[Olympia – Jan. 27, 2014] – This week is School Choice Week in Washington and across the country. More than 55 events are planned across the Evergreen State, in addition to 5,500 events nationwide.
The Week, which is the nation’s largest-ever celebration of educational opportunity, gives students, parents, and teachers in Washington a chance to raise awareness of the different types of educational options available to families in advance of the 2014-2015 school year. Events across the state will include rallies, school fairs, roundtable discussions, open houses, and parent information sessions.
National School Choice Week spotlights all types of education options for families – including traditional public schools, public magnet schools, charter schools, private schools, online learning and homeschooling.
In addition to raising awareness of school choice options in Washington, the Week also provides students, parents and teachers with an opportunity to call on leaders in Olympia to expand access to high-quality education environments for children.
“Washington families know that when parents have the freedom to choose the best schools for their children, great things happen,” said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. “Student achievement increases, graduation rates rise, and children are better prepared for real life.”
Said Campanella: “We hope families across the state will use National School Choice Week as an opportunity to learn more about the educational options available to their children, and to begin researching schools for the 2014-2015 school year. If families want to switch schools, January is the time to start the search process.”
The Week officially kicked off at a major rally Saturday night in Houston, Texas. Today, students wearing National School Choice Week’s signature yellow scarves will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.
National School Choice Week is an independent public awareness campaign that shines a spotlight on effective education options for all children. For more information, visit www.schoolchoiceweek.com
More than 380,000 ballots will appear in voters’ mailboxes this week for the Feb. 11 school levy and bond elections. Voters in all school districts except the Arlington, Index and Stanwood school districts will receive ballots.
Voters are encouraged to read and follow the ballot instructions, sign their ballot envelope and return their ballot as soon as practical. These steps will ensure that ballots are counted without issue or delay.
Tulalip residents can contact Frieda Williams for assistance, 360.716.4220
MARYSVILLE — The Marysville School District’s annual information fair and kindergarten registration kickoff will take place this year from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Totem Middle School cafeteria, located at 1605 Seventh St.
New kindergarten parents will be able to meet with staff members from their children’s schools, and to register their children for the 2014-15 class. Interpreters will be on site to assist parents who speak Spanish or Russian.
Parents should bring their children’s birth certificates, as well as their health and immunization records. Registration documents are now available on the Marysville School District’s website at www.msvl.k12.wa.us.
Staff will be on hand to help you locate your child’s neighborhood school, which you can also find out ahead of time by calling the MSD Service Center at 360-653-0835, or by logging onto www.msvl.k12.wa.us.
Registration will continue at your neighborhood schools, beginning on Monday, Jan. 27, for the 2014-15 school year.
District partners whose representatives are set to attend the information fair include ECEAP, the Marysville Library, the city of Marysville Parks & Recreation Department, the PTSA and Special Education PTSA, the Marysville YMCA and more.
More than 380,000 ballots will appear in voters’ mailboxes this week for the Feb. 11 school levy and bond elections. Voters in all school districts except the Arlington, Index and Stanwood school districts will receive ballots.
Voters are encouraged to read and follow the ballot instructions, sign their ballot envelope and return their ballot as soon as practical. These steps will ensure that ballots are counted without issue or delay.
Voters who choose to return their voted ballot through the mail must ensure that it is postmarked no later than Feb. 11. Voters may return their voted ballot postage-free to any of the 11, 24-hour ballot drop-box locations in Snohomish County. Ballots can be deposited at these locations until 8 p.m. on Election Day, Feb. 11, though voters are encouraged to return their ballot as soon as practical to avoid potentially long wait times at drop boxes.
The 11, 24-hour ballot drop boxes locations are:
Arlington (near library)
135 N Washington Ave
Edmonds (near library)
650 Main St
Everett (Courthouse Campus)
Rockefeller Ave and Wall St
Everett (at McCollum Park)
600 128th St SE
Lake Stevens (near the city boat launch)
1800 Main St,
Lynnwood (in front of City Hall)
19100 44th Ave
Marysville (behind Municipal Court)
1015 State Ave
Monroe (near Library)
1070 Village Way
Mukilteo (near library)
4675 Harbour Pointe Blvd
Snohomish (near library)
311 Maple Ave
Stanwood (near library)
9701 271st St NW
Voters can find more information on the insert delivered with each ballot or online at www.snoco.org/elections.
Accessible voting equipment designed for voters with disabilities is available in the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office through Feb. 11, and at the Lynnwood Sno-Isle Library on Monday, Feb. 10, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Election Day, Tuesday, Feb. 11, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Lynnwood Sno-Isle Library is located at 19200 44th Ave.
The Snohomish County Auditor’s Office is located on the first floor of the Snohomish County Administration Building, 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett. Voters may drop their voted ballots at the Auditor’s Office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The office will have extended hours on Election Day, Tuesday, Feb. 11, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Snohomish County Elections may be reached at 425-388-3444.
