Cascade School District (CSD) Superintendent Tracey Beckendorf-Edou is a semester away from completing her fourth year on the job. The CSD Board (the Board) is well established, with most members having already served more than one term. Given that tenure, the performance and direction of CSD is now fully in the hands of Beckendorf-Edou and the Board. Two of those performance metrics are the state of the implementation of CSD’s Strategic Framework 2020-2025 (the Framework) and the CSD Improvement Plan 2022-2023 (the Plan), both of which, in January 2023, are at their mid-term points.
Building from a foundation of CSD’s mission statement - “Continuous Student Development” - and vision - helping “students develop character, scholarship and determination” - the Framework’s goal is to define CSD as an institution that “cultivate[s its students’] full potential for lifelong success . . . guided by the knowledge that when we grow individuals, we grow strong, vibrant communities and a more connected world.” The Plan’s objective is to “orient district-wide priorities and initiatives PreK -12" by means of achieving four main goals during the current school year.
At the start of the 2019-2020 school year, Beckendorf-Edou embarked on what she called a “listening tour” of CSD by asking school board members, staff, students, parents, and community members for their vision of, and priorities for, the direction of CSD, as a whole. The feedback she received was then distilled and developed into the core tenets of what became the single-page Framework, which the Board approved and adopted in July 2020. The Framework was then presented and disseminated to the wider CSD community via presentations, newspaper accounts, social media, and a website.
The Plan, with goals that align to the vision set forth in the Framework, was developed and issued by Beckendorf-Edou and advisors in the summer of 2022. It both fleshed out the visions of the Framework and reported data from the 2020-2021 school year as a means of providing a progress report, of sorts, on the Framework.
The first goal of the Plan, which orients with the Framework’s first vision, is to “improve academic and postsecondary success,” specifically by ensuring that students are “on track” by ninth grade, “have postsecondary opportunities while in high school,” and have high, “on-time graduation” rates.
To help achieve those ends, one of CSD’s primary focal points is the implementation, in grades 3 -12, of a program called Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID), which “serves not only [potential] first-generation college students through electives at the secondary level, [but] also provides [district-wide] emphasis on having a postsecondary culture, focus on rigorous instruction, and creating systems to support student learning and growth.” CSD plans to further develop AVID certified sites at Alpine Lakes Elementary School (ALPS), Icicle River Middle School (IRMS), and Cascade High School (CHS). In addition, Peshastin-Dryden Elementary School (PD) will undergo a planning year in 2022-2023, with AVID implementation to follow in 2023-2024.
According to the CSD website, “AVID has a great success rate in improving college-going rates of students across the country and helps students learn skills such as taking notes, asking good questions, and organizational skills.” ALPS Principal, Kenny Renner-Singer is CSD’s AVID Director and reports that “we [currently] start [the program] in the third grade with school-wide AVID and then move to an electives program at the middle and high school. We talk about career and college readiness with a focus on note taking, vocabulary development, academic achievement, and more.”
Other initiatives underway for reaching the first goal of the Plan include: working to “continuously improve students’ proficiency on the ‘Smarter Balanced English and Math’ assessments” starting in third grade, and the state science assessment at applicable grade levels; working to ensure that students with “Individual Education Plans and English Learners” meet or exceed state percent proficiency on the Smarter Balanced Assessment; providing, at CHS, Career and Technical Education Dual Credit, Advanced Placement, and industry certifications, together with other career-relevant experiences, apprenticeships, and job shadows.
In furtherance of those latter objectives, CHS and CSD have partnered with the Chelan County Fire District, the Wenatchee River Institute (WRI), Wenatchee Valley College, the Leavenworth Fish Hatchery, and Upper Valley MEND, among others. “The objective is that at least 95% of Cascade graduates will experience a postsecondary opportunity while in high school.”
