Northwest Education

Winter 2007 / Volume 12, Number 2.

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Delivering a World-Class Education

A high-performing district leaves no school behind when it comes to preparing students for life beyond the classroom.

Story by Rhonda Barton
Photos by Carol Brozman

REDMOND, Washington—The portraits of Lake Washington’s five school board members gaze out over the wood and glass lobby of the sleek district headquarters. The engraved name plates speak volumes about the stable leadership enjoyed by this large, high-achieving district in the suburbs of Seattle. The newest member joined the board in 2003, while the one with the longest tenure is closing in on 30 years.

In the mid-1990s, at the board’s prodding, Lake Washington set out to define what a “world-class education” looks like—not just today, but 20 years down the road. The board also told district leaders it wasn’t enough to compare Lake Washington students to their peers in neighboring districts: They needed to cross state lines and measure results against other large high-performing districts in suburban settings where high tech is the main industry.

That was the genesis of the Western States Benchmarking Consortium—organized by Lake Washington and comprising a select group of seven districts that hail from Texas, Kansas, Colorado, California, Arizona, and Washington (with both Lake Washington and Vancouver claiming membership). According to the group’s Web site (www.wsbenchmark.org), “consortium members have developed common definitions of organizational effectiveness [or benchmarks] that articulate the steps toward achieving the highest quality public education.” Three times a year, members gather to share how those benchmarks are helping them provide personalized learning for continuous student improvement.

The consortium, which was highlighted in a Harvard University report on effective training programs for school superintendents, concentrates on four strategic areas that research shows are critical. The central one is student learning, with “high standards buttressed by a coherent curriculum.” That’s followed by developing organizational and human resource capacity; forging strong community partnerships; and using data and information to drive decisions. Each focal area has a series of benchmarks tied to indicators and “bottom line” impact questions. Thus, the districts have a roadmap to use when reviewing school improvement plans, identifying new priorities, or assessing progress.

The benchmarks are just one contributor to achieving Lake Washington’s goal of every student “as well educated as any in the world.” Other pieces include mentoring for new teachers and ongoing professional development for veteran staff; a Better School Program that gives extra support to schools with greater needs; a capital construction plan that calls for modernizing every school building every 40 years; and a nationally acclaimed curriculum framework that outlines a student’s learning path from kindergarten through high school.

“Forward to the New Basics”

Lake Washington’s framework for teaching and learning has made an impact far beyond this affluent district situated in Microsoft’s backyard. It’s been written up in national education publications, and more than 100 districts around the country are using their own adaptations.

The framework, which is broken into five grade levels, describes what students should know and be able to do when they leave the school system. “It’s very constructivist,” says Chief Academic Officer Dan Phelan. “It talks about what our curriculum should look like: the concepts, skills, processes, critical content, guiding questions, and the essential understandings that students need. We’ve always been about deep learning, not about broad coverage, and our framework was built around that.”

Lake Washington refers to the framework as a “forward to the new basics” approach. While it includes power standards—the key things students need to know—and a sequencing guide or schedule for teaching them, the framework still offers teachers a certain amount of latitude. “They need some freedom and ownership of what they’re teaching,” Phelan points out. “There needs to be room in the day and probably in every subject area for [the material] that they care deeply about.”

In the process of delivering that content, Lake Washington holds its teachers and its students to even higher standards than the state’s rigorous requirements. “Our standard is that kids can actually do and produce things that are real world and worthwhile,” says Phelan. As part of that, students must write three different essays as a graduation requirement; seniors must also complete an independent project, guided by an adult mentor, and present it to the community. Recent examples have ranged from the kid who designed and marketed a line of T-shirts to one who traced the history of the blues and produced his own album.

In its efforts to provide a personalized and highly relevant education, Lake Washington has even taken the highly unusual step of encouraging its own competition.

