As Federal Way Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tammy Campbell looked out across 200 faces during her State of Education address on Wednesday, she delivered some sobering facts.

Fifty-eight percent of the district’s 22,500 students are on free and reduced lunch, 12 out of 20 students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, three out of 20 have learning disabilities and three out of 20 students are limited in their English-speaking skills.

While 81 percent of students are on track to graduate in the district, only 28 percent of students around the region will complete post-secondary education in a state where, by 2018, 67 percent of jobs will require college graduates in the workforce.

And according to the Road Map Project, Washington state ranks 47th in the nation in likelihood that students will attend college by the age of 19.

“There’s work for us to do,” Campbell said, “not just Federal Way, but the state”

Bridging the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups of students is a factor at play.

Regionally, kindergartners who come from low-income families met readiness standards in literacy, physical education, social and emotional development, cognitive ability, and language and mathematics education by an average of 15 percent less than students who were not considered low-income.

“There are areas, certainly, that our students are doing well in, but there are other areas like mathematics where we have areas of improvement,” Campbell said. “When you also look at our low-income students and the difference between them and our non low-income, you can see the gaps. They’re starting as early as kindergarten. So this really stresses the point that we have to have robust, strong early learning strategies to close those gaps.”

“Chronic absenteeism” also plagues Federal Way Public Schools students. The district is ranked 31st out of 33 other school districts in the Puget Sound area that were judged on their percentage of absent students. The district’s hovers between 20-25 percent.

“It actually gets worse the longer the students are in the system,” Campbell said of absenteeism. “So our 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders are where we really see it becoming a problem.”

And about 45 percent of sixth-graders in the district met reading standards in the 2014-15 school year, while 35 percent of seventh-graders met math standards.

“I link this, though, to our curriculum challenges and the need for curriculum and what our teachers are telling us about curriculum as they invest in those resources, and I know we’re going to see that turn around,” Campbell said, referring to the feedback she received from teachers about areas the school district could improve as she conducted her 100 day entry plan.

But Campbell said the school board and the district has a plan that will change the results over time – the Strategic Plan.

The plan will align each school’s guidelines so that there’s unity and purpose, Campbell said.

“As a result of that, we should have a road map for improvement,” she added. “And one of the things we’ve been doing is community forums; we’ve had five of them and they have been robustly attended.”

The forums began in January and have allowed parents to be involved, and they’ve given the district an opportunity to listen to areas that need improvement.

Together, the district and the community outlined five goals:

1. Building foundation in the early years: Every student entering kindergarten will demonstrate social/emotional readiness and meet or exceed grade-level standards in English Language Arts and math by the end of third grade.

2. Student engagement and empowerment: Every student will be personally empowered with ownership of their education and be fully engaged in learning.

3. Thriving, confident, responsible individuals: Every student will be empowered and prepared to develop personal responsibility in order to be positive, productive members of society.

4. Mastery of all subjects: Every student will receive equitable opportunity for success and will meet or exceed standards of performance in all subjects by the end of each grade.

5. High school graduation through successful transitions: Every student will successfully navigate the critical transitions in their schooling and will graduate from high school ready for college, career and post-secondary experiences.

“We often say, ‘Well, everyone doesn’t have to go to college,’ but often people want their own kids to go to college,” she said. “Our job is to make sure that students have the choice and the option.”

On average, students who attain a bachelor’s degree make $17,000 per year more than those with a only a high school diploma, they’re less likely to be unemployed and less likely to live in poverty, Campbell said.

In addition to the standardized goals and metrics, the district will provide standardized structures and resources across schools to support the goals; there will be high-quality, standards-based instructional materials; professional learning communities focused on improving instruction will be fostered; and the district’s facilities will be modernized to support those learning environments.

Campbell said the district will hear more about “light house schools” and it will maintain a heavy focus in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) education. Nautilus K-8, Woodmont K-8 and Saghalie Middle School will especially see changes in those fields, she said.

This summer, the district will have summer STEM enrichment camps around elementary schools, and overall the district will expand courses in advanced aerospace manufacturing, robotics and biomedical sciences.

“Because here, what we know, by age 11 they have already decided whether or not they can go in those career fields,” Campbell said, adding that the district’s goal is an internship for every student before they leave the school system.

Campbell ultimately encouraged community leaders to get involved in their neighborhood schools in order to see the change Federal Way desires of its own.

“We’ve got to put our time where our mouth is and we’ve got to go in and start to think about connecting with our children,” she said.

For more information about the district’s strategic planning, visit www.fwps.org.