The data provided in the Plan shows improvement from the 2020-2021 to the 2021-2022 school year in “ninth grade on track” and postsecondary opportunities, with a small dip in the CHS graduation rate (from 91.4% to 90%). Proficiencies in English and Math across CSD are more of a mixed bag. Students in the district, on average, generally scored above the state average. Yet, while improvement in English proficiency is on a generally upward, linear path throughout CSD, from the third grade through high school, the same cannot be said for proficiencies in math, which tend to fall in a similar, albeit steeper linear pattern. (Of note, data show similar drops in math proficiencies statewide as students’ progress from grades 3-12.)
Goal number two of the Plan, in correlation with the Framework's vision of “engaging students in outdoor learning,” is “to promote outdoor learning.” Beginning with the 2021-2022 school year, all CSD teachers were given the opportunity to receive training in, so-called, FieldSTEM, which is the incorporation of “outdoor, place-based experiences for students connected to district curriculum.” This training will continue into the 2022-2023 school year. CSD is also seeking grants to create outdoor classrooms on each of its campuses.
As per the Plan, “[s]tudents in every grade level will have the opportunity to participate in at least one integrated, career connected, locally relevant, field-based or project-based learning experience in the school year. [CSD] will build outdoor classrooms at every campus, PreK - grade 12, as well as a greenhouse that will be accessible to students in grades 3 -12.” In addition, CSD will build and maintain community partnerships in furtherance of those goals with, among others, WRI, Cascadia Conservation District, Waste Loop, the Methow Arts Alliance (Methow Arts), Chelan County Natural Resources, Washington Department of Ecology, and MEND.
While outdoor classrooms and the greenhouse are yet to come, the Plan reports that in the 2020-2021 school year, 100% of students at PD and ALPS, and 67% of students at IRMS, had “at least one field-based or project-based learning experience.” At CHS, high school teacher Eric Bard’s Natural Resources class was the only curricula available. Yet, community partnerships across the district were plentiful.
“A fun area of challenge for us is outdoor learning, because we are going to have a brand-new outdoor classroom, which we can’t wait to install,” announced PD Principal, Emily Ross. Ross continued: “At this level, every single teacher plans to utilize the outdoor classroom once it’s installed. The teachers will make sure to sign up for this place. Until then, they go down to the future location and just use nature.”
The Plan’s third goal centers on the Framework’s vision to recognize each student as an individual by providing mental health and academic support to every student, as needed. To do so, the Plan sets forth the “need to consider each student as an individual with their own family, culture, socio-economic reality, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and goals for the future.”
CSD has begun to employ several mechanisms to attain the third goal, including a “‘Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)’ . . . with academic, behavioral, and social emotional learning components. During the 2022-2023 school year, [CSD] will be part of the second cohort of Washington State districts which will establish elements of a healthy MTSS system. In the cohort, Cascade will be grouped with other districts by size and capacity and will also receive coaching support from the North Central Educational Service District,” one of Washington’s nine Educational Service Districts.
Other mechanisms applied by CSD involve: comprehensive and collaborative school counseling that requires counselors to spend at least 80% of their time in direct and indirect student support services; the continued utilization, district-wide, of ‘CharacterStrong,’ a program that provides research-based social and emotional learning with an emphasis on character traits of honesty, integrity, trust, respect for self and others, responsibility, self-discipline, respect, and healthy and positive behavior at school; school disciple that is aligned with current law and best practices; increasing parent involvement/engagement by continuing to communicate in all primary languages reflective of the school population; ensuing that there are interpreters and/or communication devices available for school activities, and working to include close captioning of videos; continuing to encourage teachers to obtain National Board certification.
Many of the Plan’s third tier goals are making progress. For example, with the exception of IRMS, school counselors across CSD are reported to be spending more than 80% of their time in direct and indirect support of students. Parent engagement events occur in both English and Spanish in every school in the district. Apart from CHS, school discipline audits showed alignment with Board policy and procedures. Yet, there is room for growth in the percentage of students that are in general education courses 80-100% of their time and of staff, students and parents who understand instructional strategies to support CSD social emotional learning objectives. In addition, while in the past, CSD has been named a National Board Accomplished District, which means that CSD has at least 20% of its teachers achieving National Board certification, the fact is that only about 20% of CSD teachers have National Board certification.
