Washington students taking, passing more AP exams

Anne — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:07:48 -0600

A public school accountability bill? Still a chance

Anne — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:09:23 -0600

Report: Promising results from Chicago teacher observation evaluation model

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:45:21 -0600

The Joyce Foundation completed a study on Chicago's Excellence in Teaching Project, a two-year pilot that assisted teachers with evidenced-based feedback. Below is an excerpt from the report, Rethinking Teacher Evaluation. You can download the report by clicking here (large PDF).

Students showed the greatest growth in test scores in classrooms where teachers received the highest observation rankings, indicating that classroom observations are valid measures of teachers' impact on student learning. This finding is especially relevant in determining teacher evaluation methods for non-tested subjects like art and gym.

Principals and trained observers who watched the same lesson consistently gave the teacher the same ratings. Some rating inconsistencies show a need for better tools to identify low-performing teachers.

Both principals and teachers agreed that conferences following the evaluation were more productive and had a greater focus on instructional practice and improvement. The report authors say there is room for improvement in this area, because many principals lacked instructional coaching training.

More than half the principals involved in the pilot were highly engaged in the new evaluation system, and those principals who were less engaged cited the new system's time demand.

Report: More states moving away from "seat time" credits to student learning

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:21:12 -0600

The National Governors Association released a report analyzing the trend for states to move away from "seat time" credits, based on hours in class, to awarding credit based on student learning. Washington is debating this issue in the state Legislature now. Here's an excerpt from NGA's press release on the report, State Strategies for Awarding Credit to Support Student Learning:

WASHINGTON-Awarding credits based on student mastery of content and skills can remove barriers to increasing student readiness for college and careers, according to a new issue brief released today by the National Governors Association.

Currently, education systems in most states dictate inputs such as the amount of time students are required to complete a course instead of outputs such as student learning. State Strategies for Awarding Credit to Support Student Learning provides states with strategies that encourage flexible policies for awarding credit and a competency-based education system.

"By shifting our education system from focusing on inputs such as seat time and the number of days in a school year to focusing on outputs like student mastery of academic skills and knowledge, states could realize gains in student achievement," said NGA Executive Director Dan Crippen. "Transitioning to credits based on mastery could also reduce the costs of remedial education."

State Strategies for Awarding Credit to Support Student Learning shows how governors can lead efforts to foster alternative methods of awarding credit by working to:

Build flexibility in state policy for students to earn credit based on learning;

Modify school funding formulas to allocate resources based on student mastery of content and skills as opposed to enrollment;

Ensure data systems are linked across state agencies and education providers; and

Require public institutions of higher education to accept student transcripts with credits earned by demonstration of mastery.

Vancouver set to open STEM magnet school

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:45:22 -0600

Vancouver Public Schools is set to open a new STEM magnet school in September 2012. The district produced two videos: a recruiting a video to draw interest, and another showing the tremendous interest by parents and students in attending the new school. Below is an excerpt on Vancouver's new schools. Click here to watch the videos:

Across the country people are talking about STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. Specifically, they are talking about the lack of qualified applicants to fill STEM-related jobs in this country. "We want to make sure STEM education doesn't fall behind, because it's the engine of our research enterprises," said Dr. Subra Suresh, the director of the National Science Foundation.

Vancouver Public Schools is responding with plans for a new school of choice in STEM education. Last winter planning teams, made up of representatives from Vancouver Public Schools, Clark College and Washington State University Vancouver, began researching other STEM schools in the country, and laying the groundwork for our own STEM school.

The new school, slated to start in September 2012, will prepare students in grades 6-12 for college and careers in STEM-related fields. Through partnerships with higher education and local high-tech companies, the new school is envisioned as an exciting, real world environment for all of its students and teachers.

Ed Week: Analysis raises questions about rigor of state tests

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:22:18 -0600

Education Week performed an analysis of preliminary data from six states on teacher-candidate licensing exams. The analysis has raised questions about the rigor of the exams. Here's a short excerpt of the Education Week article:

The average scores of graduating teacher-candidates on state-required licensing exams are uniformly higher, often significantly, than the passing scores states set for such exams, according to an Education Week analysis of preliminary data from a half-dozen states.

