Town Hall Meeting - Saturday, Feb. 20, 11:00 am, hosted by our 48th L.D. Legs Sen. Tom and Rep. Eddy & Rep. Hunter.
It's nearby - Crossroad Community Center at 16000, NE 10th St., Bellevue (behind the old Circuit City building on the east south-east side of Crossroads Mall, at the end of the drive past the retirement center); at mid-day 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The gathering is at an opportune time to us - Legs have just 3 weeks left in the Session and are close to final decisions on advancing K-12 ed reforms, the budget, and other important votes for kids. Today's kids require better outcomes to their school experience, to which many staff who meet targeted accountability should be better compensated, and we should all save time & money with applicable student data and better efficiency.
Those who show up make things happen - even if just for 15 minutes! Parents must show, say & play - plenty of vocal folks are asking for their interests to be served first before the kids'. Bringing just 1 question can make a difference!
Hope you'll mark your calendar, tell your friends, and come to say 'thanks' and share your irreplaceable voice for our students.
More reasons to Attend Feb. 20th Town Hall
The Town Hall is an opportunity to say "thank you" to our legislators for working diligently for ed reform. If you prefer to email them, here are the addresses:
Sen. Tom tom.rodney@leg.wa.gov
Rep. Hunter hunter.ross@leg.wa.gov
Rep. Eddy deborah@leg.wa.gov
And we'll hear more about:
* The Budget
* Hwy 520 project
* Sound Transit train through Bellevue to Redmond
Sen. Rodney Tom is receiving big negative pushback for driving education reform in the senate. Though the current legislation is being discussed within a framework of Race to the Top funds, in reality the reforms are also necessary next steps under the Ed Reform bill 2261 passed last year.
The "anti"-reform minority is well organized and is clearly having success in Olympia. The reforms defeated in the Senate last week are listed below (these reforms are hardly radical, yet would have prompted big change). Stronger bills are still alive in the House so hope remains for this legislative session, if adopted.
The reforms defeated last week in the Senate include:
* Directed OSPI to develop just one set of statewide measures of student growth for all academic subjects and grades and require districts use it by 2015 (not all 295 develop their own at their cost and to their sensibilities); still, districts may seek approval for an alternate measure of student growth.
* Required student growth data (individual improvement over time) to comprise a significant portion of teacher and principal evaluations.
* Directed OSPI to develop one four-tiered evaluation model for teachers and one for principals that districts are required to use (not all 295 develop their own at their cost and to their sensibilities). Still, districts may seek approval for an alternative evaluation model.
* Instituted teachers and principals who receive a performance rating in the bottom two tiers of the evaluation system for 2 years in a row are placed on provisional status for 1 year. At the end of that 3rd year, if the supervisor deems the teacher or principal has not improved sufficiently, the teacher or principal loses his or her continuing contract.
* Charge the compensation technical working group (QEC) to develop a compensation system that provides for extra pay for teachers who work in high poverty, high minority or low-achieving schools, or hard-to-staff subject areas, and who demonstrate effectiveness � closing the achievement gap, raising student performance -- in low-achieving schools.