Greetings! 

 

Despite President Trump and the U.S. Department of Education's attacks on our state's students, educators, and public education system, we are standing up for our Washington values and making students the central focus of our work.

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Below are several key achievements since I was elected Superintendent. All of them took partnerships (especially the Legislature), and the real work of educators in our 295 local districts:

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• Our graduation rates are near an all-time high, with the fastest gains coming from native youth, students with disabilities, and low-income students;

• We brought back civics as a graduation requirement;

• College remediation rates are at an all-time low in both the 2-year and 4-year institutions;

• Over two-thirds of our high school students take at least one college course while in high school and a record number of our students are graduating high school with an Associates Degree;

• We’ve ensured free school meals to over 300,000 additional students (700,000+ total);

• We are near an all-time high in the percent of kids who are kindergarten-ready;

• We've invested in youth mental health, and youth anxiety and suicide is declining in Washington state;

• We now have Career and Technical Education (CTE) graduation pathways and more than 50% of our graduates have taken two or more CTE courses (it was 38% when I took office);

• We have doubled the number of our students in acceleration programs;

• Only four states in the country are statistically outperforming our state in 8th grade reading, and only 14 states are outperforming our state in 8th grade math (National Assessment of Educational Progress).

• We are diversifying our educator workforce at the fastest pace in our state’s history and are introducing teacher residencies and teacher apprenticeships;

• Washington has one of the most qualified teacher workforces in the nation with 72.8% of our teachers holding a master's degree or higher;

• We raised average educator salaries by over 40%;

• We advanced a first-in-the-nation living wage for paraeducators to the Legislature (secured first $72 million in 2024);

• We secured $300 million on an annual basis for additional physical, social and emotional health staff statewide;

• We expanded healthcare to tens of thousands of school employees;

• A record high 50,000+ students are engaged in dual language learning as early as kindergarten, including tribal languages;

• We have increased funding to support students with disabilities to a record high (from $1.1 billion per year to over $2.3 billion), and we have the highest number of students with disabilities learning in general education classrooms;

• We developed a new school accountability system and increased transparency of school performance data;

• We ensured that local timber revenue stays with local school districts; and

• We grew our school construction funds for small and rural districts to its highest level ever.​​