Children who are members of Oregon Indian tribes fare extremely poorly in Oregon schools, in part because so many of them miss a lot of school, a new study shows.
They also suffer academically because 30 percent are enrolled in the state’s worst performing schools, compared with 7 percent of students statewide who attend schools with bottom-tier results, the study found.
Only about 40 percent of Oregon students who are official members of an Oregon tribe can do math at grade level, and only about half read at grade level in elementary and middle school, the study found.
And just 59 percent of tribal members in the class of 2011 earned a diploma within five years of starting high school, compared with 72 percent of all Oregon students.
The outcomes are much worse than has generally been understood because Oregon tracks students as Native American if they or their parents say they are. But only about 5 percent of those students are enrolled members of an Oregon tribe, the study found.
Compared with tribal members, students the state tracks as Native American are less likely to be in special education, more likely to live in a city or a suburb, less likely to move during the school year and less likely to get suspended from school.
ECONorthwest and the Chalkboard Project have a special arrangement with the Oregon Department of Education that gives the research firm access to otherwise confidential student records.
Leaders of the seven tribes provided the department with the names of their school-age members. The department in turn informed ECONorthwest researchers which Oregon student ID numbers belong to an enrolled tribal member.
Using their large database of student records, researchers then were able to compile an unprecedented statistical portrait of how tribal young people fare in Oregon public schools.
Ramona Halcomb, director of education at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said those findings “are not what we were hoping for, but they’re useful so we know how far we need to go to get to our goal.”
During 2011-12, one of every three students from an Oregon tribe was “chronically absent,” meaning the student missed 10 percent of school days or more, the study found.
Students who miss that much school are unlikely to ever read or do math at grade level or to earn diplomas, other studies have shown.
The 33 percent chronic absentee rate among tribal members was much worse than the high statewide chronic absentee rate of 19 percent and the 23 percent chronic absentee rate for all students who identify as Native American, the study found.
Authors of the study are urging tribes and state policymakers to consider working with foundations or nonprofits to find a strategy to cut tribal children’s chronic absenteeism rate in half. That would likely require changes in both schools and tribal households, the study said.
George said she and other tribal leaders plan to follow through.
“We need to help foster a change in culture to help our children understand that showing up in school every day is the path to success in school and later in life,” she said. She said they will work “to help children see school as a place that is important, that is a path to success and where they feel valued and see the value for them.”
Tribal children are concentrated in Oregon’s worst performing schools, the study found.
All three schools attended by students who live on or near the Warm Springs reservation, Warm Springs Elementary, Jefferson County Middle School and Madras High, rank in the bottom 5 percent of Oregon Schools based on their 2011-12 test scores and graduation rates. So does Chiloquin Elementary, which serves the tiny town where the Klamath Tribes are based.
George said she was alarmed to learn that tribal children are five times more likely than other children to attend a school with rock-bottom results, many of them in rural parts of Oregon. “That is an important finding that we need to address. There is no denying that part of the solution must be to bring change to these rural schools and help all the children in these rural schools.”
One surprisingly good outcome for tribal youths: Members of Oregon tribes who graduate from an Oregon high school enroll in college at about the same rate as Oregon students as a whole. Roughly 60 percent of both groups enroll in a community college or four-year college within 16 months of finishing high school, the study found.
Other findings about students who are members of Oregon tribes include:
Almost half live in rural areas and another one-third live in small towns. Only 20 percent live in a city or suburb.
17 percent are in special education, compared with 13 percent of Oregon students as a whole.
11 percent were suspended from school, compared with 7 percent of Oregon students as a whole.
75 percent qualify for subsidized school meals, meaning they live in low-income families.
11 percent changed schools at least once during the 2011-12 school year.
Only 46 percent of tribal members in middle school passed the state reading test, but 69 percent of tribal members in high school did.
OLYMPIA – What goes on each day inside thousands of public schools is a vexing question Washington lawmakers want to answer.
For the second year in a row, there’s an effort to find out how teachers, administrators and staff spend their time and use what is learned to guide future decisions by the Legislature.
The Senate education committee held a hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 6064 to compile data on how each of the state’s 295 districts defines and uses school time.
“Are (schools) being productive? What’s actually going on, nobody knows,” Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island, the bill’s author and chairman of the committee said before the hearing. “The more information we have, the better understanding we’ll gain of what’s going on.”
He deflected concerns that lawmakers might use the information to impose new mandates on public schools.
“At the end of the day, if you’re a high-performing school, you’ll keep on doing what you’re doing,” he said.
Most speakers at the hearing welcomed such an analysis because they are convinced it will illuminate the dedication of school employees.
