2017-18
Annual School Performance Report Pacific Cascade Middle School
Pacific Cascade Middle School
24635 SE Issaquah-Fall City Road, Issaquah, WA 98029 (425) 837-5900 https://connect.issaquah.wednet.edu/middle/pacificcascade/ Principal Dana Bailey
Mission Connecting and preparing each student
Welcome Involved parents and community members enrich our school and make it a premier middle level learning institution. Thanks for making a difference!
Teacher Experience
13
Teacher’s with National Board 73.3% Teacher Experience Data for the Certification
2017-18 School Year will be available December 2018. Average Years Teachers with Master’s/Ph.D
11.6
Teaching Experience
OSPI Data In March 2014, the U.S. Department of Education declined to renew the state of Washington’s conditional Elementary and Secondary Education Act Flexibility Waiver for schools receiving Title I, Part A funds. This decision affects all schools in Washington State, which are now subject to the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Washington is the only state that has lost its waiver and must revert to NCLB standards and timelines of assessment. For schools and districts to be considered succeeding under NCLB, schools must meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards. For schools to meet AYP, 100 percent of all students, regardless of special needs or English language mastery, must meet proficiency standards. Pacific Cascade Middle School met AYP this year. For complete information about the Issaquah School District’s assessment data, highly qualified teachers, annual yearly progress, and state NAEP (of Educational Progress) results, please visit the state’s online district report card.
District Report For budget details and more go to www.issaquah.wednet.edu/district/ annual-community-report/ The Issaquah School District believes in seeking continual feedback from a broad and diverse range of constituents regarding their experiences with the District and their neighborhood school. See the Community Polling Study site at www.issaquah.wednet.edu/district/polling for more information and survey results.
Demographics Grades: 6-8
Enrollment: 973 95.1%
51.4%
32.7%
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Highlights Pacific Cascade opened for grades 6-8 in the fall of 2010. Our academic program closely matched the offerings at the other middle schools. Our elective offerings centered in three areas; fine arts (music, graphic arts and drama), technology (video, digital photography, robotics, etc.) and fitness. These electives utilized to the fullest our fine facility. Additions to the elective offerings included Coding and Web Design, Principles of Flight, Inventors Lab and American Sign Language. Year-long Spanish was offered for 8th grade students and completes one year of high school World Language Requirement. Our Lynx Life program (multi-aged advisory) met daily except on Wednesdays for 20 minutes and promoted the personal, social and academic development of our students. As the ISD launched PBSES in middle schools, we found this to be a prime opportunity to build in lessons, address concerns of a social nature and have students participate in the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Issaquah School District middle school students took a required technology class, which met a high school technology graduation requirement. Previously, this was met with the Tech Smart class. This year, we expanded these opportunities to include the Computer Science Web Design, Video Productions and Digital Photography classes to meet this requirement. All students had one trimester of health at each grade level. Counselors taught weekly lessons in health classes on topics such as stress management, friendship skills, and suicide prevention. Our year-long Leadership class offered students in 7th or 8th grade an opportunity to develop leadership skills, take a lead role in public speaking during assemblies and provide services to our school community. Yearbook was another year-long class available to 7th and 8th grade students. Students in this class create a polished and professional yearbook each year. Students who show interest and leadership in Video Productions are eligible to apply for a year-long I-Lynx Leadership class which produces our morning announcements, school PSA videos, videos for assemblies and the end-of-year video. This year, Pacific Cascade 8th graders went to the Junior Achievement finance park. Our PTSA has funded three ‘reverse field trips’, where the presentation comes to PCMS! Our 7th graders participated in two Living Voices activities, one Within the Silence to deepen understanding of the Japanese Internment Camps and the second was Northwest Passage, to support the deep understanding
Highlights Continued of the history of our region. Our 7th grade science classes studied the solar system through the Pacific Science Center’s presentation of The Stars Among Us. This year our 6th grade science classes participated in the Carnivores workshops with the Woodland Park Zoo, culminating in a field trip to the zoo, with special zookeeper presentations!
