BSD is included in the 96 % of Washington School Districts to sign off on Washington State’s Race to the Top Application.
This means that the Bellevue Education Association, the Bellevue Certificated Administrators Association (Principals) and the School Board have all agreed to support our State’s efforts to apply for funding from the US Department of Education to implement “meaningful education reform.” The State Education Reform Plan must address four areas and local school districts must agree to the following requirements:
· Adopting Common Core standards in math, English and Language Arts and in other subjects when available.
· Using data to improve instruction.
· Improving teacher and principal effectiveness.
· Intervening in and turning around the lowest performing schools.
The RTTT application provides four optional items on which districts may focus. If the state proposal is funded, the district will use its share of the money to work on teacher and principal development and effectiveness.* One Bellevue work group is now in place to create a new principal evaluation system and another will be created to develop a new teacher evaluation system. Both systems will include student achievement data as one measure. Any changes in current systems would be addressed collaboratively with both the Bellevue Education Association and Principals.
If the state is successful in its grant application, the district’s portion of the funds, which would be based on the size of its low-income population, will be relatively small, but will support the change processes already in the works. Even without funding, the district is committed to moving forward.
*Other options from which districts could choose were: improving college and career readiness and closing the achievement gap; improving science, technology, engineering and math performance; and focusing on persistently lowest-achieving schools
BSD is included in the 96 % of Washington School Districts to sign off on Washington State’s Race to the Top Application.
This means that the Bellevue Education Association, the Bellevue Certificated Administrators Association (Principals) and the School Board have all agreed to support our State’s efforts to apply for funding from the US Department of Education to implement “meaningful education reform.” The State Education Reform Plan must address four areas and local school districts must agree to the following requirements:
· Adopting Common Core standards in math, English and Language Arts and in other subjects when available.
· Using data to improve instruction.
· Improving teacher and principal effectiveness.
· Intervening in and turning around the lowest performing schools.
The RTTT application provides four optional items on which districts may focus. If the state proposal is funded, the district will use its share of the money to work on teacher and principal development and effectiveness.* One Bellevue work group is now in place to create a new principal evaluation system and another will be created to develop a new teacher evaluation system. Both systems will include student achievement data as one measure. Any changes in current systems would be addressed collaboratively with both the Bellevue Education Association and Principals.
If the state is successful in its grant application, the district’s portion of the funds, which would be based on the size of its low-income population, will be relatively small, but will support the change processes already in the works. Even without funding, the district is committed to moving forward.
*Other options from which districts could choose were: improving college and career readiness and closing the achievement gap; improving science, technology, engineering and math performance; and focusing on persistently lowest-achieving schools