NWREL's continuous assessment of educational needs in the five Northwest states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington identifies issues and trends having a significant impact on education. In 1997 NWREL conducted both a survey of K-12 educators and a telephone poll of a representative sample of households to gauge citizen sentiment toward public education. Forums were subsequently conducted in each state to analyze the implications of this information on educational needs and identify appropriate responses and assistance for NWREL. In 1998 additional activities were conducted to further validate and delineate the region's educational needs. These included:

• Analysis of written comments on follow-up surveys from recipients of NWREL services
• Content analysis of written comments on the prior year's K-12 educators survey
• Qualitative analysis of local education news articles printed in newspapers across the Northwest
• Staff analyses of trends and issues of concern within their arena of work, including input from NWREL advisory committees

T opics of concern across these analyses support new and emerging NWREL work in the areas of teacher development, the role of paraprofessionals, reading, community involvement, school choice, secure school environments, early childhood programs, standards and assessment, and school reform.

A ctivities to assist Northwest schools and communities meet identified needs and improve educational results are described in more detail on the following pages.
www.nwrel.org/comm/