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When the first issue of Northwest Education hit mailboxes in the winter of 1996, the impact was immediate. Readers raved. Requests for extra copies poured in. We knew we had created a potent forum for the issues educators confront every day in the classroom and parents discuss in their living rooms—topics such as how to meet the needs of language-minority students. How to make education meaningful for middle schoolers. What strategies work best with very young children. How charter schools are altering the face of public education. In May, the magazine's worth was confirmed when the Educational Press Association of America—a respected, 100-year-old independent professional association for education editors and publishers—named Northwest Education the best education magazine in the nation for 1997. Among 1,300 contenders, we had won the association's top achievement award for publications with adult audiences, the Golden Lamp, along with Technology & Learning, published by Miller Freeman of San Francisco. Previous Golden Lamp winners have included such outstanding publications as Teaching Tolerance (1995) and Educational Leadership (1991). Winning top honors this year for children's publications was Time for Kids, published by TIME Inc. Literary Cavalcade, a publication of Scholastic Inc., won in the young adult category. "The EdPress highest honor, the Golden Lamp, sets the standard in its field," said Charlene Gaynor, Executive Director of the association, in announcing the awards. "These publications stand as models of excellence in content, quality, and design." Judges for the annual Distinguished Achievement Awards for Excellence in Educational Journalism included, among others, Casey Banas, education writer for the Chicago Tribune; Pam Reynolds, a former editor of PTA Today magazine who is now with DePaul University; Robert McClory, associate professor at Northwestern University, School of Journalism; and Yvonne Rodriguez and Barbara Sjostrom, education professors at Rowan University. Northwest Education Co-Editors Lee Sherman and Tony Kneidek accepted the award at a banquet in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 13. Another education group, the National School Public Relations Association, also has honored the magazine with its foremost accolade, the Award of Excellence, for 1997. These honors (of which we are very proud) confirm what reader response has suggested: that the magazine is succeeding in breathing life into educational research. Our premier issue, "The Hispanic Child," touched off a volley of cards and calls from all over the region and from states as far away as Maine. In all, readers requested 1,000 additional copies, while offering comments such as this one from Washington's Othello School District: "The magazine was very well done and very timely for the work our district is involved in." And this from the Language and Diversity Program at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory: "It is a beautifully done, concise document that can be useful to a variety of audiences."
We will continue to steer Northwest Education by its intended purpose: bringing important studies and reports out of the dark recesses of bookshelves and card catalogs and, in a readable and lively fashion, sharing them with readers who can put their findings to use. Describing what's working in actual classrooms. Showing strategies that are getting good results in schools big and small—from the tiny village of Chiniak on Alaska's Kodiak Island, to the metropolis of Portland in Oregon's Willamette Valley. From Great Falls to Idaho Falls. From Washington's urban Tacoma School District with its 31,500 ethnically diverse students to the rural district of Concrete, which serves fewer than 900 students in the North Cascades. We've even ventured to the Southwest, visiting El Paso and Phoenix to report stories that offer insights of value to Northwesterners. We want to inform. We want to inspire. Ultimately, what we fervently hope these pages will accomplish is to make a difference for kids. To help us achieve that mission, we would like to hear your views. This issue includes our first "Letters" department, where we have published letters on our recent "Charter Schools" issue. Your feedback—criticism, encouragement, commentary, input of any kind—is vitally important to us. You may post letters to The Editors, Northwest Education magazine, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 101 S.W. Main Street, Suite 500, Portland, Oregon 97204. Or send e-mail to nwedufeedback@nwrel.org. If you know someone who would like to receive the quarterly magazine, please send us their name and address so that we may add them to our mailing list. We want to reach people who care about ensuring a first-rate education for every child in the great Northwest. —Dr. Ethel Simon-McWilliams,
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This document's URL is: Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics © 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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We have been gratified by the response. Reaching a "variety of audiences" with useful information was exactly what we hoped to achieve when we conceived the magazine. Traditionally, the Laboratory has aimed its products and publications mainly at school administrators and policymakers. But in recent years, we have cast our net wider, hoping to get current research findings into the hands of more classroom teachers (who can use them to better serve kids) and more members of a broader public (who can use them to better understand and support the efforts of schools). This wider casting is a reflection of schools' growing partnerships with parents, human-services workers, businesspeople, and other community members—all of whom will be crucial collaborators for education in the coming century.
