I'm over in Spokane for the State School Directors Conference. It's a great opportunity to learn more about best practices and reconnect with my education collegues. It's also  a good reality check on how policy really gets put into practice. I'm always worried about our communications being too Seattle- or Olympia-centric so when I saw my friend Rainer Houser I asked for his reactions to State Superintendent Bergeson's "state of education" address this morning. Rainer is the fairly new superintendent of a small school district in southwestern Washington.  

One of the things Dr. Bergeson emphasized was the need to provide more intensive professional development for teachers, particularly in math and science. No arguments from Rainer on that one. But the question of how that pd is delivered is more complicated in his world. While he said his Educational Service District (a regional support network) has been a god-send, it takes his staff two hours (one way) to get to their offices. For a small district with a small budget it is tough to pay for subs and travel expenses to ensure his teachers get the high quality professional development he knows they need.

His suggestion: be more aggressive and strategic about the use of technology. Currently, the state connects all public schools and districts through the internet-based K-20 network. But apparently it needs upgrading and could be better utilized for professional development delivery.

Another suggestion was to transfer the idea behind the Digital Learning Commons model, which provides an array of online course offerings to public school students, to educators.

And when Rainer talks I tend to listen. He is a veteran principal, former lobbyist for the state principals association and now a superintendent. He's seen ed reform from lots of different perspectives and gets the intersections between policy and on-the-ground implementation.

The state legislature will likely pass a package this session on math with a heavy emphasis on professional development. As state policymakers are refining the details of this package they should consider these suggestions.

For those readers out there from small or mid-sized districts let me know what you think.