ENF

Offers Practical Advice on

AYP

Issues

By Kate Fitzgibbon

Educators struggling to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals should circle February 28–March 1, 2005, on their calendars. Those are the dates for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's annual conference—Education Now & in the Future (ENF)—to be held at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon. The conference will feature more than 50 sessions focused on "The Path to AYP: Best Practices and Research-Based Tools for Northwest Schools."

ENF's three strands—Engaging Special Populations, Increasing School Effectiveness, and Proficiency in the AYP Content Areas—are directly tied to improving educational results. Rebecca Novick, who heads NWREL's Literacy and Language Development Team, will lead the strand addressing proficiency in the AYP content area of reading. "Most children get a strong start in word recognition skills," explains Novick. "However, reading achievement for some children begins to decline between grades four and six. As breadth of vocabulary and the ability to reason verbally become more important than decoding skills, children with little exposure to reading and writing activities in the early years often fall behind their more advantaged peers," she says. In Novick's sessions, participants will explore ways to help all students develop a love of reading and writing, to read for meaning, and to write competently for authentic purposes.

Sessions led by Claire Gates, NWREL's Math and Science Education Center Associate, will target helping students make AYP in mathematics. Two conference workshops—Developing Algebraic Sense With K–2 Students and Supporting and Extending Children's Natural Problem-Solving Abilities—highlight the theory that children come to school with some understanding of mathematics. "It is the job of the teacher, as facilitator and guide, to structure the classroom and plan instruction based on what the students already know," says Gates. "By looking at research about how children learn, and hearing from practicing K–2 teachers how this plays out in the classroom, participants will leave the conference with a new lens to view their students and ideas to help them increase their understanding about mathematics."

For more information about sessions, networking, and preconference workshops (on Sunday, February 27), check out the ENF Web site at www.nwrel.org/enf or the session catalog. Note that there are sharply discounted rates this year: people who register by January 28, 2005, can save up to $65 off the regular registration rate.

Ways To Register for ENF:

1. Web: www.nwrel.org/enf/
2. Phone: 800-547-6339, ext.187
3. Fax: 503-275-0458
4. Mail: ENF Registration, 101 S.W Main St., Suite 500, Portland, Oregon 97204

Use the ENF registration form on the Web site or the form printed at the end of the session catalog.