Led by chief academic officer Carla Santorno, Seattle Public Schools will be operating under a new academic vision aimed at building common curriculum to help students graduate high school and be prepared for college and work.

The plan is "simple," said Santorno, who joined the district earlier this year. "We need consistency. I know it sounds like rhetoric but this is possible and there is not one reason why we can't accomplish this."

Santorno's academic vision for the district includes specific milestones at certain grade levels.

First, the district must prepare students to enter kindergarten armed with vocabulary, numbers and letters.

"Kindergarten is very academic now," she said. "Things have changed. Students are expected to know a lot more."

Preparation should start in pre-kindergarten classes and parents and teachers should be reading more books to children to build their vocabulary, she said, noting that research has found a close correlation between children who enter kindergarten prepared and those who graduate high school.

"We can't just tell parents they need to read to their kids," she said. "We have to tell them why."

Santorno said she plans to work with principals in evaluating every teacher.

"I believe the principals haven't gotten the support they need in Seattle," she said. "We need to figure out who's a superstar, who's just OK and who needs help. My first job is to coach and make sure they get better."

Another benchmark of the plan is to make sure third graders are reading at grade level or beyond.

"Seventy-four percent of students who do not graduate high school were not reading at grade level in the third grade," said Santorno. "That's incredible to me."

With a little more than half the district passing the Washington Assessment of Student Learning math test, Santorno has put math preparedness at the forefront of the new plan. Instead of students starting algebra in the ninth grade, they should be getting a head start in seventh and eighth grades, she said.

This past summer, the School Board adopted a district wide math curriculum for middle schools, "Connected Mathematics Project II." It's an updated version of the curriculum already used in several Seattle middle schools.

The more unified approach should help teachers create a feeder system of common curriculum through the grade levels, said Santorno.

Santorno's plan also looks at creating a better transition for students taking the leap from middle school to high school.

"There's an important jump that happens between those grades, emotionally, physically and spiritually," she said. "We lose the most amount of kids in the ninth grade. They either physically walk away or emotionally, their heart isn't in it anymore."

The chief hopes that creating a dialogue between high school and middle school teachers and administrators will help students with the transition. Also, students who are apprehensive about high school should be able explore the school beforehand and get pre-class materials like vocabulary words and key concepts.

"We need to be doing a better job with that transition," said Santorno. "Kids need a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons. It's not just the poor and the minority students who drop out."

Santorno talked about giving students better access to books by putting them in the classrooms and teaching more life skills, such as balancing a checkbook.

"Frankly, we just haven't done a good job of teaching those other skills," she said.

During the past few weeks, Santorno has been introducing the academic plan to the district and she's asking all faculties to know and understand the vision, including custodial staffs.

"Because it takes a village," she said. "We've got good metrics so we're not just praying this all works."

Santorno is also leading efforts to improve arts, music and world language programs in Seattle schools. In her previous district, Santorno pushed to have arts and music programs in every elementary school.

Santorno came to Seattle from Denver, Colo. where she gained extensive experience in curriculum development and instruction with Denver Public Schools. Later she served as a professional development consultant, elementary principal and the Chief of Curriculum Services for Denver Public Schools and for Boulder Valley Public Schools.

She served as one of four area superintendents for Denver where she oversaw 34 schools in an economically depressed area of the city. There, she was largely credited with improving student achievement through a consistent curriculum model.

When she was eligible for retirement last year, Santorno decided it was time to move on.

"I was very intentional in my search," she said. "I looked for districts that I was philosophically in line with and who were doing good work."

Santorno came to Seattle at a troubled time for the 46,0000-student district. Amidst a contentious school closure and consolidation process that has divided communities, superintendent Raj Manhas announced he'd leave his post next summer. Enrollment has also been steadily declining. But Santorno is optimistic.

"Seattle is in good shape," she said. "We're going to turn this corner."

Rebekah Schilperoort can be reached at rebekahs@ballardnewstribune.com