Beachwood is a Washington State School of Distinction 2011 Award recipient for being in the top 5% of the state for dramatic and continual improvement in student achievement over the last 5 years. 5/1/12Dear Beachwood Parents,Beachwood Teachers are Truly Amazing. Significantly Higher than State Average. 68% improvement over 3 years:More great news for Beachwood. I am talking about more amazing growth in teaching and learning. Each year the BERC consultants observe thousands of classrooms across the state and nation assessing teachers on 15 components and 5 broad instructional categories. As a school we have been focused on improving instruction and it has paid off. In the 3 years I have been working with the Beachwood teachers, the Powerful Teaching and Learning overall score has gone from 20% to 88%, which has had a significant impact on increased student achievement scores for our students. Our next step is improving the application category. Visit our website for more specifics on BERC and other info on student achievement growth. See specifics on our Curriculum/ Instruction/ Assessment Data and Info page on our websiteBERC Consultants: Beachwood has BERC Group: Increase Powerful Teaching and Learning +68% Growth Skills: Beachwood= 88%, State= 56%, District= 73%Knowledge: Beachwood= 88%, State= 40%, District= 55%Thinking: Beachwood= 71%, State= 36%, District= 38%Application: Beachwood= 6%, State= 31%, District= 25%Relationships: Beachwood= 94%, State= 74%, District= 84% Student Achievement Growth Rate is Higher this Year than Last Year. Our Student Achievement at Every Grade Level is Higher than Last Year on Math Benchmark Assessment and MAP Assessment:As our instruction has gotten better, our students are achieving at higher levels. This year our students in grades 3-5 started the year much lower than our students in the same grades last year.. This posed a major challenge for our teachers. As the year went on we kept seeing growth on 1-5 grade Math Benchmark Assessment and MAP assessment. I could not be more proud of our students and teachers for their hard work and dedication to improve. See specifics on our Curriculum/ Instruction/ Assessment Data and Info page on our website.How You Can Help Incoming Families to Beachwood:As many of you have seen, there is some serious construction around Beachwood. Our hope is that our incoming families know what a great place they will be sending their children. As you can see by the data, Beachwood is improving significantly. Our hope is that parents share their positive experiences with other parents. Each year we ask parents to briefly describe their positive experiences to incoming parents at any or all of the online reviews. Thank you for your continued support of Beachwood Elementary. www.greatschools.orghttp://national.citysearch.com/review/10871329?reviewId=478079251http://www.schooldigger.com/go/WA/schools/0141000246/school.aspxhttp://www.insiderpages.com/b/15244861455/beachwood-elementary-school-tacoma New Principal:Congratulations Meghan Eakin for being selected as the next Beachwood principal. http://lakewood.patch.com/articles/beachwood-elementary-s-next-principal-has-longtime-ties-to-cpsdSincerely,Josh Zarling Principal