The pattern appears across subjects, grade levels, and test instruments supplied by a variety of vendors, the new data show, raising questions about the rigor and utility of current licensing tests.

There are, in essence, two main ways to interpret the findings. Some observers say the data suggest most states set low passing marks, screening out only candidates with the very lowest level of content knowledge.

"If there's not a lot of variation in the performance of graduates by institution, it could mean that education seems to set a lower bar for institutions than other professions," said Dan Goldhaber, a research professor at the University of Washington Bothell, who has studied teacher-licensing tests.

NCTQ reports gives WA a C- grade on state teacher policies

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:27:44 -0600

The National Council on Teacher Quality released a report on Washington's state teacher polices (laws, rules and regulations). It the state a C- grade, which is actually an improvement from the 2009 grade of D.

Below is NCTQ's executive summary of its 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook:

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal.

The 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook includes NCTQ's biennial, full review of the state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession. This year's report measures state progress against a set of 36 policy goals focused on helping states put in place a comprehensive framework in support of preparing, retaining and rewarding effective teachers. For the first time, the Yearbook includes a progress rating for states on goals that have been measured over time. An overall progress ranking is also included, showing how states compare to each other in moving forward on their teacher policies.

Report: Working together to advance reform

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:17:18 -0600

A new report titled "Seizing the Opportunity: How Education Advocacy Groups and State Policy Makers Work Together to Advance Reform" provides an inside look at the role education advocacy groups have played in 11 reform-leading states to advance education reform. This is the type of work and impact the Partnership for Learning has had and hopes to continue in Washington.

The report, written by Education First for the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network, documents best practices used to further and reinforce bolder policy making for improving education at the state level. It describes how state-based advocacy groups have encouraged and supported elected leaders who have made bold moves toward improving K-12 education over the past two years.

Report: A 'balanced look at American charter schools in 2011'

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:38:27 -0600

The Center of Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) recently released a report titled, "Hopes, Fears & Reality": A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2011." With the issue again front and center in Washington state, the report presents pertinent facts about public charter schools and why they've increased to more than 4,000 and in 42 states. Below is a short description of the report. To read the full report, click here:

Charter schools are public schools. Historically, however, the relationship between school districts and charters has been nonexistent at best, antagonistic at worst. As the charter sector continues to grow steadily, an analysis of the national landscape explores how that relationship needs to start changing—and where it already has.

This year's 6th annual edition of Hopes, Fears, & Reality provides a clear roadmap for school districts and charter schools interested in working together to improve education options. The report explains the risks and technical challenges behind charter-district collaboration and provides powerful examples of how they can be overcome.

Reflections of a visit to LA. charter schools

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:17:07 -0600

By Jana Carlisle
Executive Director, Partnership for Learning

I recently led a diverse group of professionals - from business, education and community organizations - to visit high-performing Los Angeles public elementary, middle, and high schools: Synergy Charter Academy (K-5), Green Dot Locke High Schools (three on same site), KIPP L.A. College Preparatory (5-8), and Aspire Centennial College Preparatory Academy (6-8), which also has two elementaries on site. The six L.A. schools our group visited were among the best I have ever experienced.

The purpose of this trip was to view effective teaching, learning and leadership models that could be transferable to Washington, especially for underserved students and those stuck in low-performing schools. This state has made little to no impact on the opportunity gap since 1996, as 2011 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed. Charter schools focused on the opportunity gap can certainly be one part of the solution.

Interestingly, schools in Los Angeles operate on one of the lowest per pupil expenditures in the country - the ones we visited received an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 per pupil from Los Angeles Unified School District. They serve some of the highest concentrations of low income and students of color in the country. The schools we visited served between 95 to 99 percent Latino from southeast L.A. - better known as Watts or its surrounding area.

As someone who has worked as an education reformer from both within and outside of school systems for close to 20 years, I have visited my share of model schools over the course of my career, including those located throughout the states of Arizona, New Mexico, New York and Washington, and the urban areas of Boston, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, Rochester, Seattle and now Los Angeles.

I have studied effective schools, organizations and practices in this country and abroad; written a best practice school case study; and researched and wrote a dissertation on high school reform and how to transform a school system while drawing on the existing learning styles and experiences of its educators. As a parent of three children, I have also experienced traditional affluent suburban public schools, one of the aforementioned best-practice urban elementary schools, a private catholic high school, a private expeditionary learning middle school and a large urban public high school.

