TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

A total of 20,517 people gained new knowledge and skills for improving education through participation in 1,159 NWREL workshops, conferences, and consultation sessions in 1999. Training and technical assistance activities provided by NWREL ranged from large national and regional conferences to workshops on single topics to one-on-one consultations.

The largest category of participants — 7,889 — were teachers, principals, and other school building-level staff. Another 2,658 participants were superintendents and other staff at the district level.

Work Now and in the Future, an annual conference focused on business-education partnerships, continued to be the largest NWREL event, drawing some 2,000 participants.

NWREL had the leadership role in working with the other regional educational laboratories to conduct 16 regional conferences nationwide in 1999, providing training to trainers for volunteer reading tutors for the America Reads Challenge.

NWREL conducted two large national meetings in 1999: the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention JUMP meeting for student mentoring projects in New Orleans, and the Eisenhower Professional Development Program Evaluation Conference in Washington, D.C.

Major NWREL regional conferences conducted during 1999 included:

• In the Middle Conference for Middle Schools
• Transforming Schools to Meet High Standards
• Achieving High Standards for All Students: The Challenge of Diversity for Teacher Education
• Paraprofessional Development Design Conference
• Urbanization of the Northwest: Collaboration and Community Involvement
• Assessing Competency in Reading
• Charter Schools Leadership Training Academy
• Rural Education Forum: Involving All Citizens in Community Activities
• AmeriCorps Northwest Network '98

Assessment of student performance in reading and writing by classroom teachers was the most frequent topic of NWREL training in 1999, with 2,284 participants in 73 workshops and institutes.