A movement involving the efforts of 18 staff—our Ninth Grade Student Success Team— has transformed achievement in Kelso and garnered the 2025 WASA Student Achievement Leadership Award.
By employing early interventions, data-driven strategies, and building whole-student systems of support impacting over 350 ninth graders annually, this work embodies OSPI’s vision of freshman success, where grades, behavior, and engagement are equally prioritized to set students on a path to graduation. As a result, Kelso’s freshman on-track rates soared from 66% (2022) to 84.9% halfway into 2024-25. The ultimate impact is an increased graduation rate: 89.9% (2021) to 91.4% (2024).