My motivation for continuing my career as an education reformer is my belief in education as a democratic right and an economic necessity. There is an ever-growing need for our country to educate all students to different and higher levels of academic and technical prowess and to provide urban or rural students - who are low income and predominantly from communities of color - with effective educational options and safety nets that do not leave their academic and technical skill acquisition, and thus their futures as contributing citizens, to chance. Regardless of a student's post-secondary pathway, these schools provided students with the option not just to graduate high school, but also to develop the skills and attributes sought by employers, technical training providers, colleges and communities in general.

I would describe the six L.A. schools as effective not because of their type (public charter), but rather because of their consistency, commitment, expectations, motivation, and their teaching, learning, leadership, assessment, professional development, and data practices. They were relentlessly dedicated to equity.

Students were engaged in learning -– discussing, debating, providing feedback, instructing, answering, writing, calculating, researching, producing, tutoring, and processing. Their classroom walls included student performance data snapshots, varied demonstrations of students’ current work, and materials and whiteboards that reinforced lessons and behavioral expectations. These schools introduced students to strong college-going cultures evidenced by students’ ability to identify with specific colleges or universities, discuss college expectations and application processes, classroom affiliations with a teacher’s alma mater, and displays of numerous college banners. If students weren’t meeting specified learning gains, in one school additional adults followed the struggling students throughout the day and worked closely with the classroom teacher to pre-teach the student; in another school, students were taught by their classroom teachers or peers in after school and Saturday sessions.

Whether we talked to students or adults, these schools demonstrated:
1) adherence and commitment to a common mission and set of teaching, leadership, and behavioral practices and norms;
2) dedication to, belief in, and targeted support for students and their academic success;
3) consistent, cogent, and aligned curriculum, instruction, and assessment systems;
4) engagement with and respect for the community and parents;
5) regular and transparent analysis of student, teacher, school leader, and school climate data for purposes of evaluation, improvement, ongoing student and adult learning, and decision making;
6) school schedules and professional planning and peer observation time that reinforced the school's mission; and,
7) continuously improving academic results.

The students we encountered had both aspirations and options. The adults with whom we interacted had dedication, skill, support, and instructional, leadership, and school coherence to ensure that nothing was left to chance for these students. We learned a tremendous amount from our visit -- about charter schools; good teaching, learning, and leadership; and the palpable possibilities available - for our students, their communities, and their futures.

Finally, we need to remember that public charters are just one option that our education system in Washington should examine. Charters aren't guaranteed to be successful, but there are enough models in other states that can be followed to provide solid options for students and their families. If charter schools are adopted in Washington, they won't immediately provide systematic change, but they can certainly pave the way for key reforms that need to be made in our education system.

Report: 12 issues to move education forward in 2012

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:38:35 -0600

The Education Commission of the States released a report highlight 12 issues that will move education forward in 2012. Below is the list of 12 issues to the 12 for 2012 report (PDF):

1. Pre-K: Expanding the focus to P-3

2. K-12 finance: Creating and maintaining efficiency and financial accountability without lowering expectations

3. Blended learning: Getting moving. Getting it right.

4. Common Core State Standards: From talking to doing

5. Developing civic engagement in PK-12: State action in the absence of federal funding

6. Teaching quality: Fasten your seatbelts!

7. Rural: Enhancing the potential of education in rural America

8. Data: Access to what teachers and leaders need to improve student outcomes (and the skills to use it)

9. Individualized instruction: Faster. Cheaper. Smarter.

10. Performance funding: Building a model without a blueprint?

11. Remedial education: We know more now than we ever have

12. Credentials of value: Some are better than others

Report: Career and college issues loom for U.S.

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:15:58 -0600

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperations and Development reveals that it's more important than ever for United States to prepare its students for life after college. Education Week wrote about OECD report:

If there were ever an argument for investing in career- and college-readiness, the impact of the economic crisis in recent years provides one: In 2009, unemployment globally was more than twice as high for those who did not complete high school compared with university graduates. In the United States, it was three times as high-15.8 percent for high school dropouts, compared with 4.9 percent for college graduates.

Those numbers offer an indicator that even though the United States overall has one of the most educated workforces in the world, its lead is slipping.

