2016-17
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
Welcome Involved parents and community members enrich our school and make it a premier middle level learning institution. Thanks for making a difference!
Mission Connecting and preparing each student
Demographics Grades: 6-8
Teacher Experience Enrollment: 983 94.7%
73.3%
Teachers with Master’s/Ph.D
Teacher’s with National Board Certification
11.6
13 Average Years 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. PCMS 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.
55.0%
31.8%
5.3% 1.5% k
ac
Bl
0%
e
Am
4.7%
0.4%
c er ka ial ni ac nd las ve spa r a A l ti ti i / s ul cI an Na H M di cifi In a P an ric ian
As
District Report
5.9%
e at
te
hi
W
n
da
en Att
R ce
ee Fr
ed
uc
d
an
d Re
h
nc
Lu
For budget details and more go to www.issaquah.wednet.edu/district/annualcommunity-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.
Highlights Pacific Cascade opened for grades 6-8 in the fall of 2010. Our academic program closely match the offerings at the other middle schools. Our elective offerings center in three areas; fine arts (music, graphic arts and drama), technology (video, digital photography, robotics, etc.) and fitness. These electives utilize to the fullest our fine facility. Additions to the elective offerings include Coding or Web Design, Principles of Flight, Inventors Lab and American Sign Language. Yearlong Spanish is offered for 8th grade students and completes one year of high school World Language Requirement. Our Lynx Life program (multi-aged advisory) meets daily except Wednesdays for 20 minutes and promotes the personal, social and academic development of our students. As the ISD launches PBSES in middle schools, we find this the 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 take a required technology class, which meets a high school technology graduation requirement. Previously, this was met with the Tech Smart class. This year, we have expanded these opportunities to include the Computer Science Web Design, Video Productions and Digital Photography classes to meet this requirement. All students have one trimester of health at each grade level. Counselors teach weekly
lessons in health classes on topics such as stress management, friendship skills, and suicide prevention. Our year-long Leadership class offers 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 is 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 will participate in two Living Voices activities, one Within the Silence to deepen understanding of the Japanese Internment Camps and the second is Northwest Passage, to support the deep understanding of the history of our region. Our 7th grade science classes will study the solar system through the Pacific Science Center’s presentation of The Stars Among Us.
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. Each year we send teachers from Pacific Cascade to a three day conference on Professional Learning Communities. Teachers continue to master their understanding of the standards for content and create common “power standards” (teacher jargon for the MOST important things for students to master).
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 math and science.
Extra-curricular Activities Pacific Cascade offers Table Tennis, 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.
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
Grade Level Total ELA
Two tests given to middle school students—The Smarter Balanced Assessment and the Measurement of Student Progress (MSP)—help indicate how well Issaquah students are learning.
83.5
81.0
80.8
75.5
79.1
76.8
Smarter Balanced Assessment The results of Washington State’s Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and Measures of Student Progress (MSP) 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 state-mandated 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 (MSP) and then again in high school (SBA in ELA and End of Course assessments in Math and Biology). 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.
e6
ad Gr
ct
i str
Di
e7
ad Gr
ct
i str
Di
e8
ad Gr
ct
i str
Di
Grade Level Total Math 83.1
78.3
79.6
73.6
e6
ad Gr
t
ric
st Di
e7
ad Gr
t
ric
st Di
74.8
e8
ad Gr
76.9
t
ric
st Di
MSP
Grade 8 MSP-Science
The MSP is an exam developed and mandated by the state; it replaced the state’s original annual exam, the WASL, in spring 2010. The MSP measures what students know and can do on the 2009 science standards. Next year the MSP will be replaced by the Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science which will measure what students know and can do on the Next Generation Science Standards. MSP 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.
84.5
e8
ad Gr
85.8
t
ric
st Di