(This is a guest blog by Karen Albers, a Richland community member.) We held a successful ‘Education Reform Listening Tour’ in Richland on Wed, Dec 16. As soon as I received the word from Kelly Munn of our date, I contacted my school board and we all went to work. This may sound unusual to [...]
Kudos to Washington's teachers
December 16, 2009 By
The Seattle Times is reporting good news today about Washington’s teachers. We added 1,248 National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) this year, just behind North Carolina’s 1,509. This makes Washington State 2nd in the nation for the number of teachers who pursued and obtained National Board certification in 2009. These teachers will now receive a $5,000 annual bonus from [...]
36 states might go for R2T, round one
December 15, 2009 By
The edublogs are aflutter with the news that 36 states have sent letters of intent to apply for round one of Race to the Top to the U.S. Department of Education. This doesn’t preclude other states from applying or require states that sent in letters to apply. The Department of Education asked states to send in letters of [...]
Governor’s budget requires bold action
December 9, 2009 By
Today, Gov. Chris Gregoire presented a bleak “all cuts” budget proposal on top of the more than $4 billion already slashed this year. With almost two-thirds of the budget untouchable by state and federal requirements, that leaves education and human services most vulnerable. Her budget proposal cuts education by more than $470 million in early [...]
Question of the Week
December 7, 2009 By
Currently, teacher salaries are determined through negotiations between the local union and the school district. One implication is that salaries can differ dramatically from district-to-district–even neighboring ones. This makes it difficult for poor districts to attract and retain highly qualified teachers. Should the state take over the responsibility of negotiating teacher salaries or leave it [...]
What might $2.6 billion in cuts look like?
December 4, 2009 By
The Legislature met for Assembly Days this week, holding work sessions to receive updates and discuss likely issues for the 2010 legislative session. Not surprisingly, the impending $2.6 billion deficit is on everyone’s mind. The Senate and House Ways and Means committees met yesterday and heard updates from staff. Bryon Moore, operating budget coordinator, presented [...]
Key issues for education during the 2010 legislative session
December 3, 2009 By
State Rep. Ross Hunter, Chair of the Finance Committee and one of our champions for education in Olympia, has recently posted an overview of key education issues for the upcoming 2010 legislative session. With news that the state is facing a projected $2.6 billion shortfall next year, schools are bracing for yet another round of [...]
Laggards and Leaders
December 2, 2009 By
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress have published a new report called “Leaders and Laggards: A State-By-State Report Card on Educational Innovation.” In it, they have grades for 7 areas of “educational innovation” including school management, hiring and evaluation, data and state reform environment. Washington state does not fare well [...]
We have the plan, now we need an investor
December 1, 2009 By
This morning, early learning leaders released a 10-year statewide Early Learning Plan to provide all kids the support they need to arrive at school ready to succeed. The immediate question is “how do we fund it?” We may have found a major investor. The federal government is poised to create a new $1 billion Early [...]
Your feedback on our Early Learning report
December 1, 2009 By
Today, LEV Foundation released a report that outlines what Washington State can do to secure future federal dollars to improve our state’s early learning system. Leave a comment below about your thoughts on this action plan. Also, feel free to comment about the draft Early Learning Plan released today by the Department of Early Learning, Office [...]
