Washington State Board of Ed Seeks Input

 From their website:

The State Board of Education is in the process of developing its 2019-2022 Strategic Plan and is seeking your input to help define a comprehensive vision for the future of education in Washington state.


We hope you will take a few minutes to complete a brief survey to share what you feel makes the Board successful and to provide ideas for improvements, needs, expectations, and priorities that will help the Board establish key strategic objectives, measures and goals to serve as our guide for action for the next four years.

The Board wants to hear the voices of those who care deeply about education. This is an opportunity to help shape the future of the K-12 system and impact its effort to improve outcomes for all students. 


It's basically four questions plus a ranking of issues plus a comment section.   I do wish they had asked what successes and failures that people see in their own districts.  Might be interesting to see what folks say in various regions.
They do ask about districts providing full-day pre-k to four-year-olds.  Yes, and I'd like a pony but with what money? I guess if they got enough yeses, they could leverage with the Legislature but most parents with preschoolers don't follow the Board of Education.

I love this one:

Students, parents, and educators collaborate to plan a student's high school coursework aligned with postsecondary aspirations and goals.

Again, in a perfect ed world, sure but I'm not sure that even 10% of parents get the opportunity to work with teachers on high school coursework for their students.  And what would that look like?

Interestingly, there's this timely issue:

Schools are encouraged to develop a calendar that recognizes holidays from a broader range of traditions and cultures.

But nothing about tech, personalized learning, PE, arts.  Hmmm.

Here's a link to their survey.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am frustrated with the push for universal preschool. Yes, there have been some small, positive studies regarding its impact. But all of the big studies (such as on Head Start) indicate fade out by third grade. The most recent large study was of the Tennessee Prekindergarten Program. The study looks strong, with a large randomized control trial. The results were actually negative. Remarkably, the study's authors had a really hard time getting it published. No one wants to hear bad news: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200618300279

Why would the City of Seattle be subsidizing upper middle class parents to send their kids to preschool, given the evidence? Why not make sure that homeless kids have a safe place to sleep, and have some food security?

We have limited tax dollars. Why aren't we sticking to programs that have good empirical evidence regarding their efficacy, like Nurse-Family Partnership programs?

BeSmart
Jet City mom said…
I wrote that I thought they should look to the preschool programs that have been run through the community colleges for decades.
Parent education is embedded in the program.
It is much more appropriate to use developmental guidelines from NAEYC, rather than from a tech company that is pushing their curriculum.
Play is the work of young children, not standardized testing and worksheets.

Anonymous said…
@BeSmart, that was my sense of the pre-K literature as well--short-term academic gains are not sustained over time. I don't know whether there are possible short-term, non-academic benefits (e.g., increased self-esteem, better health screening, parent education/engagement) that may contribute to improved long-term outcomes in areas that may or may not be measured, but if there are other benefits besides academics that may be an argument in favor of universal pre-K (although it should only be subsidized on a need basis). If.

Regardless, the cost of the Seattle program seems ridiculously high for the number served.

B. Wise
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