The district has eight special focus or “choice” schools that are distinct from charter schools. Anyone who lives in the district can receive funding for a choice school, usually located on the campus of a “regular” school. First, though, they must meet certain criteria: The organizers must have a compelling mission different from any other in the district; demonstrate a high level of parent commitment; and agree to meet all of the district’s contractual obligations and teach its curriculum. Among the three elementary and five secondary “choice” schools is one that focuses on artistic development, one organized around environmental adventures, and another that looks at education through the lens of history.

Tools for More Effective Teaching

As one would expect from a district in the heart of Washington’s “silicon forest,” schools are equipped with the latest technology. The district maintains a 4:1 student-to-computer ratio plus computer labs in all buildings and provides e-mail accounts for fifth- through 12th-grade students so they can collaborate on projects and communicate with teachers. The newest high-tech tool is interactive whiteboards, or ACTIVboards, installed in 1,500 classrooms along with ceiling-mounted projectors, media computers, and document cameras.

“That’s really ramped up our ability to look at student work or the Internet on the fly,” says Linda Stevens, the district’s instructional technology specialist. Stevens choreographed comprehensive teacher training on the boards, which she says have “more robust software” than the more common SMART Boards. Now, teachers are undergoing training in ACTIVote, a program that allows them to give instant formative assessments to see how many students understand a lesson.

While technology enhances instruction, everyone recognizes that great teachers are at the heart of providing a world-class education. As Phelan puts it, “the only thing that makes a difference in a school is what a teacher does with a kid ... That’s the only point of change in the system.”

Lake Washington invests in its teachers—whether they’re new or veterans of the classroom. Every first-year teacher is assigned a “consulting teacher”—one of six full-time mentors in the district whose salaries come from a statewide initiative. “[The mentors] receive training in cognitive coaching and offer everything from a shoulder to cry on to advice on classroom management. They even help new teachers set up their classrooms before school starts,” remarks Betsy Wendt.

Wendt is responsible for shepherding three cohorts of beginning teachers down the road to state certification. The district provides three release days for three years so new teachers can work with Wendt on their certification coursework. On one such release day, 10 teachers—casually clad in jeans and sweatshirts—listen as Wendt explains what they’ll need for their culminating portfolios. She then launches into a discussion of student learning profiles, advising her charges that “until you understand who your kids are, what the learning environment is, and what the community’s like, you can’t make instructional decisions.”

Amanda Jacob, who graduated from the Lake Washington School District in 1994 and is back as a new fifth-grade teacher, knows how lucky she is to work here. Unlike the district where she did her student teaching, “you feel trusted here to present subjects the way you want to, as long as you can show your principal that you’re meeting set objectives.” Jacob appreciates the release days and the fact that, through the district’s agreement with a local university, she pays only about a third of the normal rate for her certification credits. She’s also benefited from the mentoring program: When she was having trouble organizing reading groups, her mentor arranged release time so Jacob could observe another fifth-grade teacher’s techniques. “It gave me a lot of good ideas,” she recalls.

The chance to tap into other teachers’ knowledge doesn’t end as staff members become more seasoned. “One of the strongest things the district has done is brought teachers together on a regular basis,” says Victoria McCarter, now in her 16th year of teaching junior high science classes. “We’ve known instinctively it’s productive when you meet with other teachers to share practices, and the district is actually providing that time for us.”

Two years ago, Lake Washington introduced a 90-minute early release on Wednesdays with time set aside for a different purpose each week. For example, McCarter works with other science teachers or cross-subject teams at Rose Hill Junior High one week; the following week is “building time” when all of the school’s teachers might gather for training on school improvement issues; the third week is individual professional development time; and the fourth week is dedicated to learning communities that extend beyond the school’s doors. The district is divided along geographic lines into four learning communities. “We meet and share ideas with science teachers from the other junior highs that feed into the same high school we do,” explains McCarter.

Even after spending all those years in the trenches and achieving national certification, McCarter realizes that she still needs to tweak her teaching. “I know if my students aren’t getting it, I’m not teaching it,” she says. “I need to look at what my students are doing and make ongoing modifications. We check and we teach; we check and we teach!”

