School District: Seattle Public Schools

ESD: #121
Location: Capitol Hill, Seattle

Accepting Visits

Lowell Elementary is a magical place where students from all over the world with a diversity of strengths and challenges come together with staff each day to learn and grow academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. Lowell’s large attendance zone includes students who live on the west side of Capitol Hill and students who live in downtown Seattle (South Lake Union/Belltown/Denny Triangle, south to Pioneer Square and the International District).

Our school population includes students on track to meet and/or exceed standard; students with mild to significant disabilities; students who together, speak over 30 different languages; students eligible for free/reduced lunch, students/families who are homeless and/or in traditional housing, and students who are advanced learners. We are truly an urban school, with a focus on community and whole child supports.

Inclusion is a core value for our school staff and community. Lowell is an SPS “Early Adopter” school, working with the Novak Group focused the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), including implementation of Restorative Practices. We use the Common Core standards to guide our instructional practices and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to guide our work in supporting student social, behavioral, and emotional learning. To be responsive to the needs of the whole child, our work is structured through an Integrated Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS).

Continuous School Improvement Plan 

Community Partnerships at Lowell

Highlighted Practices:

• Intentional and detailed comprehensive scheduling that supports inclusion, including grade-level “WIN” (What I Need) time for differentiated learning opportunities
• Students engaged in core content with clear learning objectives linked to grade level standards
• Co-teaching and co-planning between general education teachers, special educators, and multilingual educators
• Focus on student engagement and positive relationships
• Flexible methods and differentiated instruction
• Adult collaboration, including intentional grade-level release time for peer observation, data analysis, professional learning, and planning
• GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) strategies