Everett presenters say new, districtwide grading and assessment system will give teachers faster, more actionable feedback

Kathy Woods, an initiative owner for Everett Public Schools, told the board during a March 17 study session that the district’s strategic initiative to establish consistent grading and assessment practices is on track and intended to make assessment part of daily instruction rather than a separate activity.

"Assessment is part of the instructional process — planning, teaching, checking and acting," Woods said, summarizing the initiative’s approach and saying the work began in 2022 and will continue through milestone work into 2027. She described a shift from a centrally led project to school leaders, instructional coaches and equity leads running sustained, school‑level implementation.

The initiative emphasizes common language and structures, Woods said, so teachers and professional learning communities (PLCs) can use agreed assessment types and success criteria to give substantive, timely feedback to students. "That means we can give consistent and targeted support for students across the district," she said.

Michelle Waddell, identified in the meeting as the district’s director of assessment and research and co‑owner of the initiative, showed the board visuals of a comprehensive assessment system and described six assessment types that serve different instructional purposes. She said some assessments (diagnostic or formative checks) are used to inform instruction and do not necessarily become grades, while unit or summative assessments inform transcripted grades.

"By not entering everything as a grade, but rather using ongoing assessment to inform instruction, we provide opportunities for students to make mistakes and learn from them," Waddell said. She told directors that teachers can use student work and PLC spreadsheets now and that Synergy analytics will allow the same data to be visible without manual spreadsheet work.

Waddell described a staged rollout of a new Synergy grade book, with teacher teams piloting setup and training materials. "A teacher team wanted to start before we were even ready — we made it happen — and they’re currently piloting the Synergy assessment within their classroom," she said, adding that phase‑2 pilots are planned for later this spring and a districtwide launch is expected in the fall.

Directors asked how the system will measure gaps and track progress toward strategic outcomes. Woods and Waddell said teachers and administrators already examine assessment artifacts to identify needs and make instructional moves and that Synergy will provide added analytics to disaggregate by standards and student groups to target interventions. "We can look at demographic groups of students and say, where are some of the gaps and what do we need to do specifically," Woods said.

Superintendent Salzman closed the discussion by framing dashboards and grade‑book tools as instruments to support adults’ instructional decisions. "The dashboards are a tool for the teachers to help our principals meet the needs of the students," he said, adding that the district will not roll out systems without teachers at the table.

The presentation emphasized continuing professional development, on‑demand teacher resources and a multi‑year continuous improvement cycle; directors praised the work and asked for continued progress reports at future study sessions.