Information
Dissemination
via Multiple Media

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

Information and resources on NWREL’s Web site attracted 5 million user accesses during 2000, a 110 percent increase over the prior year. The Library in the Sky menu item was the most frequently accessed, providing 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 2000 include:

• Early Connections, research-based information on use of technology with young children
• Listening to Student Voices, resources for schools to include students in continuous improvement
• Digital Bridges, resources for designing, implementing, and supporting videoconferencing
• Revamped and expanded site on 6+1 Traits of Writing
• Information on 21st Century Learning Centers

Information searches were conducted in response to 1,383 requests in 2000. Based on the topics most frequently asked about, NWREL produced and disseminated new publications in its By Request series:

• Making Positive Connections with Homeschoolers
• Reading Instruction
• Motivating Students To Succeed in the Classroom and Homework
• Curriculum Alignment
• The Power of Public Relations in Schools

Information was provided through the distribution of 291,700 copies of publications, newsletters, and other free materials.

Four issues of NWREL’s magazine, Northwest Education, were developed and disseminated to bring high-quality, objective information to a wide spectrum of education stakeholders, in both print and electronic formats. Topics of new issues produced in 2000 were:

• Teacher Professional Development
• The New Principal
• Reinvention of Physical Education
• Think Small

In addition to the Northwest Report newsletter providing information on NWREL activities, services, and products, individual newsletters were produced and disseminated on the topics of safe schools, student mentoring, educational equity, urban education, and mathematics and science education.

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:

• Strategies for School Success
• Arts and Learning
• Learning After School
• Service Learning
• Schools and Homeschools
• Building Science Skills
• Growing Good Kids
• Battling Bullies