Associate Superintendent Dr. Torres Morales told the Seattle School District No. 1 board during a Jan. special meeting that the district’s Life Ready baseline measures show uneven progress and specific gaps that will require targeted strategies.

"This is a baseline report," Torres Morales said as he reviewed the board-adopted SMART goal and a five-year trajectory the district is proposing. Staff reported an overall baseline of 84.8% (June 2025) of graduating students meeting Washington State graduation requirements plus one of several college- or career-readiness activities; the district projects that figure could reach 94.8% by June 2030 under an aggressive two-percentage-point-per-year trajectory.

Why it matters: The board and staff framed the measure as intended to push the district beyond a simple graduation rate to ensure graduates have a meaningful next step — dual credit, a formal work-based learning experience, a completed High School and Beyond Plan, or comparable postsecondary steps. Directors and student board members pressed staff over whether the top-line metric reflects real readiness or merely compliance.

Key findings and data: Staff identified several interim measures that expose disparities. For middle school, 52.5% of eighth graders citywide had completed two required High School and Beyond tasks; subgroup rates were lower for students receiving free or reduced-price lunch (41.5%), African American males (39.4%) and students of color described as furthest from educational justice (44.3%). For eleventh graders, staff said only 4.6% had completed all four specified Grade 11 tasks by the end of eleventh grade, though the district cautioned that many students keep resumes and artifacts outside the district system and thus are undercounted in current data. Staff also reported 68.5% of current eleventh graders met a Grade 10 on-track measure (Washington State history plus at least 12 targeted credits) and that 91% of seniors met a dual-credit or work-based interim measure.

On FAFSA and data limits, Torres Morales said FAFSA completion is valuable for planning but is proprietary and cannot be reliably aggregated at the student level without privacy concerns: "we should look at the FAFSA completion data for our school district and use it to inform decisions, but not pull it into the aggregate of the measure," he said. The district will therefore use FAFSA results in planning rather than fold them into the top-line Life Ready percentage.

Students and system tools: Multiple student board directors described avoiding Naviance because it felt "clunky," saying they tracked applications in Excel or used the Common App. One student said, "I had just made an Excel sheet," and others confirmed the district’s data undercounts student work because artifacts often live in personal documents. Staff said the district plans to transition from Naviance to School Links, a statewide platform, and aims to complete implementation within about a year, offering demos and a written cadence for the board.

Equity concerns and supports: Directors raised questions about IEP quality and possible racial disparities in how IEPs are written or how goals are set. Staff said IEP goals are set by teams including families and agreed to add intersectional analyses (for example, students of color with IEPs) to the appendix and to pursue deeper review where necessary. Directors also pressed for clearer, grade-level implementation indicators, evidence that tiered supports are in place, and connections between progress monitoring and budgeting and staffing decisions.

Implementation steps and next steps: Staff outlined emerging strategies: clarifying tier 1/2/3 supports and ownership; centrally coordinating credit recovery; expanding dual-credit and CTE pathway access; recruiting CTE educators; and embedding life-ready metrics in the district accountability system. The board asked staff to return implementation details (including School Links cadence) in writing and to include richer appendix data for board review. The district scheduled continued monitoring at the Jan. 21 board meeting and flagged the February board retreat as a touchpoint for strategic priorities.

The session closed with the board pausing for a brief break before a legislative session update. The board adjourned at 06:50 PM after the meeting’s remaining items were completed.