Extra-Curricular Activities Pacific Cascade offers many co-curricular activities; Math Club, Art Club, Robotics Club, Chess Club, National Junior Honor Society, Scrapbooking Club, Frisbee Golf, Board Game Club, Environment Club, Builders Club, Geography Bee, Jazz Band, Newspaper Club, and a full complement of competitive and intramural athletics. Many parent volunteers help to supervise these clubs, and this is an area we hope to grow in the coming years.
Special Programs Pacific Cascade offers a continuum of class offerings. In the elective area we continue to strive to build new and interesting class offerings for students. Special education classes in math, reading and writing are offered throughout the day. Advance Language Arts classes are offered at each grade level, and students can accelerate in both Mathematics and Science.
Improving Student Achievement Two courses offered at Pacific Cascade are of interest to students who struggle with learning. Math 180 is offered in all grades, and is a year-long class that students take in addition to their regular math class. It provides systematic instruction in the missing or weak math concepts and students are gaining in confidence and skill. Read 180 is offered at sixth grade and provides systematic instruction to strengthen reading comprehension as well as confidence in reading aloud and confidence in reading textbooks for other classes. Our Learning Strategies program is open to all students. It is a class period to get and stay organized, a chance to get help from a teacher on class or homework, and a quiet place to get a head start on homework. All middle schools received a grant to open the library after school for drop-in student use. We also received Issaquah School Foundation grants to offer a comprehensive tutoring/homework completion class we call 7th period. The District’s mentoring program, VOICE, is wellrepresented here at Pacific Cascade. We have many volunteers who come during the school day into study skills classes to assist and support students.
What’s New Continued growth in the Highlands has our school at max capacity! Teachers are sharing classes and we continue to get more lockers, more textbooks and an additional portable classroom to manage the growth.
Assessment Two tests given to middle school students—The Smarter Balanced Assessment and the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science—help indicate how well Issaquah students are learning.
Smarter Balanced Assessment The results of Washington State’s Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) help parents know how well their student is meeting learning targets. They also help schools plan instruction and curriculum based on these learning targets. The Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) is a statemandated test that measures students’ progress toward College and Career Readiness in English Language Arts (ELA) /Literacy and Math. The SBA replaced existing tests in English and Math in the spring of the 2014-2015 school year. The tests are given as part of Washington State’s education reform efforts which began in 1993 and involve annual state-specific tests for students in grades 3-8 in ELA (SBA), Math (SBA), and Science (WCAS) and then again in high school (SBA in ELA and Math and WCAS in Science). The SBA consists of two parts: a computer adaptive test and a performance task. Writing is included at every grade level and students are asked to solve multi-step, real-world problems in Mathematics. Performance tasks ask students to demonstrate an array of research, writing, and problem solving skills. The SBA results accurately describe student achievement (how much students know at the end of the year) and are reported in two ways: scaled scores and achievement levels. A scaled score is the student’s overall numerical score. These scores fall on a continuous scale (from approximately 2000 to 3000) that increases across grade levels. Scaled scores are used to illustrate students’ current level of achievement. Based on their scaled scores, students fall into one of four categories of performance called achievement levels. Levels 3 and 4 represent “Meeting Standard” and reflect “adequate understanding” and “thorough understanding” of the learning standards. Levels 1 and 2 represent “Not Meeting Standard” and reflect “minimal understanding” and “partial understanding” of the learning standards.
Grade Level Total ELA 82.7
81.3
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80.1
76.5
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82.6
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79.8
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Grade Level Total Math 81.9
80.7
77.4
72.1
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80.8
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77.0
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WCAS The WCAS is an exam developed and mandated by the state; it was given for the first time in Spring 2018. The WCAS measures what students know and can do on the 2013 science standards. WCAS assesses all three dimensions of the learning standards (science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts) and goes beyond multiple choice tests. The test includes a variety of item types including selected response (multiple choice, multiple select), technology enhanced, and constructed responses (equation builder, short answer). WCAS scores show the learning level of each student as compared to the state’s expectations for a well-taught student at that grade level. The numbers on the chart below represent the percentage of students who meet or exceed standard.
Grade 8 WCAS-Science 84.5
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