With 41 percent of the adult population holding a postsecondary degree, the United States ranks among the top five educated countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a global network of 34 developed countries that identifies and analyzes issues including education.

Op-ed: Reforming K-12 education in a tough budget year

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:15:05 -0600

Rep. Eric Pettigrew and Sen. Steve Litzow, primary sponsors of key education reform legislation in the 2012 session, penned an editorial in the Seattle Times earlier this week. Here's an except:

THE state Supreme Court recently answered a question raised by the McCleary family and others by ruling that state government isn't doing enough to fund basic education.

Despite state government's financial troubles, many Washingtonians probably share the view expressed by Stephanie McCleary on this page that lawmakers must start increasing funding for our K-12 public schools now ["Education funding: What part of 'paramount' don't they understand?" Opinion, Jan. 11].

So let's ask another question that acknowledges the realities of our state's situation: Without breaking the bank, can the Legislature do anything during its 60-day session to move toward the world-class K-12 system our state needs while taking a giant stride to close the "opportunity gap" and offer hope to parents and children who feel trapped by low-performing schools?

A pair of bipartisan bills filed last week would, at relatively little cost, help state government comply with its constitutional mandate to "make ample provision" for basic education — which includes but is not limited to funding.

To start with, nothing influences a child's learning within the confines of a school more than his or her teacher and principal. Senate Bill 6203 recognizes that, and would cost taxpayers nothing while offering a return that is incalculable.

SB 6203, based on the state's new educator-evaluation system that is due for statewide implementation during the 2013-14 school year, should lead to a great teacher in every classroom and a great principal in each school. That's because districts would use the new evaluations to help identify educators who need additional support and connect them with professional-development opportunities. Similarly, high-performing teachers and principals could see opportunities to polish their skills.

Click here to read the entire editorial.

State reports details challenges for RTTT winners

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:39:07 -0600

The 12 states that were named Race to the Top winners filed reports with the US Department of Education earlier this week. The challenges of meeting the requirements of RTTT aren't easy. Education Week summarizes the reports:

The 12 winners of the federal Race to the Top competition have experienced near-universal challenges in turning their sweeping, multifaceted proposals into reality, among them a limited state capacity to execute fast, dramatic change and deeply rooted teacher-evaluation systems that have proved hard to transform.

Reports unveiled last week by the U.S. Department of Education detail for the first time where the 11 states and the District of Columbia are hitting their targets, and where they're falling short, as they carry out the plans that earned them grants under President Barack Obama's high-profile $4 billion education initiative.

Even the states that are living up to their promises best-Maryland, Massachusetts, and Ohio, according to the department-have suffered setbacks as they struggle to find high-quality staff members and contractors to do the work, whether it's overseeing implementation of common academic standards or constructing new data systems.

"It was very clear that this is going to be really demanding stuff," said Paul Manna, an associate professor of government and public policy at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va. "When you submit a 1,000-page plan that says you're going to do a bunch of things, you need a lot of capacity."

To read the reports, click here.

Olympia lawmakers introduce bills to improve student achievement

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:39:14 -0600

Olympia lawmakers introduced two bills Thursday that deal with key education reform issues. The Partnership for Learning was at the press conference lending its support to the issues, which deal with addressing the achievement, or opportunity, gap and supporting quality teachers and principals.

Jana Carlisle, the Partnership's executive director, said these two issues have a direct impact on student achievement: "We must address the inequities that exist in our schools and provide alternatives for families and students so they are prepared for life after high school. The traditional school doesn't meet the needs of all students. We need to offer more and different teaching and learning environments to ensure all of our students receive the education they deserve."

The press release is below. Click here to see summaries of the two bills.

Education bills provide flexibility and innovation, support to educators, and improve student achievement

OLYMPIA - Rep. Eric Pettigrew and Sen. Steve Litzow, flanked by parents, community members and educators, announced two major education bills Thursday that will seek to improve the learning and achievement for all students, especially those attending low-performing schools.

Pettigrew (D-Seattle) and Litzow (R-Mercer Island) are the primary sponsors of both bills in the House and Senate, respectively. Rep. Bruce Dammeier (R-Puyallup) and Rep. Glenn Anderson (R-Fall City) are each co-sponsoring one bill in the House, and Sen. Rodney Tom (D-Bellevue) is co-sponsoring both bills in the Senate.

