The Blog Hot Summer

There is a long-held believe that summer is a quiet time in the education world.

Quite the opposite here at AWSP, actually. The office is more like a bee hive!

In fact, in the last few weeks, things appear to be getting busier. First, there's the AWSP/WASA Summer Conference June 29-July 1 in Spokane. We're the office of record this year, so AWSP has full responsibility for the planning and execution of the event. Our staff is working like crazy to provide a quality end-of-year professional development experience for our members and those at the superintendent's association.

This is also the time of year when our membership department goes into overdrive, tracking all of those position changes in the districts. By August, they'll know the whereabouts of just about every school principal, assistant principal and superintendent in the state. AWSP relies on some wonderful retired members to then take information out to new administrators to talk with them about the benefits of joining the Association. If you know of a new principal in your school or district, be sure to let them know why you like being a member!

Add to this the Basic Education Task Force hearings on school funding, the State Board of Education's work on the revised 9-12 mathematics standards, their Meaningful High School Diploma/Core 24 initiative and the systems accountability project. Plus there's the Higher Education Coordinating Board's proposal to revamp minimum college entrance requirements. Oh, and there's that continuing battle at the federal level over NCLB (Washington principals will be visiting with state Congressional reps next month in D.C.). And don't forget the statewide races for governor and superintendent of public instruction!

Last, but not least, there's some staff changes taking place at the office this summer. Our long-time director of elementary programs and professional development. Terry Barber, will be retiring at the end of the month. North Thurston Principal Paula Quinn will be joining the team in September to assume his duties. And I will also be moving on this month to oversee communications for another statewide association here in Olympia, the Association of Washington Business. The search is on for a new communications director who will take up this blog and all the other good work at AWSP.

Starting this blog was one of my favorite projects at AWSP and I look forward to seeing this and other technologies take off in the months ahead here. Thanks for reading and stay tuned: with everything going on, this could be a blog hot summer!

Jocelyn McCabe

National Math and Reading Standards?

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) has announced its support of the development of national standards in mathematics and reading. Education Daily also has a story on it today:

NASSP Director Gerald Tirozzi said the coun­try must shift to national standards to resolve the longstanding inability of educators, administrators and policymakers to make accurate state-by-state student performance comparisons under NCLB. The law allows each state to define its own content stan­dards in reading and math and set its own definition of proficiency attainment relative to those standards.

“In that wonderful year 2014, we’re going to have 50 ships showing up at Lake Wobegone and waving a different flag saying they’re proficient,” Tirozzi said, referencing NCLB’s overarching dead­line for having all students scoring on grade level. “Reading is reading, and no legislature can change the defining law of algebra. All states should be held accountable to address higher standards.”

What do you think about a move to national standards in these two core subjects/content areas?

Today's the Day: Class of 2008

At 10 a.m. today, State Superintendent Terry Bergeson will release the WASL pass rates for this year's graduating class. This is a moment that has been 15 years in the making, since the landmark education reform act was first passed in 1993. You can view the presentation live on TVW (watching it on TV or on your computer).

Editorials are slowly coming forth, but the tone so far suggests that credit deficiencies are the greatest barrier to graduation -- not the WASL.

Check out today's Longview Daily News editorial here.