It's Day 2 of the State Board of Education Meeting in Pasco, WA. Since I left off yesterday, there has been more rigorous discussion about the form of the new accountability system and index and the implementation of new standards-aligned, math curriculum for the state. Stay tuned throughout the day for updates, non sequiturs and potentially juicy tidbits.

8:52 a.m. Making sure CORE 24 becomes a reality is going to take A LOT of work. The Board is currently discussing the charter and work of the "CORE 24 Implementation Task Force."

Several board members have concerns that, as a policy-making board, the State Board shouldn't truck too deeply into implementation, but should work with educators in lieu of piloting the new grad requirements.

9:19 a.m. Bottomline: The Core 24 Implementation Task Force will need to be FULL of high school counselors.

Mary Jean Ryan wants to hold off bringing the task force together until January so that the Board can work on making a big legislative push to fund CORE 24. Umm...yeah, good idea.

9:50 a.m. Mike Kluse, the director for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Battelle, is now presenting on one of our favorite topics: The Tri-Cities STEM school!

The STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Math) High School is being developed by so many powerhouses (WSU, Battelle, Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland Schools) its a miracle they've been able to come together so quickly. In anycase, they deserve a hats off for bringing the cultures of business, K-12 and higher ed together and actually getting something done.

9:54 a.m. "This is not just a school for top students or only future scientists--its to give everyone the gift of a STEM-based education. It will be completely representative of the district," says Saundra Hill, Pasco Supt.

Students at the STEM school will likely spend their seniors as assistants to scientists at Battelle. COOL.

9:58 a.m. The school is tentatively scheduled to open next year, but they face a lot of challenges--specifically finding a space to house the school.

10:40 a.m. Now we're on to the inclusion of Native American history into Washington Social Studies courses. It's in the law--and standards--but how do we ensure its actually being taught?

10:44 a.m. Basically it means the state needs to develop standardized units on Tribal Sovereignty for each of the grade bands. Now i'm certainly not against this. Very for it, actually. Native American history is grossly overlooked in our schools. BUT, isn't the whole point of this curriculum based on making it tailored to hyper-local (as in, the Sealth tribe used to live in my neighborhood) tribes? Maybe the curriculum has some fill-in-the-blanks?

10:49 a.m. Kris Mayer, "How do we train the teaching force to actually use these units effectively?" Response: We want collect student work and some classroom-based assessments.

11:10 a.m. Bernal Baca, "People often ask, because they weren't taugh in school, 'what more do these people want?' That's troubling. Understanding sovereignty and the agreement of two governments is the key to cultural understanding within our society." Here, here.

The State Board plans to support OSPI in the implementation of units on Tribal Sovereignty and Native American History.

11:32 a.m. It's public comment time, but my battery is dying. Regardless, Gene Juarez, an asst. supt. in ESD 123 just offered up a great testimony and voiced the support of 23 supts in support of CORE 24. He noted that ESD 123 was ready and willing to begin phase-in of CORE 24 as soon as possible. Hooray!

11:35 Now, OSPI's Brian Jeffries is giving a presentation on Washington's WASL score information from the Class of 2008, 2009 and 2010.