For the Reporter
The Auburn School District has won the Collective Impact Award in the inaugural Road Map Project Awards Program for its work to increase equity and eliminate opportunity gaps for students.
Auburn’s alignment of Pre-K-to-fifth grade efforts and its work in closing the advanced placement equity gap placed it and 20 other finalists at the top of more than 60 nominations for getting excellent results, using data well for improvement purposes and collaborating to get more powerful results for students.
About 300 people attended the awards ceremony at the Museum of Flight on Tuesday evening to celebrate the great work happening in South King County and South Seattle to advance equity and eliminate opportunity gaps for students.
The diverse group of finalists included partnerships, programs and initiatives.
A panel of 15 judges, comprised of local and national experts, assisted in determining recipients for two Collective Impact Awards for overall excellence and seven Special Recognition Awards.
Auburn’s work focuses on building a system to close gaps and support young learners. In response to major demographic shifts, the school district and partner organizations developed a strong system to help eliminate the opportunity gap in the earliest grades, especially for low-income and English language learner (ELL) students. This approach, which kicked off in the 2008-09 school year, focuses on using data, better supporting teachers and strengthening alignment from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade.
To support the youngest students, the district works with their community early learning providers to provide them professional development in reading and math instruction. In addition, they share research-based teaching materials. In the primary grades, a mentoring system is encouraging data-driven decision-making and strengthening educators’ skills in reading, math and science instruction.
The Road Map Project is a community-wide effort aimed at dramatically improving student achievement from cradle to college and career in South King County and South Seattle.