The first bill, House Bill 2427, promotes instructional excellence in Washington's public schools. It builds on the state's new teacher and principal evaluation system and calls for a comparable statewide system so all educators can be evaluated fairly based on individualized professional and student growth, and a consistent training of evaluators.

The primary focus of the second bill, House Bill 2428, is to the close the achievement, or opportunity, gap in Washington. It authorizes the use of public charter schools and the creation of a transformation zone, or statewide school district, to increase opportunities and alternatives for students and those in persistently low-performing schools.

"These reform bills will provide the framework required to make sure every classroom throughout the state has a great teacher," said Litzow, the ranking minority member of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee. "Over the past decade the system has been trending in the wrong direction; Washington is one of only nine states where the opportunity gap has been growing and this legislation is key to transforming basic education for the benefit of Washington students."

Pettigrew believes Washington must use all alternatives to create a positive impact on the opportunity gap, including authorizing public charter schools and establishing a transformation zone.

"It's time to confront the fact that our school system is failing the same set of students, year after year," said Pettigrew, the Majority Caucus Chair in the House. "Traditional efforts over past decades have failed to close the achievement gap, and today we have the opportunity to lay the foundation for a new approach. This bill will provide a much-needed alternative for students who wouldn't otherwise have one, without compromising the effectiveness of our public school system."

Although the two bills deal with vastly different subjects, they both have the same goal: improve the learning and achievement of all students.
"As we discuss how to ensure every classroom is a quality learning environment for every child, it is critical that we recognize that innovations in learning are critical," said Anderson, a co-sponsor on the teacher/principal evaluation bill. "Reaching every child in a way that shows them the path to be successful in school is what we should be striving for. These bills are a step in the right direction."

The first bill creates a performance management system for educators based on the teacher and principal evaluation system currently being piloted in Washington. Beginning in the 2013-14 school year, the bill requires each teacher and principal to have an individual growth plan designed to help them increase their skills based in part on their performance evaluation.

"The most important thing we can do for our students is provide them classrooms with the highest quality teachers," said Dammeier, ranking Republican on the House Education Committee. "This educator evaluation legislation will help adequate teachers become good, and good teachers become great. It will strengthen our schools and bring about better outcomes for our students."

The bill also requires common components of the evaluation system to be developed and used by school districts to ensure fairness and comparability of evaluation results. Multiple measures of student growth data must be used as a significant portion of the evaluation.

In addition, the bill states that teachers and principals who receive the lowest evaluation rating - a 1 on a scale of 4 - for two straight years would lose tenure, or provisional status. Teachers and principals can gain tenure if they receive a 3 or 4 three times within a five-year period. A fair and rigorous dismissal process would also be established for those who fail to improve after receiving individualized training.

"Much effort has gone into better evaluating teachers and helping them refine their craft through real, meaningful feedback on effectiveness and potential for growth," Tom said. "That effort is wasted unless we take the next logical step and use that information to promote effectiveness, and ensure that our best teachers remain in our classrooms. This bill will help to do that."

The second bills creates a statewide transformation zone, or school district, and authorizes the use of public charter schools in Washington, which would be joining 41 other states with charter laws.

The bill builds on Washington's existing authority to intervene in the state's lowest-performing schools by creating a transformation zone, a practice many major cities and states are beginning to use. The schools in the transformation zone, using existing state and federal funds, would be allowed increased flexibility to improve student learning through such innovations as hiring a staff that best meets the needs of students, longer and/or more school days, and use of technology to facilitate learning.

In addition, the bill authorizes the use of public charter schools that primarily serve educationally disadvantaged students to address the state's persistent achievement gap issues. The charter schools, held to the same state and federal accountability measures, would be required to have an open enrollment and be operated only by non-profit organizations with proven track records in other states.

Vancouver addresses poverty in schools with 'Opportunity Zone'

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:22:51 -0600

Vancouver Public Schools, with increasing poverty, addressed the issue head on and created an 'Opportunity Zone.' Often students in poverty attend schools that don't match up to others in more affluent neighborhoods. Below is an excerpt of the data. To read more, click here.

