Areas of Focus
Our agency's “End” (or end goal) is:
We co-create just and humanizing educational communities where every student thrives and succeeds, benefiting future generations.
In spring of 2022, adopted five goal areas we refer to as “Sub-Ends.” These goal areas further describe what our End would look like if it were our reality.
Those five focus areas envision a day that we would:
- have just and humanizing school communities throughout Puget Sound ESD’s region,
- see success for all of the children in our early learning programs,
- see success for students across K-12 and into young adulthood,
- see students for ready for and completing the post-secondary path that is right for them,
- and have school systems that are safe and operate effectively.
To achieve our End, we need measurements to provide us with information regarding our progress, positive as well as negative. We want to know if our anti-racist practices and trainings within and outside the agency are supporting multicultural communities, if we are guiding early learners, youth, and young adults to achieving success, if our students have the lifelong skills to transition to further education and careers with confidence to succeed, and if we are providing school systems with sufficient support and necessary resources.
1.1 Just and Humanizing (Antiracist and Multicultural) School Communities
- Just and humanizing school communities are built through ways of being and action. PSESD generally most directly impacts the actions of adults in the education ecosystem including PSESD staff, partner staff in other organizations, and the systemic actions of those organizations themselves. This Sub-end measurement approach collects data directly from the adults about their actions. In addition, we understand how PSESD supports this impact, how students experience their school environment as just and humanizing and how the PSESD work environment is just and humanizing or antiracist.
1.2 Early Years Success
- Research has shown the importance of reflecting and honoring the whole-child approach in educators’ early childhood education practices. Educators reporting examples of their whole child practice will provide information about the effectiveness of how educators are applying knowledge of whole child principles.
- Research demonstrates the value of the whole-child to school-readiness and the importance of family engagement.
1.3 Child, Youth, and Young Adult Success
- Research shows that student and family perspective is critical to student-centered success and academic excellence. When students and families co-design their educational experiences it supports academic excellence and creates liberating conditions for educators, students, and families. This measure helps us understand whether and in what ways students and families are integrated into the decision making of institutional partners.
- PSESD direct service programs are diverse and have different desired outcomes for the students they serve, but all programs aim to support positive change. This measure helps us understand student success across programs in areas specific and relevant to the services of each program.
1.4 Post-Secondary Readiness
- Immediate college enrollment (enrolling in college within a year of completing high school) has been shown to increase college completion rates and lifetime earnings.
1.5 School Systems Educational and Operational Safety and Effectiveness
- School safety plays a crucial role in youth’s development and academic success. Students who feel safe at school tend to have better emotional health and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors. That sense of safety contributes to an overall feeling of connection. These WCTUP programs help districts reduce risk and loss exposures by reducing the numbers of accidents, incidents, injuries and fatalities. Fiscal health is a critical component of optimizing the use of resources available.