Today my Council committee focused on children. Specifically: how does the City’s Families and Education Levy empower children to succeed in school?
I am honored to serve as the chair of the Levy’s oversight committee and I believe our focus on tracking and achieving results is paying off. Two thorough presentations from the stellar staff of the City’s Office for Education confirmed that students are making real progress with the additional Levy-funded support. For example, most of the middle schools and high schools receiving Levy funds are seeing an increase in the percentage of their students passing core courses needed for graduation.
You can find the final report of the previous levy here, which supported our public schools from 2004 through 2011. For initial results of our current levy, you can read the mid-year review that covers the first half of the 2012-2013 school year.
Areas requiring improvement include 1) the need to boost attendance at certain schools (because excellent attendance is a key indicator for successful graduation) and 2) the need for the school district to share more data so that we can improve how we analyze student health and performance.
Finally, while it is apparent that we have taken positive steps toward providing greater pre-school opportunities, there is much more we can do. Here is a link to my recent newsletter calling for bolder action for early learning programs throughout Seattle.