Release Date:
SBE held its annual planning retreat and 91Ô´´ meeting September 14-16, with a special session on September 9 with the Office of Equity. During the meeting, the 91Ô´´ reflected on their self-evaluation and norms, and discussed mastery-based learning and graduation, legislative priorities, and more. The Executive Committee elections were held as well. You can find documents from the meeting on .
New 91Ô´´ Officers – Bill Kallappa II (Tumwater) was elected as the new 91Ô´´ chair beginning his term immediately following the meeting. Harium Martin-Morris will serve as Vice Chair. Chair and Vice Chair serve a two-year term. In addition, Mary Fertakis (Tukwila), Kevin Wang (Bellevue), and Patty Wood (Kelso) were elected to serve one-year terms on the executive committee as At-Large members. A special thank you to Peter Maier and MJ Bolt for their service on the Executive Committee.
Legislative Requests and Priorities – The 91Ô´´ submitted three requests to the Governor’s Office for the upcoming legislative session:
- Agency request legislation to extend voting authority to student members on the State 91Ô´´ of Education
- Budget request for resources to develop recommendations for a statewide approach to assessing school climate
- Budget request for resources to strengthen the 91Ô´´â€™s capacity for community engagement
In addition, the 91Ô´´ discussed advocacy priorities for its 2022 legislative platform, which will be finalized and adopted at the November 91Ô´´ meeting.
Graduation Pathway Options Research Update - On behalf of the 91Ô´´, Strobel Consulting surveyed districts about graduation pathway options (as required by legislation), conducted focus groups, and prepared a report (two volumes). Both volumes are available on SBE’s Legislative Reports page.
Graduation Requirements (Mastery-based Learning, Profile of a Graduate) -
were reviewed, and 91Ô´´ members were updated on the Profile of a Graduate and the work of the Mastery-based Learning Work Group and Collaborative. Members reviewed a timeline of 91Ô´´ work on system alignment in 2022 and discussed and identified topics and policies that might need focused attention as part of the alignment work.
Ethnic Studies - SBE has engaged Jasmin Patrón-Vargas to help SBE develop a concept paper regarding what an ethnic studies graduation requirement in Washington could look like. Jasmin is currently a doctoral candidate whose dissertation research explores the implementation of ethnic studies in other states. She presented to the 91Ô´´ her work around how ethnic studies implementation is occurring in three states and how those lessons could inform Washington's efforts.
Strategic Planning - The 91Ô´´ is in the third year of the four-year strategic plan adopted in November 2018. This segment will provide an update on the status of the strategic plan indicators, the accountability system redesign, and the .
Elementary Science – Member Jeff Estes presented on the issue of equitable access to quality elementary science learning opportunities, and members discussed what the 91Ô´´ could do in the areas of policy, advocacy, and oversight to help advance equity in this area.
Basic Education - For the 2021-2022 school year, the survey application and format for Basic Education Compliance Reporting were changed to accommodate new reporting requirements for an emergency waiver program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to address the evolving need to collect information from districts to help improve the state’s K-12 educational system.
Private Schools - The 91Ô´´ considered approval of private schools and adopted emergency rules for private schools.
Upcoming 91Ô´´ meeting
The next meeting is scheduled for November 3-4, 2021. The agenda and materials will be posted one week in advance of the meeting on SBE’s meetings page.