INFORMATION DISSEMINATION

NWREL disseminated information on education issues and practices through a combination of electronic, print, and search methods.

Information and resources on NWREL's Web site attracted 2.38 million user accesses during 1999, a 40 percent increase over the prior year.

The NWREL home page and second-level menus are in both English and Spanish; several resource materials are also in Spanish.

The Library-in-the-Sky menu item provides some 9,000 links to other Web sites to help teachers, students, parents, and community members find K-12 resources.

Major additions to the NWREL Web site in 1999 include:

• Online Lending Library, for borrowing a large array of resource materials
• Student mentoring resources (www.nwrel.org/mentoring)
• Safe schools resources (www.nwrel.org/safe)
• Resources and support for teachers and administrators who have participated in NWREL six-trait writing training
• Catalog of School Reform Models

Information searches were conducted in response to 917 client requests in 1999. Based on the topics that generate the most frequent questions, NWREL produced and disseminated new publications in its By Request series:

• Alternatives to Retention
• Peaceful Schools
• Student Mentoring
• After-School Programs
• Parent Partners

Information was provided through the distribution of 138,200 copies of publications, newsletters, and other free materials.

Four issues of NWREL's magazine, Northwest Education, were developed and disseminated to bring high-quality and objective information to a wide spectrum of education stakeholders, in both print and electronic formats. The focus of new issues produced in 1999 were:

• Schoolwide Reform
• Arts Education
• Learning in Peace
• Community Building

To bring practical and timely information on education to parents and the public, NWREL produced monthly columns — Let's Talk — as a public service, distributed to daily and weekly newspapers for publication across the Northwest states. Topics covered were:

• Children's Television Viewing
• Learning for All
• Reading
• Mentoring
• "Loving" Learning