Podcast – John B. King on the Teachers Who Change Our Lives

by Arik Korman

In our Putting Students First podcast, we interview students, policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create learning environments where every Washington student feels safe, supported, and a positive sense of belonging, so that they can achieve academically and access the life they choose.

In this episode, League of Education Voters CEO Arik Korman interviews John B. King, Secretary of Education under President Obama and currently the chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the nation’s largest comprehensive system of public higher education. Secretary King discusses how important it is for every student to have at least one caring adult in every school building, how we can shift mindsets so educators believe that every student can learn, what the value is of public K-12 and higher education, and how he would change our nation’s education system if there were no budgetary constraints.

Secretary King’s new book is Teacher By Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives. Follow him on Instagram @johnbkingjr and on X @johnbking.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or Spreaker

 

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Podcast – David Lewis on Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)

by Arik Korman

In our podcast, we interview policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create a brighter future for every Washington student.

In this episode, League of Education Voters Communications Director Arik Korman asks David Lewis, Director of Behavioral Health Services for Seattle Public Schools, to describe what a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) is, how students, parents, and educators can get MTSS in every local education agency (school district, charter public school, and tribal compact school) across Washington state, and what he would do to transform our education system if there were no budgetary constraints.

 

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Podcast – The 2020 Washington state Teachers of the Year

by Arik Korman

In our podcast, we interview policymakers, partners, and thought leaders to spotlight education policies, research, and practices so that together we can create a brighter future for every Washington student.

In this episode, League of Education Voters Communications Director Arik Korman asks the 2020 Washington state Teachers of the Year about their teaching philosophy, their greatest accomplishment in the classroom, how they would make teaching better in Washington state, what advice they would give a new teacher, and what motivation they still carry with them from their first day in the classroom. We were honored to interview:

Amy Campbell, 2020 Washington state Teacher of the Year and Educational Service District 112 Regional Teacher of the Year from the Camas School District

Analisa McCann, 2020 Northeast Educational Service District 101 Regional Teacher of the Year from the Central Valley School District

Lisa Summers, 2020 Capital Region Educational Service District 113 Regional Teacher of the Year from the Tumwater School District

Kathryn Lebuis Hartman, 2020 Olympic Region Educational Service District 114 Regional Teacher of the Year from the Port Angeles School District

Reid Sundblad, 2020 Puget Sound Educational Service District 121 Regional Teacher of the Year from the Highline School District

Rebecca Estock, 2020 Educational Service District 123 Regional Teacher of the Year from the North Franklin School District

Malia Renner-Singer, 2020 North Central Educational Service District 171 Regional Teacher of the Year from the Cascade School District

 

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Education Funding Priorities Across Washington

by League of Education Voters

By Emma Elise Hodges, League of Education Voters Communications Specialist

To help direct our work with our community to create positive change in Washington’s education system, we sent out a survey via email and social media channels in May to learn how Washington community members would like state education funding prioritized. We thank the 737 people, from 71 school districts across the state, who submitted responses. While we received responses proportionate to the population of middle to high socioeconomic status school districts, there was a disproportionality for lower socioeconomic school districts. Therefore, we looked at the priorities overall amongst all survey respondents and then parsed out the data based on school districts’ percentage of students on Free and Reduced Priced Lunch (FRPL), a common marker for socioeconomic status, to make sure we were understanding the priorities of our entire state. Read More

Our State of Education: Principal Survey

by Arik Korman

By Angela Parker, League of Education Voters Policy Analyst

Principals are some of the busiest people in a school building. Rarely out of range of their walkie talkies, principals take responsibility for in-the-minute decisions about crises both large and small. At the same time, they must also craft long term strategic plans in the context of a rapidly changing school ecosystem. As principals often serve as one of the key lynchpins of policy implementation, we knew we needed to get a better sense of how they understand the current and emergent needs within Washington’s K-12 system.

We surveyed principals in Washington state to better understand what new and emerging issues their schools and communities are facing. In December, we sent a survey request to 2,034 principals in Washington; 180 returned our survey, giving these results a 95% confidence level with a 7% margin of error. Although elementary principals are slightly underrepresented in our survey, the overall proportions are not widely divergent from statewide proportions. Our survey also over represents smaller schools, those with 100 to 499 students, and larger districts, but does represent strong geographic diversity.

Aside from demographic details, our survey was limited to three main questions:

  1. How urgent are issues such as achievement/opportunity gaps, student supports, teacher supply, college readiness, etc. in your school?
  2. What new or different educational issues is your school experiencing?
  3. What should we be working on in the next legislative session?

This post summarizes our broad findings from the survey, and we commit to working on these issues with principals and educators across Washington.

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Tools for Teachers to Help Our Kids with Trauma

by Arik Korman

By Arik Korman, League of Education Voters Communications Director

Last month’s Resiliency Conference brought together about 500 teachers, administrators, and parents at the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett to learn how to better support children who have experienced trauma.

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris - League of Education Voters
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a national expert on the health effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), kicked off day one of the two-day gathering with a moving keynote presentation. Dr. Burke Harris pointed out the sobering fact that that one in eight individuals have experienced four or more ACEs, and 35 million children have ACEs right now.

ACEs are related to our flight-or-flight response. When we experience trauma, our body releases adrenaline and cortisol, which inhibits our brain’s pre-frontal cortex (the area responsible for thinking) and gets us amped up. This stress response can help us avoid immediate danger, like running into a grizzly bear in the woods, but becomes problematic when the threat happens over and over again, like in an abusive home or if there are multiple changes in caregivers.

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Positive School Climate in Action at New Horizons High School

by Arik Korman

By Kelly Munn, League of Education Voters State Field Director

New Horizons Group Photo - League of Education VotersThere are schools all across this state that are making dreams come true for their students.

I had the opportunity to visit one of these schools.

New Horizons is an alternative school in Pasco. They serve juniors and seniors who are on a different journey towards graduation, perhaps a slower journey, perhaps a more thoughtful journey, perhaps more zig and zag, alternative.

The students come from all kinds of backgrounds, but what they have in common is resilience, life experiences that have matured them, and despite so many obstacles, they are determined to meet their life goals. This school is helping to get them there.

The staff surrounds the students with a sense of belonging, a sense that they contribute to their education community, that each of them matters.

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