A bold proposal from the other Washington
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by Bonnie.
Can you think of a win-win for both young and older kids?
We can. It’s the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would make a landmark investment in our nation’s future by preparing young children for success in school and young adults for the workforce.
Washington State’s delegation in the House of Representatives will play a key role in moving this legislation forward. They will vote on this legislation this week. That’s why we need you to take action today!
This legislation is critical to our state and nation’s future. It would:
- Ensure young children enter kindergarten ready to succeed by creating an Early Learning Challenge Fund to provide states with $8 billion in competitive grants over 8 years. Economists, business leaders and scientific researchers agree that quality early childhood services stand among the smartest public investments available. This investment would improve outcomes for all children and especially at-risk children-resulting in higher graduation rates, higher rates of college attendance, and higher earnings at work.
- Prepare more students for the workforce by improving access and affordability to higher education through expansion of loan and grant programs, strengthening our nation’s community college system, and keeping interest rates low for students receiving need-based federal loans.
This is potentially a historical step forward in the education of America’s children-including thousands in Washington State.
Check out our Executive Director Chris Korsmo in the Seattle Times yesterday on this legislation. “We know that what happens in the first five years of a child’s life has a lot to do with how the rest turns out.”
Continue Reading
Capitol Hill Conquered!
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by John.
LEV’s Intrepid Intern Army rocked the Capitol Hill Block Party over the weekend. We collected hundreds of signatures for the Student Bill of Rights, and had a blast while doing so!
Check out our Flickr account to see more!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/educationvoters/
As we work up to our official release of the Student Bill of Rights, we will be going to many more of these events. We hope you will come and join us and be a part of the fun!
Maggie and Xuan manning the booth.
Continue Reading
HEC Board/SBCTC meeting July 28
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by Heather.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board is meeting tomorrow at Clover Park Techinical College. The last two hours of the day will be a joint meeting between the HEC Board and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. See the agenda here.
Continue Reading
TAKE ACTION: A bold proposal from the other Washington
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by Bonnie.
Can you think of a win-win for both young and older kids?
We can. It’s the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would make a landmark investment in our nation’s future by preparing young children for success in school and young adults for the workforce.
Washington State’s delegation in the House of Representatives will play a key role in moving this legislation forward. They will vote on this legislation this week. That’s why we need you to take action today!
This legislation is critical to our state and nation’s future. It would:
• Ensure young children enter kindergarten ready to succeed by creating an Early Learning Challenge Fund to provide states with $8 billion in competitive grants over 8 years. Economists, business leaders and scientific researchers agree that quality early childhood services stand among the smartest public investments available. This investment would improve outcomes for all children and especially at-risk children—resulting in higher graduation rates, higher rates of college attendance, and higher earnings at work.
• Prepare more students for the workforce by improving access and affordability to higher education through expansion of loan and grant programs, strengthening our nation’s community college system, and keeping interest rates low for students receiving need-based federal loans.
This is potentially a historical step forward in the education of America’s children—including thousands in Washington State.
Check out our Executive Director Chris Korsmo in the Seattle Times yesterday on this legislation. “We know that what happens in the first five years of a child’s life has a lot to do with how the rest turns out.”
Continue Reading
School District Spotlight: Chelan High School, Chelan School District
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by Molly Sumpter.
Lake Chelan is a regular summer getaway for many of us in Western Washington. Settled beside the Cascade Mountains, surrounded by wineries, apple orchards, and many recreational activities, it is hard to imagine what life must be like living in Chelan year-around. I remember the first time I visited Chelan. It seems as though the sun is always shining and there is fun to be had.
There is a distinct division in Chelan, as in many resort towns. Residents work in or own the businesses and this division trickles into the schools. Forty percent of the students are Latino, and most of the rest are white. In many districts, this distribution might be problematic, but in Chelan, they embrace it. Students even say that those differences don’t matter and have not divided their school. Lake Chelan School District prides itself on itself “slow and steady progress toward building a positive, supportive, and personalized school environment that is now coming to fruition.”
About eight years ago, staff from Chelan’s elementary, middle, and high school started working together more closely. The school district began to examine instruction across all grade levels, identifying and filling in holes. In reading, the curriculum was aligned to strongly emphasize reading comprehension skills. In math, the district undertook a curriculum mapping process that brought increased academic rigor and consistency to instruction, particularly in the elementary grades. The district also started to replace retiring teachers with instructors who were gifted at connecting with students on a personal level. Slowly, test scores and attendance started to soar. Chelan High School students have even averaged 93 to 95 percent attendance in the past five years.