In 2011, Zone schools outperformed non-Zone schools on state standardized tests in math, and performed equal to non-Zone schools in reading for the first time (overall performance improved in both groups of schools in both subjects).
Dramatic gains at two middle schools lead to their removal from the state's list of "persistently low-achieving schools," and there are no district schools on this year's list.

Report: State policy leadership vacuum for WA higher ed

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:06:56 -0600

The University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education released a report saying state leaders and lawmakers have abdicated their roles in higher education in Washington state. That's led to a dearth of in-state bachelor degrees and has forced employers to look outside the state for qualified candidates.

Below is a summary of the report:

Washington's higher education system is adrift, failing to grant bachelor's degrees to enough Washingtonians and forcing the state's high-tech economy to rely on talent imported from other states and countries, according to the latest study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Laura Perna and Joni Finney from Penn's Institute for Research on Higher Education have found a lack of statewide leadership, failed efforts to restructure higher education governance, skyrocketing tuition during an economic downturn, a budget crisis that threatens to undermine the state's ability to meet its need-based financial aid commitments, and a disjointed higher education system, among other findings in "State Policy Leadership Vacuum: Performance and Policy in Washington Higher Education."

"When it comes to higher education, what Washington needs from its policymakers is a set of clear goals and an ambitious agenda to help more citizens get the college degrees required to compete for jobs in the state's high-tech economy," Finney said. "What it's getting instead is an abdication of leadership and steep tuition increases that threaten to end the dream of a college education for thousands of Washingtonians."

In the second installment of a five-state, two-year study, the researchers determined that Washington lags behind most other states in the total number of bachelor's degrees produced per capita; only 40 of every 100 students who start ninth grade enter college on time; and one-fourth of adults ages 18-64 range have not earned even a high school diploma.

"Performance and Policy in Washington Higher Education" reports that college is becoming less affordable in Washington. From 1999 to 2009, median family incomes declined by 1.9 percent, but tuition increased by 42 percent at public two- year colleges and by 39.5 percent at public four-year colleges and universities.

The study found that high-profile planning efforts to reform higher education have produced few tangible results. For instance, Washington Learns called for a statewide tuition policy, better accountability and expanded opportunities for Washington residents to attend college, but none of this occurred. In the same vein, the Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education in Washington has also fallen short of expectations.

Click here to access a PDF of the report.

Gates Foundation: Preliminary Study on Measures of Effective Teaching

Anne — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:50:27 -0600

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has launched the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project which is designed to find out the best way to give teachers the information and support they want. The project has brought together 3,000 teacher volunteers in six different school districts with dozens of education experts and researchers. MET's goal is to find out how evaluation methods can best be used to tell teachers more about the skills that make them most effective and to help districts identify great teaching.

In their second set of preliminary findings, the report finds that:

• High quality classroom observations require clear, specific standards, well trained and certified evaluators and multiple observations per teacher.

• Classroom evaluation is not enough. That information should be combined with student feedback and data on improvement in student test scores. Combining the three kinds of evaluations offsets the weaknesses of each approach.

• The different evaluation methods still need to be refined, but they're better than what most districts are using now.

To learn more about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, click here.

Invite: Excellent Schools Now annual legislative luncheon, Jan. 19

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:20:04 -0600

The Excellent Schools Now (ESN) annual legislative luncheon is scheduled for Jan. 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Governor Hotel in downtown Olympia (621 Capitol Way South). This year's luncheon theme is "Supporting Success for All Students" and is sponsored by Boeing.

Space at the event is limited. Please RSVP to craigk@strategies360.com by Jan. 12.

ESN is a statewide coalition of 36 organizations spanning a diverse mix of groups and interests. ESN members share a passionate commitment to quality education for all children and for improving Washington's P-16 education system (pre-kindergarten through college completion). We believe that with the right vision, strategies, public demand, and political will, Washington can create an education system that prepares all students for success in college, work, and life.

To learn more, please visit www.excellentschoolsnow.org

Study: More schooling might raise IQ

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:09:17 -0600

Researchers in Norway have found that more schooling increases a person's IQ. These findings come from a large-scale study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was based on men born between 1950 and 1958, using data on IQ from the Norwegian military's draft assessment.

To learn more about the study, click the following link: http://bit.ly/wmzpPT