James Swanson, IRMS’s principal, in discussing the third goal explained that “part of our organization's reason for being is to help young people learn how to navigate the world and reach their best selves. The Plan helps us align as a district to reach this goal. Overall, our aim is to help students grow in their academic pursuits as well as spark curiosity of the world around them. We do that, in part, by continuing to create a system that provides the best educational and social opportunities. For the end of the 2023 school year, we simply want to be able to say we have made progress towards these ideas.”
The fourth and final of those ideas/goals of the Plan is the notion of “artful creativity.” The Plan instructs that “in order to promote artful creativity, [CSD] promotes visual and performing arts in the district, partners with community members, and gives students the opportunity to express themselves creatively. This goal aligns with the Strategic Framework components ‘Artful Creativity and Connected Relationships.’”
To give CSD students the opportunity to express themselves creatively, CSD: has engaged with Methow Arts for children in grades K-5, and CSD art teachers for all other levels, to provide students the opportunity to learn visual art skills and techniques; provides performing art instruction in every school by having elementary music classes and secondary band and choir classes available to all, in addition to speech and drama clubs and competitions; partners with community organizations to enhance opportunities in the arts for CSD students, including with the Icicle Fund, Methow Arts, Art in the Park, the library system, among others.
Data delineated in the Plan show that district-wide skilled art instruction is available for all students, as is performing arts instruction and the beginnings of community opportunities/partnerships in the arts.
In summarizing the four goals of the Plan and the Framework, Principal Swanson stated that he “think[s] the Plan is organized around not only academic improvements but also contains components that mirror our community values. For example, the arts and outdoors are big part of the community and therefore, arts and outdoor learning should be a part of how we build educational programs.”
Beckendorf-Edou echoed and expanded Swanson’s take by explaining that the Plan “shows us what our core values look like in action; the details of the Framework come to life. Ultimately, we want our CHS graduates to have a great destination when they cross that stage. We want them to go somewhere great, whether that’s college, the military, or a career. Whatever it looks like, we want them to be excited about the next step in their future.”
Those futures rely upon the efficacy of the Framework and Plan. Using its own reporting data and metrics to show performance and progress, it is readily apparent that there is a need in CSD for the programs they outline. It is also readily apparent that while there have been areas of progress, as detailed above, there is much room for improvement and further implementation. At the mid-term of each of the Framework and the Plan, and the paths they lay out for CSD, a grade of B seems appropriate. Some goals have been met, some have fallen a bit behind, and some still have time to be met. When the Framework and Plan reach their end dates in 2025 and at the end of this school year, respectively, raising that grade to an ‘A’ by meeting all the expounded goals is realistic and attainable by the very capable CSD leadership.
Beckendorf-Edou was elected, last year, President of the North Central Region of Superintendents. The Board was named the 2022 North Central Education Service District Board of the Year. The latter were honored for many recent accomplishments by the state, including “working with district administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, seeking funding to support geographically remote and low-income families to access remote instruction, actively learning about the climate and culture of each building, and working as a team to partner with administration to include student, parent and teacher voices in decision-making.”
Other notable CSD achievements include, in 2021-2022, PD, ALPS, and IRMS all providing academic intervention services during the school year for struggling students. In fact, 89% of third grade students improved on their ‘Measurement of Academic Progress’ math test from the fall to the spring. CSD also hired bilingual secretaries throughout the district and began offering Heritage Spanish classes and curriculum, both actions that align with the Framework’s value of Inclusive Diversity. CSD partnered with MEND, the Chelan Douglas Retirees Association, and the School Superintendents’ Association to obtain internet access for students and families with financial and geographic access limitations.
Strategic planning is the ability to set priorities that match resources to opportunities. The vision of the Framework and high priorities of the Plan are met by the equally high CSD leadership resources, which bodes well for CSD students today and in the future.
Full text of the Framework and the Plan can be found here:
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