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Superintendent pitches “Top 5 in 5” goals, sets literacy, math and graduation targets for Seattle schools
Summary
Superintendent Scholdner proposed a district ‘Top 5 in 5’ target benchmarked against the 50 largest districts that administer SBA tests, with specific targets for third‑grade ELA (67.5%), a debate over sixth vs. eighth‑grade math as the numeracy metric, and a push to raise graduation and ‘graduation plus’ rates; the board asked for interim measures, reporting cadence and budget implications.
Superintendent Scholdner told the board at a special work session that he wants Seattle Public Schools to be “the best urban public school district in America” and proposed a measurable ‘‘Top 5 in 5’’ framework to aim for the top five performers among the 50 largest districts that administer the state SBA tests.
Scholdner proposed concrete academic benchmarks. For third‑grade ELA he said the district baseline is 62.6% and the top‑5 benchmark is roughly 67.2%; his recommended target was 67.5% to allow a small buffer. On math he presented two options: retain a sixth‑grade metric (current proficiency about 56.8%) or adopt an eighth‑grade target (current proficiency about 50.3), noting that using eighth grade would set a…
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