“Bring it on. Find out what’s really going on in our schools,” said Jim Kowalkowski, superintendent of the Davenport School District, near Spokane.
A year ago, lawmakers passed and Gov. Jay Inslee signed a nearly identical bill. It requested the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee carry out the work but it couldn’t. This time, they are asking the Washington Institute of Public Policy to undertake the task.
The bill seeks information on how districts determine classroom and non-classroom time as well as instructional and non-instructional time. They want researchers to see if the use of time is spelled out in collective bargaining agreements. The report would be due Dec. 1, 2015, and cost an estimated $137,000.
Meanwhile, lawmakers did include $25,000 in the budget for Central Washington University to begin gathering data on what a typical work day looks like for a public school teacher.
Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, then a representative, argued for the money.
At the time he said he had tired of the back-and-forth between reformers convinced teachers spend too little time teaching and the teachers contending they can’t spend as much time as they want because of a growing number of non-teaching responsibilities.
He said he thought teachers are weighted down by state-imposed chores and wanted to find out if it’s true.
The Center for Teaching and Learning is trying to get an answer. In September, its researchers began collecting information from 5,000 elementary and secondary school teachers from 159 school districts.
Teachers, who hail from small, medium and large schools, are completing online surveys. Some also are logging in their hour-by-hour teaching and non-teaching related duties one week each month.
In the survey, teachers are answering questions about the amount of each day which is devoted to classroom planning or assessment, interaction with students and parents, preparation for standardized state exams, professional development and duties assigned by the school or district.
The final report is due to lawmakers June 30. The university received $25,000 in the state budget to cover the study.
Question: What does Marysville School District’s high school program called SOAR stand for?
Answer: I guess it’s Secondary Options and Alternative Resources. All I know is that SOAR has been a good fit for me. I previously went to Heritage and Marysville Pilchuck high schools. I am trying hard to make the best of the fine instruction offered by my SOAR teachers. I like the way they teach and that they know how I learn.
The program allows me some flexibility in my day. My health requires that I sleep in, so I start later and I think better when I am fully awake. Our program is like a one-room school. We are close.
Q: So where are you going to college next year?
A: I plan to start at Everett Community College. My goal, though, is the University of Hawaii. I hope to study psychology, perhaps to become a school counselor or a therapist. I love to study people, even now.
Q: Your teachers describe you as being confident, curious, hard-working, inclusive, insightful, mature, an excellent student, a good writer and a leader. What do you think about that?
A: Wow. I don’t know what to say. I am just focused on my goals to finish high school, go to college and bring something back to my community on the reservation. So many people are on drugs. I want to come back to help people deal with issues. My community is my passion.
My education has been a struggle for me. I am not going to lie. It’s been tough. Now I am seeing the bigger picture. I am determined. I know I am the only person who can make it happen.
Q: Your teachers also mentioned a project in which you studied what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder among Civil War veterans. How was that?
A: It was interesting. PTSD back then was termed a broken heart. People were prescribed alcohol. So much different than now. What I think about war is that we really need to consider the people who we are sending to fight.
Q: What is your favorite part about school?
A: I love to write and I have since elementary school. It’s my way to express myself. I guess I like to do research, too.
Q: Why Hawaii for university?
A: This fall I attended an education conference for native people that was held in South Dakota. Some of the participants were native Hawaiians. They are friendly, laid back, happy and family oriented. No drama. I like that.
Q: Do you do any volunteer work?
A: I have enjoyed helping with reading at Quil Ceda Elementary School, where my folks work. It’s been tough lately to fit it in because of college application essays and that stuff.
Q: Along with your high school work, you also are taking a college class, correct?
A:: Yes, my cousin Natosha Gobin teaches Lushootseed, our native Coast Salish language, and I have been taking the college-level class that she offers. In class, I also learn more about the culture, history and traditions of our Tulalip Tribes. Lushootseed is important to our culture. If people like me don’t work to carry it on, who will?
My grandparents, Bernie and Patti Gobin, taught me to know who I am and where I come from, and that is very important to me. The oral history and the morality tales, which I grew up hearing as bedtime stories, have to be carried on. I know my family lineage back to before the boarding school days, when, as children, my elders were taken away from their families.
Q: We understand a recent science lesson on ocean acidification called you to action.
A: We all need to understand and work to prevent pollution in our waters. It’s a very personal issue for me. The Coast Salish people have always depended on seafood. We fish. If I ever have children, I want them to be able to go to Mission Beach to fish.
Christopher Andersson Former Marysville mayor Dennis Kendall (left) makes a point as state senator John McCoy, state representative Hans Dunshee and Snohomish County Executive John Lovick listen during the Marysville School District’s forum on Jan. 6.
The education landscape in Washington, including increasing instructional hour requirements, more stringent accountability and additional initiatives, was discussed on Jan. 6 when Marysville School District leaders met with Washington state representatives.
