2003 Annual Report to Members

Office of Planning and Service Coordination

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NWREL's Office of Planning and Service Coordination (PSC) is an administrative unit that provides direction for current and emerging work by assessing regional educational needs, coordinating regional services, providing quality assurance, and forging strategic alliances.

The major work strands of PSC include:

• Planning and quality assurance activities associated with regional needs assessment, institutional evaluation, and strategic planning.
• Coordinating field services, including promising practice collections, policy studies, information services, rural education, comprehensive school reform, and clarification of constituent issues.
• Cultivating regional and national relationships through partnerships, convening strategic alliances, and joint ventures with other agencies.
• Developing new initiatives and coordination of cross-program activities, including NWREL's Regional Educational Laboratory program contract.

The office produces a variety of publications, primarily under funding from the Regional Educational Laboratory contract.

Topical Summaries

A series of brief reports are produced semiannually on the connections between policy and practice for emerging or changing educational issues in the Northwest. Two published in the past year included the following titles, which are available from NWREL's Web site.

• Challenges and Opportunities of NCLB for Small, Rural, and Isolated Schools examines opportunities that small, rural, and isolated schools might find as they grapple with provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The report shows how, despite calls for waivers and real concerns about the costs and logistics of the law, school administrators and teachers are attempting to rise to the challenge.
• Parental Involvement Under the New Title I and Title III: From Compliance to Effective Practice looks at how the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), entitled the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), creates a notable shift in the expected role of parental involvement in schools. The report shows how the law envisions parents not only as participants, but also as informed and empowered decisionmakers in their children's education.

By Request

By Request is a booklet series with a new report produced three times each year. These reports briefly address current educational concerns and issues as indicated by requests for information that come to the Laboratory from the Northwest region and beyond. Each booklet contains a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue, a sampling of how Northwest schools are addressing the issue, suggestions for adapting these ideas to schools, selected references, and contact information. Editions produced during the year are available on the NWREL Web site and include:

• Building Trusting Relationships for School Improvement: Implications for Principals and Teachers
• Strategies and Resources for Mainstream Teachers of English Language Learners
• Full-Day Kindergarten: Exploring an Option for Extended Learning

Needs Assessment Reports

The office also produces periodic reports from its needs assessment activities. These are intended primarily for internal use. During the past year, Regional Needs Assessment 2003: Northwest Educators' Priorities for Improving Low-Performing Schools presented data from the most recent survey of Northwest practitioners.

Dr. Steve Nelson, Administrative Director

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