschool‑to‑3rd‑grade work has increased participation and improved kindergarten readiness and that the next phase will focus on sustaining those gains through K–3 alignment and leadership development.

“This is the data that drives our work,” Arnold said, summarizing follow‑up analysis linking early‑learning benchmarks to 3rd‑grade state test performance. Arnold said students who met benchmarks across six WA‑Kids developmental domains as incoming kindergartners scored at about 85.1% on 3rd‑grade ELA and 84.2% on 3rd‑grade math; conversely, students who met none of the domains scored about 20% and 16.7% respectively.

The presentation stressed that increasing the number of students who enter kindergarten at benchmark is predictive of higher long‑term outcomes. “If we can increase the number of students in Everett Public Schools who come into kindergarten and benchmark in these critical areas, we will also increase the number who are at benchmark in 3rd grade in math and…