“There’s a real commitment here to helping people grow as educators,” comments Georgia Lindquist, who coordinates professional development for secondary teachers. “Some people think we succeed because of our demographics and the fact that we’re in an affluent community. But, it’s because our teachers are focused on the right kind of learning targets that involve deep thinking and helping kids do that thinking and processing the skills they’re learning.”

No School Left Behind

Indeed, it would be easy to dismiss Lake Washington’s accomplishments because the district draws from highly educated households in the high-income neighborhoods of Redmond, Kirkland, and Sammamish. But that would ignore the fact that Lake Washington also covers lower income areas populated by service workers. While the free or reduced-price lunch tally for the entire district stands at just under 12 percent, the rate goes up to almost 41 percent at schools like Rose Hill Elementary.

The Better Schools program—which Dan Phelan describes as “No School Left Behind”—takes into account that some buildings may need more support so students across the district can achieve at the same high levels. “We have a pot of resources—about a million dollars—that’s allocated based on a continuum of factors,” says Deputy Superintendent Janene Fogard, who handles finances. Every three years, schools are ranked according to a numeric derived from demographic and achievement data. Based on the results, some schools may get additional staff to lower class sizes, more reading specialists, or extra funding for after-school programs. “When looking at equity, we came to the conclusion that equal isn’t necessarily equitable,” remarks Fogard. “Those with the greatest needs may get one or two additional teachers, besides any federal Title money that would flow to them.”

A generous capital fund—with $596 million from two successful bond measures—also ensures that all the district’s schools are renovated or replaced on a 35- to 40-year cycle. Students at Rose Hill Elementary are the latest beneficiaries of the modernization plan. Their showcase masonry building opened this school year, replacing a 1955 brick building. The new school features pods of four classrooms with a common instructional area; each classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard and overhead projector. There are also monitors that increase airflow if CO2 levels rise in the classroom. That’s because high CO2 levels can make students sleepy.

Showing off her sparkling new facility, with its vibrant glass mosaic entry, Principal Joyce Teshima says the design enhances collaboration among teachers, specialists, and other staff. Common areas are also used by students for cooperative projects as well as peer tutoring.

Teshima acknowledges that out of the seven elementary schools in her learning community, there’s only one with a population similar to Rose Hill’s. She regularly meets with the principal of that school to share common concerns. “It’s difficult when over 30 percent of your students speak languages other than English, and many are not literate in their first language,” she says.

In a concerted effort to reach out to parents and the community—which includes Hispanic, Portuguese, and Russian speakers—the school is participating in a new district program called Achieving Family Friendly Schools. Parents were recruited to visit Rose Hill to evaluate whether staff and the environment are welcoming and if written communications and policies are clear and helpful. A survey administered during teacher-student conferences also measured parent perceptions about the school.

Like other elementary schools in Lake Washington, Rose Hill has adopted a new approach to report cards this year. Letter grades have been replaced with numbers on a scale of one to four, based on whether a student is not at standard (1), approaching standard (2), at standard (3), or exceeding standard (4). The grading system also makes it clear if students are doing well in life skills such as turning in work on time, or mastering content matter, or both.

In its parent newsletter, the district notes, “This grading system reflects the district’s standards-based educational philosophy. Students must be able to demonstrate what they have learned, meeting a specific standard. Students who meet a specific standard of learning at each grade along the way will be able to graduate with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in higher education and/or the work force.”

And, just as board members mandated more than a decade ago, Lake Washington students will assuredly graduate with a world-class education in hand.

By the numbers: Lake Washington School District

Total students	10,764
Racial/ethnic makeup:
White	75.2%
African American	2.8%
Hispanic	6.6%
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.7%
Asian	13.5%
Free and reduced-price lunch	11.9%
Staff:
Teachers	2,660
Spending per student	$7,299

For more information: www.lkwash.wednet.edu