Washington Learns

Ed secretary: judge teachers on how students do

maureen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:19:14 -0500

Governor Gregoire weighs in on Basic Education Finance

maureen — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:42:41 -0500

Publicly, the governor has remained relatively silent on Washington’s attempts to reform basic education finance. That was, however, until yesterday. Putting her stake in the ground, Gov. Gregoire sent a letter to Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and Senator Lisa Brown broadly outlining her support for certain components of the House and Senate basic education bills (HB 2261 and SB 6048). Regardless of where you stand these issues, having the governor weigh in on basic education finance is long overdue. Here’s a breakdown of her stance:

Raising High School Graduation Requirements: Gregoire supports phasing-in the State Board’s CORE 24 proposal. Nice.
Using a Model or “Prototypical” School Approach to Funding: Gregoire supports this approach to bring clarity to the education funding structure and, more importantly, for the transparency it provides taxpayers. In theory, this is good.
Data and Accountability: Gregoire supports using data to inform key education decisions, but does not support an accountability system tied to that data. Sad.
Early Learning: Gregoire doesn't support it being included in the definition of basic education. I can see her point, but doesn’t this fly in the face of her “Washington Learns” findings? Just saying...
Highly-Capable and AP Programs: Ditto.
Reforming Teacher Compensation: Gregoire doesn’t see clear agreement on performance-based pay, so she doesn’t support it. That’s frustrating.
Basic Education Funding Timeline: Gregoire says we simply don’t have the state dollars to begin six-year implementation of fully funding basic education during the 2011-2012 biennium, as previously suggested.

Throughout Gregoire’s letter, the effect of the economic downturn in her rational is painfully apparent, which is unfortunate, since funding basic education is supposed to be the state’s paramount duty—regardless of Washington’s fiscal status. Where's the willingness to innovatively reprioritize other state funds to make sure our education system delivers on its promises to students? Read the letter and let me know what you think.

Washington Legislative Session Begins Today!

maureen — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:22:27 -0600

As many of you savvy citizens may know, with the New Year comes the convening of a new legislative session. Be sure to monitor the legislature’s votes, hearings and meetings at their website and, of course, stay tuned to the Hall Monitor for the latest news on Washington education bills, policy updates and decisions.

Right now is a crucial time to be informed and for good summaries of the issues associated with this year’s session, particularly in education, be sure to check out today’s Seattle Times and the Washington Roundtable.

P-20 tightens the seams

allisonm — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:20:00 -0600

I don't know about you, but my December holidays went by way too fast. Busy shopping, busy cooking, and after a fun-filled day with friends, busy re-watching the highlights of the P-20 Council meeting at 10pm last night so I could write this blog. (Thanks, TiVo).

Formed in May with their first official meeting held in September, the P-20 Council met in Olympia last Friday for their final quarterly meeting of 2007. On the agenda were updates and discussion of three key areas -- Education Indicators, English Language Learners, and Math.

With the goal of the council being to create a "seamless education," they obviously have a daunting task. But Governor Gregoire, who heads up the group, seems committed to using real data to make informed decisions starting with this set of draft education indicators developed by the Office of Financial Management (OFM). Focused on transitions (early education to K, middle to high school, high to postsecondary, etc.) the goal of the indicators is to help answer many questions that start with "why" here in Washington state. Then, as Gov. Gregoire said, we can "dig deeper" on each and come up with the right solutions to solve problems.

After OFM's update, some specific feedback from the council included focusing on the 8th-9th grade transition. Mary Jean Ryan of the State Board referenced research by Mary Beth Celio that shows that the lack of course credits by 9th grade is a statistically significant indicator of high school dropout. I think credit completion should definitely be added as an indicator since even for the Class of 2008, we know that the greatest deterrent to students not graduating on time isn't the WASL, but instead a lack of required credits. Teacher quality and parent engagement were also noted as important indicators to consider adding to the list.

Next on the agenda was an update on the English Language Learner (ELL) Action Report. Guided by four goals identified by Governor Gregoire and relevant research and data, the ELL work group came up with five action steps (found at the end of this document). It was noted by the council that OSPI is doing a review of current ELL programs in Washington state. Again, in line with making informed decisions (yes!) Gov. Gregoire agreed that the council shouldn't go too far down this path until that information is completed and considered.

