It’s hard to believe that the first quarter has ended.  I would like to share with you some of the accomplishments so far this year. The mission of Cascade Public Schools is for all students to learn and learn at high levels. In order to accomplish this, the school has begun to work on improving the school and our students learning. Cascade is on a four-day schedule this year. The main purpose of switching to the 4-day week is to benefit our students.

If you were at the community meetings last year, you know that the district identified two areas of importance: that the teachers would work the same number of hours and that the district would work on student and school improvement.

According to numerous sources, teachers have the biggest effect on student learning. In order to truly improve learning in a school, the district has to work together with the teachers to improve instruction. Cascade Schools is currently doing this by providing professional development to our teachers, led by the principals. Currently, the focus of professional development is to answer the question, what should our students know and be able to do? With the guidance of the principals, the teachers are identifying the most important expectations for the school, for each grade level and for each subject.

Another area of focus has been to reduce the number of absences for students and teachers. The preliminary data on absences is even better then we hoped. The chart below shows how many absences each school had in the first quarter over the last 3 years

As you can see, the elementary has dropped to 187 absences in the first quarter. That is an improvement of 276 fewer absences from two years ago and 161.5 from last year. Our elementary enrollment has increased over the last 3 years as well.

The comparison for the Junior High is as encouraging. The absences from two years ago has improved by 46.5 and from last year by 43. The Junior High enrollment has stayed pretty much the same over the last three years.

For the High School, the numbers are even better. Our number of absences has decreased by 344.5 from two years ago and by 110 from last year.

That’s an incredible decrease of 667 from two years ago and 314.5 from last year when you add all three schools together.

Decreasing student absences is so important because we have to have students in class in order to teach them and allow the students to learn at high levels.

Another area the district has made major improvements is teacher absences. By the end of the first quarter in the 2017/18 school year, there were approximately 165 teacher absences. In 2018/19, the district had 137 teacher absences and in the first quarter this year, the absences are 53. At Cascade Schools, we have great substitutes but nothing beats having the classroom teacher present. Decreasing teacher absences by over 80 from last year, not only saves the district money but also allows our students more time with their classroom teacher. To us, that’s a win-win.

The district is also concentrating on student improvement by focusing on completion. Students are not allowed to take a zero anymore.  Every student must complete every assignment and complete it at a 70% or better. In the first quarter, through the hard work of the staff, the students turned 1386 assignments from zeros and failing grades to passing grades.

Our 1^st quarter GPA by class has increased substantially. Here is a comparison of this year’s GPA to the last four years.

And a chart that shows the same data:

As you can see, our preliminary data is very promising. This could not have been accomplished without the guidance and support of the school board, the hard work of our students and the commitment and positive attitude of our teachers and staff.