State Board of Educations Needs Your Input

Late Monday afternoon in Vancouver Kathe Taylor, Policy Director at the Washington State Board of Education met with a half dozen principals and representatives of the Association of Washington School Principals to discuss new high school graduation requirements. The meeting was a candid conversation about the impact of changes to the state minimum graduation requirements on not only school operations, but also on student achievement and graduation rates.

Hopefully the meeting was a precursor the community meetings held in the evening in seven locations across the state. The Board wants to hear from citizens on questions such as:

• What academic skills should students have when they graduate from high school?
• What life skills should students possess when they graduate?
• What kinds of post-high school opportunities should a K-12 education prepare students for?
• Should high school graduation requirements necessarily align with vocational/technical, 2-year community colleges or 4-year college entry requriements?
• What should the content be for required third year maths?

The community meetings are going to held in the following locations:

• Bremerton, October 30
• Bethel/Tacoma, November 5
• Everett, November 14
• Yakima, November 27
• Vancouver, November 29
• Spokane, December 3
• Seattle area, December 4

Clearly the SBE needs to hear from principals, especially high school principals, as the Board defines the purpose of the high school diploma and how a students meets those standards. To find the specific details of when and where the meetings will be held, click here.

A second round of community meetings will be held in the spring of 20078 where the public will can provide feedback on the draft recommendations before they are finalized.

Simple Majority Ad Breaks

The first of the Simple Majority television ads began airing this morning in the Seattle market. The market goes from the Canadian boarder down to Lewis County and reaches 74% of the registered voters in the state. The plan includes rolling the ad out in other parts of the state later on. The second ad is being finalized now and should be out within a couple of weeks. To see the ad that broke today, click here.