A new generation of school buildings is being designed to accommodate a new generation of students. Working with educators, many of today’s architects and interior designers are replacing last century’s staid school buildings and box-like classrooms with architecturally bold designs that are affordable, aesthetic, and energy-efficient.
Gone for good in many districts are rigid rows of heavy steel-framed desks with students facing a lecturer at the front of a neutral-colored classroom white chalk in hand.
“My classroom doesn’t have a front,” says Lauren Rudman, a teacher at Discovery Elementary School in Arlington, Va. “It’s flexible.”
Increasingly, new school interiors include seminar-style rooms with round tables, dry erase whiteboards in hallways, Scrabble and LEGO walls. To create extra space when needed for large internal and external group meetings, new schools usually contain retractable garage doors, foldable partitions, and stackable furniture.
Rudman’s fourth-graders are based in a studio classroom with a glass wall on the corridor intentionally placed across a technology commons area. Within a normal 45-minute class period, Rudman can find herself monitoring three sets of students with some sitting on the window box against the glass wall or on a stool in the commons area while others study at their tables.
“I can interact with one group of students at a small table in my classroom and still keep an eye on students on the other side of the glass,” she says.
Most of Discovery’s classrooms feature flexible furniture including height-adjustable tables, upholstered chairs, beanbags, and carpeted reading steps that provide students with flexibility.
“An appropriate amount of visual openness in a school promotes a culture of collaboration,” says Wyck Knox, lead architect on Discovery’s design team. “Everyone learns in unique ways, in their own preferred environment.”
Knox says there is no wrong way or place to learn although many of today’s architects are challenging the traditional definition of a learning space as defined by four walls.
“Each learning space should be allowed the opportunity to be something greater than its box,” he says. “Creativity is showcased in spaces that are joyful, bright, and honor the learner and educator.”
Discovery School in Arlington, Va. (photo: Luis Gomez)
Near Salt Lake City, in Woods Cross, Utah, Odyssey Elementary School incorporates into its teaching pedagogy the theme of “Bodies in Motion: The Animal Kingdom.” Classrooms are organized between four wings, called “habitats.” Each habitat has a name: swim, run, jump, fly.
“The idea was to create a fun environment students want to attend everyday,” says John Oderda, an architect who oversaw the construction of Odyssey, which opened its doors in 2014. “The one animal that can do all of these things is the human animal.”
“An appropriate amount of visual openness in a school promotes a culture of collaboration. Everyone learns in unique ways, in their own preferred environment.” – Wyck Knox, lead architect on Discovery’s design team.
Although education funding at all levels has been flat in recent years, the education construction sector remains one of the biggest in the category of nonresidential construction, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, for some officials leading our nation’s 13,515 school districts, there does not seem to be a need to start from scratch with a bold new building. Instead of a full facelift, some school administrators choose to nip and tuck one room at a time.
For example, Roosevelt Middle School in San Francisco won a grant that went toward updating the design and function of its cafeteria. In Chandler, Ariz., a teacher won a grant to renovate Santan Elementary School’s outdated school lounge.
Still, the Holy Grail of school cosmetic surgery at the moment seems to be the installation of solar panels to help achieve net zero energy cost. While only a handful of schools do so right now, says Knox, the percentage of new schools pursuing this objective is rapidly rising.
“Enough projects, specifically public schools, have demonstrated that achieving net zero cost is possible without breaking the bank,” he says. “Having more zero energy buildings is critical for the environment, but zero energy schools protect that most precious of tax dollars – annual operating costs of schools.”
Oderda agrees: “Good design doesn’t have to cost anymore than bad design. You have to put something on the wall. A colored wall doesn’t cost more than a white wall.”
The Art of Discovery
Nestled in a sleepy residential area of Arlington, Va., the radiant Discovery Elementary School rests securely atop a hill. Tidy rows of slopeside trees add beauty and cover to the two-story building. In front and along the tiered landscape, a long stonewall conceals several play areas, vegetable gardens, and water basins connected to an underground geothermal system that reduces energy costs.
While outdoor areas are shaded from the quiet streets below, the school’s cerebral interior is an open book. Every nook and cranny shines as a manifesto of exploration, imagination, and discovery.
“It’s more like a children’s museum inside, where the walls are interactive,” says Principal Erin Russo.
At Discovery, the walls, floors and ceilings thematically communicate the progress students make from one grade to the next. The first floor design scheme centers on earth ecosystems. Terrestrial shapes systematically orient kindergarten students as Backyard Adventurers. Upon entering first grade, students become Forest Trailblazers then Ocean Navigators in grade two.
