My son deserves early learning, no matter our income
Crystal Garvin is a mother of three from Bellingham, WA. She has a degree in Early Childhood Education from Whatcom Community College. I am a stay at home mother of three children. My oldest is an Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) graduate and is currently in kindergarten. She is a model student and [...]
Have you heard the starfish story?
Too many kids are falling through the cracks. The status quo is hurting our state’s students. Statewide, 30 percent of all our students don’t graduate on time, and the numbers are worse for low-income students and many students of color. No more excuses. We need solutions now. High-performing public charter schools can help some of [...]
It’s time for charter schools: Joel
Joel Key is an eight year teaching veteran who, before coming to Impact Academy, taught at a traditional public school in New York. Four years later, Joel believes that he has seen much more professional growth for his students himself as a teacher at Impact. Joel does not think that charters are a the end-all [...]
Grading Washington’s teacher quality policies
With teacher performance on our–and the President’s–minds, the 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook couldn’t be more timely. The Yearbook, released by the National Council on Teacher Quality, grades states on the effectiveness of their teacher policies. The report focuses on five main areas: Delivering well-prepared teachers Expanding the pool of teachers Identifying effective teachers Retaining [...]
Charter graduate: Challenging curriculum, personal attention inspire high achievement
This column is by Macy Olivas. It appeared in the Spokesman Review. “If I close my eyes, I can still see the college pennants hanging in the classrooms, and hear the echoes of voices asking who’s staying after school for Advanced Placement tutoring. I can still feel the texture of the well-used SAT prep books [...]
It’s time for charter schools: Erika
Erika is the daughter of two traditional public school teachers, and always assumed that her own children would go to a traditional public school. In fact, she says she was very skeptical of charter schools. Her views began to change when her daughter started kindergarten and spent all day in her traditional school sitting at [...]
Learn more about the proposed universal Pre-K bill
The Senate Early Learning & K-12 education committee will hear testimony on this bill today at 1:30pm. LEV has been a firm supporter of investments early learning for many years. If we want to give all kids the opportunity to succeed in life, high quality early is bedrock strategy to do so. From birth to [...]
Korsmo’s news roundup: Executive privilege
It’s that time again. And while I have loads of stuff in my Friday file, today’s focus is on Washington. Well, both Washington’s. And because Washington is synonymous with leadership, here’s something extra on just that topic. Here’s your news: Charters Await the Daylight: I don’t know about you, but if one more person tells [...]
It’s time for charter schools: Karen
Karen Martinez is the mother of seven children, the first five of whom she says struggled to succeed in the traditional education system. By the time her second youngest was in first grade, Karen says she was too frustrated to stay in the traditional school anymore. Now, after attending Rocketship Charter Schools, her daughter is [...]
House committee hears testimony on rating system for child care centers
Early this morning, parents, activists, and early learning advocates from across the state were in Olympia to testify in favor of HB 2569, also known as QRIS, at the House Early Learning & Human Services Committee. The passage of QRIS is would mean implementing a voluntary quality rating and improvement system for child care centers [...]
