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Northwest Report
November 1996

NWREL Adds Five New Activities

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory is developing or enhancing five projects to better meet the needs of educators, parents, students, and others in the Pacific Northwest region.

The projects include activities in science and mathematics education, curriculum and instruction, community-based learning, classroom assessment, and planning for emerging needs. "These activities," notes Executive Director Dr. Ethel Simon-McWilliams, "respond to the needs identified in the Northwest, and build on our existing programs to serve the region. We are confident that they will help address current and emerging needs of teachers, administrators, parents, students, and others in the Northwest."

The five new activities are supported by a supplemental $1 million contract from the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The activities will be carried out during NWREL's current five-year funding cycle. A summary of each of the projects follows:

Science and Mathematics Education. This activity will focus on the dissemination of research-based practices in science and mathematics education, notes Dr. Rex Hagans, project coordinator and Director of NWREL's Planning and Service Coordination division. The plan is designed to continuously address three questions:

  1. What is the current status of science and mathematics education in the region?
  2. What emerging issues and challenges face science and mathematics educators?
  3. What resources are most useful to practitioners?

Objectives of the project include to develop and disseminate publications on science and mathematics, maintain a regional database in science and mathematics, participate in regional and national forums in support of schools and teachers in the Northwest, and foster regional discussions on topics and issues of importance to science and mathematics education through focus groups, expert panels, and other activities.

Curriculum and Instruction. In its assessment of regional needs, NWREL learned that teachers believe that improving curriculum and instructional practice is critical to the success and future of students, and that research and development support for teachers is a high priority. "The specific critical need which must be addressed is to strengthen the substance of the curriculum through more widespread and effective implementation of practices such as curriculum integration, curriculum alignment, and cooperative learning," notes Dr. Jane Braunger, a NWREL senior associate who will coordinate the curriculum and instruction project. "These strategies have been shown by research to substantially increase the learning of all students." The project will support teachers by building upon their current planning and practices in four areas:

  1. Critical examination of teaching practices
  2. Clarification of state standards and their relationships to local priorities
  3. Identification of critical learning experiences which lead to desired results
  4. Conducting classroom research to support continuous improvement

Community-Based Learning. NWREL's Education and Work Program will pull together research, resources, and services to help communities take the comprehensive approach needed to successfully implement a quality community-based learning system. Dr. Larry McClure, Director of NWREL's Education and Work Program, will coordinate the project, which is organized around three interrelated components:

  1. Assist communities in systemic change efforts
  2. Develop and test research-based resources and services in support of implementation by schools and communities
  3. Provide training and technical assistance to educators and employers that create awareness and assist in planning for a commu nity-based learning system

Classroom Assessment. NWREL has a strong and successful history in developing assessment strategies, tools, and workshops that focus on student writing skills. A newly revised NWREL text, Seeing with New Eyes, builds on the integration of language arts skills in the context of teaching young readers and writers to develop and use a shared vocabulary as they think, speak, write, and learn to assess their own work. The classroom assessment project will build on NWREL's successful writing skills strategies to provide increased opportunities for teacher professional development in assessing and teaching student reading, listening, and speaking skills. Dr. Dean Arrasmith, Director of NWREL's Assessment and Accountability Program, will coordinate the project. Objectives include:

The project also calls for the creation of two new training institutes—the Reading Assessment Institute and the Integrated Language Arts Institute—and development of workshops and training materials.

Planning for Emerging Needs. The Laboratory's 1995 assessment of regional needs identified five emerging trends with potential implications for NWREL's research and development agenda. The trends are: 1) A dramatically increasing demand for public engagement with schools, 2) Persistent and increasingly severe resource disparities among school communities, 3) Acceleration of efforts to integrate education and social services, 4) Increasing "intrusion" of state policy and planning into traditionally local areas of school decisionmaking, and 5) A steadily increasing proportion of poor and minority students. The Laboratory will develop action plans for one or more of these trends based on an analysis of them.

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