Increasing Hours
The amount of instructional hours that school districts must provide to high school students may be increasing next fall.
The Washington state legislature increased the current 1000 instructional hour requirement to 1080, or the equivalent of 180 six-hour days.
The Quality Education Council’s survey of 128 Washington districts shows that less than half are currently meeting the requirement.
School districts around Washington have been looking at their options, mainly consisting of adding 10 to 15 minutes to the schedule or cutting out the majority of half-day and late-start days.
“It is not an easy implementation for many districts. It would require some pretty formidable collective bargaining, as they’re changing the conditions of work. The six-hour day takes away many of the options districts have for collaboration time,” said Jerry Jenkins, superintendent of Northwest 189 Educational Service District.
Marysville’s assistant superintendent Ray Houser said it will be a challenge for the district to reach 1080. They currently average close to 1000.
However, organizations like the National Center of Time and Learning support action that increases instructional hours like Washington state’s legislation.
Studies from the center show a positive correlation between expanding the school day or school year and increased student achievement.
The main concern from Marysville administrators and staff is that they will lose the half-days they use to collaborate and improve their teaching.
“To put an extra requirement of 1080 hours and not put in any additional funding for collaboration time or professional development puts districts in a difficult spot because that’s critical in order to have an effective program,” said Arden Watsen, president of the Marysville Education Association.
State Senator John McCoy said he is going to try to delay the 1080 instructional hour requirement and that the decision to pass it was based on incomplete data.
New Standards and Accountability
Washington state will fully adopt the Common Core State Standards next year and has also implemented the Teacher Principal Evaluation Project; however, the large number of new systems is creating ‘initiative fatigue,’ say Marysville education leaders.
The Common Core State Standards are a nationwide set of standards designed to replace statewide models.
“I’ve been an educator and I didn’t understand or underestimated the impact of them. I thought we were just setting the bar higher, but it’s not just that, we’re also changing the running path to get to the bar,” said Jenkins.
The Teacher Principal Evaluation Project provides a new system to evaluate teachers and principals.
While the Marysville leaders thought the two initiatives were good, they also emphasized the need for focus and stability.
“Continuous change and throwing ‘just one more thing’ in kills the momentum,” said Marysville school board president Tom Albright. “I see good things happening so I hope [state representatives] will find ways of fending off all these initiatives that try to throw one more thing on top.”
State representative Hans Dunshee said that all the laws do tend to take away time from teachers.
“All these legislators love to pass education bills and say they’re helping schools. They’re good intentioned but they really are sucking a lot of time. I think the best accountability was the school board member you could fire, but we are moving further and further away from that,” he said.
Students have faced some of the consequences of accountability as well. The amount of standardized testing is taking away from structured class time, said McCoy.
“I will continue my assault on standardized testing. I don’t think they’re productive and a lot of kids are absolutely afraid of them. There are some that are just poor test takers,” he said. “The teachers know where the students are at. They know what their students need. We legislators don’t need to be down in the nitty gritty.”
Tribal History
The need to include all aspects of local history in the curriculum, especially information about the local Native American tribes, is vital, according to Tulalip leaders.
“We are not just trying to get native students through school, but through school with some pride and balance,” said Tulalip Tribes vice-chair Deborah Parker. “We try and instill our cultural values and they go to school and it changes them, so how do we teach our students and feel like they’re still native?”
Curriculum that is inclusive to Native American history and culture will help to make Native American students feel included as well, and the current levels in most schools are not adequate, she said.
Senator McCoy spoke on HB 1495, a bill he introduced and passed in 2005 which mandated that Washington tribal history must be taught in public schools. Even though nine years have passed since that time “only 20 to 25 percent of schools have implemented it,” he said.
Everett Community College Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) students collect water samples.
EVERETT, Wash. – Everett Community College’s Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) will host an open house at 6 p.m. Jan. 30 at its waterfront location, 1205 Craftsman Way, Suite 203, in Everett.
Visitors and prospective students can see student work, meet faculty members, learn about the program and see the facility, including the oceanography research lab and 120-gallon seawater tank.
ORCA students conduct research in the Snohomish River estuary and students have the opportunity to present their work at regional and national conferences. Student work on display at the open house will include heavy metal legacy in Possession Sound and river otter abundance and distribution.
ORCA is an early college academy for high school students, who can earn up to two years of college credit while completing their high school education. Most students graduate with an associate’s degree in addition to a high school diploma.
The program is the only early college academy of its kind in the country. ORCA uses the local marine environment as the unifying theme for all academic disciplines.
ORCA is sponsored by EvCC and was initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The academy was recently awarded two National Science Foundation grants, including one for the construction of a 34-foot research vessel.
For more information, contact ORCA Executive Director Ardi Kveven at 425-267-0156 or visit www.everettcc.edu/orca.