Chelan’s personalized approach to education has produced exciting academic results. In 2008, it was one of four Washington schools to be recognized as a national Blue Ribbon School for its dramatic student achievement gains. Three years ago, only 42 percent of its 10th graders passed the math WASL, 54 percent passed the writing test, and 63 percent passed the reading test. Last year, 62 percent passed math, 80 percent passed writing, and 87 percent passed reading. Compared to schools with similar demographics, Chelan High School ranks among the highest performing schools in the state.
Continue Reading
Education News of the Day for July 27, 2009
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by Lindsey.
Impacts on the current student population: HARD TIMES: School budgets dip, class sizes grow
LEV’s op-ed featured in Seattle Times: Stimulus money shores up early-learning programs, provides opportunities
Changes need to be made for stimulus money: SEATTLE: State might not win education grant
New high school to open in Pasco: Chiawana High marks a turning point for Pasco
Finalizing 2009-2010 budgets: North Kitsap School Board Talks Over Budget Cuts
Grants provides scholarships and opportunities for future teachers: WWU receives grant for science and math teachers
Continue Reading
Guest blogger: Thoughts about education advocacy and getting things done!
Posted on 27. Jul, 2009 by jstokes.
Being an advocate is tough work. Being an education advocate is tough and frustrating. It is very much a game of highs and lows, and often not much in between. As education advocates pushing for the transformational concepts embodied in the Basic Education Task Force Report, seeing this report was a real high. The next best thing was HB 1310. It went downhill from there. The end result was all in all still pretty good by any standards, but it was not the pinnacle.
There were many good notes along the way, especially the outstanding work done by parent advocates from PTA, LEV and Stand. That and the pragmatic school board members, superintendents, child advocate organizations, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State School Board president, and all the others who joined forces to challenge the establishment education organizational status quo approach made the difference. Parent advocates descended on Olympia like never before, day after day, week after week, and wrote countless notes and letters, visited with their legislators, walked their neighborhoods, had coffee with them and shared the stories of hope, promise and great need. The sour notes of the death of 1310 was soon replaced by the sweet notes of the birth of 2261, and without continued pressure, visibility and the profuse thank you’s by the advocates with and to the legislators, and the Governor, something significantly less would have occurred.Then there was the great high of the bill signing day, along with the two balloon bursting item vetoes by the Governor that were a surprise. But overall much good did get put into law.
Now comes the hard part; actually making sure that the promises and plans of 2261 come into being over the next few years. What is disheartening to us advocates is the talk around the State about not having the money; the expectations are too high; the press for funding now out of the current budget without working to put the reforms in place; and taking the “model schools” concept and using it as a way to quantify the cost of a current public school education and focusing on that instead of this being just one piece of the overall new picture of education for the 21st Century. It is enough to make a grown person cry and the advocates to find other things to do with their time and interest, such as focusing on doing things that can be changed in their own school districts. But that is not the answer.
As they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Now is not the time to pull back from the long range battle because of exhaustion, frustration or cynicism. That is what kills reform every time. We must keep our eye on the prize, to use another great phrase and cliché. I saw a great bumper sticker the other day. It said “Get involved, the world is ruled by those who show up.” That is exactly right! So we simply have to stay involved, be engaged and bring the bacon home, whether it takes until 2018 or longer. If we don’t, all the work of this year will be essentially lost. We cannot let that happen.
Until the next time, with some concrete ideas on where we go from here.
John Stokes, Bellevue
John Stokes is no stranger to LEV and many of our education friends. He is a longtime advocate and activist whom we are pleased to welcome to the LEV website as a resident blogger. John’s perspective has been shaped by his longtime work as a local, state and national PTA leader and as a trustee of the Bellevue Schools Foundation and chair of its Bridging the Achievement Gap Grants Committee.
John has also served on numerous committees within the Bellevue School District and the state, and in political and bond and levy campaigns. He is a recent appointee to the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Board.
He was instrumental in mobilizing parent and community members to lobby for successful passage of the major education reform bill, ESHB 2261.