And finally, the math issue. A slew of math materials from the meeting can be found on the P-20 website but what struck me most about this discussion was Bill Moore talking about "zippers." Addressing a council charged with creating a seamless education, Bill appropriately stated the reality we all know -- that it isn't going to happen overnight. So in the meantime, we need to work on the right "zippers" to keep the seams from unraveling.

For math, Bill and others created the Transition Math Project that we know and love. This description of their work through the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges is a good summary of the "zippers" they are sewing into our state's math education.

We're not seamless yet...but at least we seem to be moving in the right direction. The next P-20 meeting will be held on April 10. Stay tuned.

Reminder: Don’t miss this P-20 Council Meeting!

maureen — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:36:41 -0600

Fire up your engines or your television sets Washington ed observers! The P-20 Council will hold its second quarterly meeting this Friday, Dec. 21. Created by the Washington Learns committee to evaluate early learning, K-12, higher education and workforce preparation, the Council seeks to increase accountability in our education system.

The meeting will take place from 2-4 p.m. in the Columbia Room of the Legislative building, as well as broadcast live and archived on TVW, and it looks like it will include updates and action plans on the Transition Math Project and the state’s focus on English Language Learners. Definitely two crucial state projects to check-in on before the holidays.

To learn more about the P-20 council and their work visit www.p20council.wa.gov.

Kinsley to direct leadership academy

melissa — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:09:30 -0500

I've worked with Dale Kinsley for about 8 years and have always thought he was one of the best superintendents in WA state. That's why I'm so thrilled that he's been selected as the director of the new Washington State Leadership Academy!

A public-private partnership set forth by SB 5955, the academy was created to enhance the leadership skills of public school administrators.

After he retired last year, I talked to Dale about this position and knew he'd be a great fit. He has extensive expertise in this area and brings the needed skills to thrive in this new role.

Check out the full press release for more.

Congratulations, Dale!

P-20 Council Formed. Okay, Now What?

barbara — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:37:00 -0500

While I laud the governor's formation of the P-20 council today, so that something taught in an eighth-grade Algebra class will hopefully connect with what's required in a college admissions test, I remain skeptical. There have been so many of these commissions. I just hope this one, since Gregoire is leading it, actually does something.

Setting a Low Bar Doesn't Help Students

barbara — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:53:00 -0500

This is a wonderful opinion piece written by Mike Ilyall of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. He notes, correctly, that standards need to be high so our children can succeed in a global world. This is true for all students, but especially so for minorities and students from low-income families who have may not have access to educational perks or even parent support.

Ilyal admits that he doesn't know of the WASL is the answer, but he does know that setting the bar low so all students can receive a high school diploma, and make everyone happy for a day, is not the answer either.

Two-Week Chat on Global Competitiveness

barbara — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:14:00 -0500

Here is a link to an e-mail exchange on that was posted on the Laurel Group Web site.

In it, Susannah Malarkey (Executive Director of the Technology Alliance, Ken Myer (President and CEO of the WSA, and John Drescher (Executive Director of TechNet Northwest) engaged in a nearly two week long email discussion about what they see as the crucial issues that might impact the business and technology communities in the Puget Sound.

It's a good read.

One Diploma for Dummies; One for Geniuses.Not Going to Happen Here.

barbara — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:56:00 -0500

efore I sign off for Mother's Day weekend, one footnote from the State Board meeting yesterday. I missed the discussion on the group studying the state's high school graduation requirements. At 19 credits and requiring only 2 credits of math, ours are some of the lowest standards in the nation.

Hopefully, this group will fix that.

Eric Liu, the chair of this committee, said that his group is looking at making the diplomas meaningful not only for college-bound kids, but for those that want to go into the trades as well. But one idea that they've dismissed for now is a tiered diploma system. In other words, one diploma for college-bound kids, one for those interested in technical and trade options, and those who don't know what they are going to do after they flip their tassels from one side to another and exit the stage.