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The Root Cause Rating Process The members of the Instructional Focus Team identified 19 student acheivement Areas of Strength and Areas of Concern, based solely on student data. For each of the 19 areas, the team rated Highline's effectiveness on a 1-to-4 scale in each of the 16 High-leverage Practices in Figure 4. The composite ratings across all 19 Areas of Strength and Areas of Concern provide a picture of the effectiveness of professional practices in Highline (Figure 5). Figure 5. Ratings of the Effectiveness of Professional Practices The frequency of "2" ratings (on a 4-point scale) is highly correlated to the current state of student acheivement in the district; in recent years, slightly more than half of all students were meeting standards by most measures. This leads to following inferences: • The quality and effectiveness of teaching practices, leadersip practices, and organizational practices have a direct relationship to the level of student achievement. • Although pockets of excellence exist within our school system – in some schools, grade levels, or classrooms – accelerated growth for every student rests on how quickly we evolve into a school system that offers effective instruction for every student, at each student's level of need. The fundamental message of the root cause analysis process can be summed up in this way: All students will learn at high levels when instruction meets their needs. If we want improved outcomes for students, the starting point must be the continuous improvement of teaching practices, leadership practices, and organizational practices, because they result in higher levels of student learning. NOTE: Although not highlighted in this report, the development of the strategic plan also included comprehensive assessment of the current state of standards-aligned instruction in Reading/Language, Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Those assessments, conducted by Highline's Teaching, Learning, and Leadership unit, also included reflection on the current state of educational programs and services relating to special education, career and technical education, world languages, and English Lanugage Learners. The following pages contain our Strategic Plan overview and its companion Instructional Focus document. 14