Spellings and Gregiore Meeting (Jan. 16th)

http://www.wssda.org/wssda/WebForms/En-Us/LegislativeAndGovernmentalIssues/LegUpdates2007/2007_impact08.pdf

For the moment, re-authorization of the No-Child left behind act (and thus practice WASLs) is being stalled in Congress. Upon meeting with Governor Christine Gregoire, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings began outlining how the law "could and should" be improved. These proposals are

"Establishing better ways to track student achievement based on the performance of student cohorts on a year-to-year basis.
"Developing "differentiated consequences" for schools that are chronically underperforming and those that are just short of making progress targets.
"Improving early intervention strategies for students who are not prepared as they enter the beginning grade levels.
"Focusing on high schools, particularly in math and science education and in dropout prevention.
Finding ways to encourage the most skilled teachers to work in "the most challenging educational settings.""

(http://wssda.org/wssda/WebForms/En-Us/News/2008/20080116_spellings.asp)

Also, "During her visit, Spellings announced that Washington is one of 20 states that will receive School Improvement Grants targeted to assist the lowest performing schools and districts. Washington will receive a grant of $1.9 million to help with schools that are not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress targets established under NCLB."

The two leaders did not hold diversity in their ideas, discussed without differing perspectives of students and parents especially in regard to graduation requirements.