Discovery School incorporates many energy conserving measures, including the approximately 1700 solar panels on the school’s roof. (photo: Luis Gomez)
The celestial-themed second floor identifies with the sky and solar system. At this elevation, third-graders are categorized as Atmosphere Aviators, fourth-graders as Solar System Pioneers, and fifth-graders as Galaxy Voyagers. When students start school, they sign their name on magnetic disc attached to the entry wall and watch over the years as their disc moves down the wall.
“This approach gives students a grade-level identity while also engaging them as they interact with the building,” says Russo.
Before Discovery opened in 2015, students from Arlington Public Schools who would be attending were asked at public meetings to vote on names for the school and mascot. The “Discovery Explorers” mascot name pays tribute to John Glenn, who lived near the school site when he became the first American to orbit the earth in 1962. In 1998, while serving in the U.S. Senate, Glenn returned to space on the shuttle Discovery, the school’s namesake.
Serving approximately 650 students, Discovery cost almost $33 million.
A sleek roof canopy runs the length of the school covering outdoor dining and play spaces. More than 1,700 rooftop solar panels and other means account for the school’s net zero energy usage while serving as a lab where students conduct experiments.
“Features like these are designed to create a seamless integration between curriculum, environmental awareness, and energy sustainability,” says Russo.
One of the school’s showstoppers is a large digital dashboard screen located near the entry. The state-of-the-art system tracks Discovery’s lighting, technology, and other energy use in real-time where it is published and accessible to every school device connected to the Internet.
“We use it more as an interactive learning tool for students and teachers,” says Russo. “We want it to motivate them to help the building maintain net zero energy status and create awareness about energy use.”
The Sky’s the Limit for Learning
Art teacher Maria Burke stands beneath a solar skylight portal built into the ceiling.
Natural light also cascades into the room from oversized windows facing south, a deliberate design point that took into consideration solar orientation. Along with Burke’s classroom, interiors on the south side of the building feature bright, sunny colors. The north side of the school features cooler colors such as greens and blues, reflecting the natural hues of moss that grows on the north side of trees.
In her classroom, Burke makes full use of tall wooden shelving to store art supplies. The room includes a retractable garage door that opens up for large-group meetings and three sinks aligned to accommodate more than one student at a time.
Discovery art teacher Maria Burke with one of her students (photo: Luis Gomez)
“It’s a dream classroom,” says Burke, who makes it a point not to clutter her beloved room with gratuitous signs and images. “Students need light and an uncluttered environment to think and create.”
Two unique features of the school are located on the second floor: a bright yellow two-story slide and a glass-enclosed meeting room for teachers fondly referred to as the “fish bowl.”
“An appropriate amount of visual openness in the school promotes a culture of collaboration, because that cross-pollination and creativity is showcased in spaces that are joyful, bright, and honor the learner and educator,” says Knox, executive architect at VMDO Architects.
Net Zero School
Along with promoting themes through innovative design, school districts are increasingly building schools that attempt to reduce energy costs. Davis School District’s Odyssey, for example, has been designated as being the first net zero school building in Utah.
Thanks to 1,200 rooftop solar panels and other means, the two-story building uses less electrical energy of any other school building in the state.
“Ideally, we wanted to generate just as much energy as we need,” says Oderda. “We estimated the school’s energy need when the design process started in 2010 and then designed accordingly.”
The classrooms at Odyssey Elementary School in Woods Cross, UT are organized between four wings, called “habitats.” Each habitat has a name: swim, run, jump, fly.
The school has also achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, which is one of the most popular green building certification programs used worldwide.
“The school uses low-flow water fixtures,” says Oderda. Water conservation is also incorporated outdoors with the use of sensors in the school’s sprinkler system.
The hallmark of poor design, says Oderda, is obnoxious signage.
“We try to do things as visually as possible where you don’t have chunky arrows telling you where to go,” he says.
At Odyssey, its 650 students and multiple visitors can easily find their way around the two-story school by orienting themselves to six colors clearly laid out on the floor and walls.
The walls in the open cafeteria and auditorium area are decorated with large banners containing images of hikers, rock climbers, hang gliders and surfers. Inspirational quotes from J.K. Rowling, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Seuss, and others line second-floor walls and doorways.
The Bodies in Motion theme encourages exercise and enjoying the outdoors, Oderda says. Childhood obesity was a front-page topic when the school was being planned beginning in 2010.
“The movement theme was a way to combat obesity,” Oderda says. “We try to present information at a level students will understand without talking down to them.”
At the design phase, the architects also considered the life cycle of the building and how it could expand with the times. Instead of tearing down walls, building doors and walls are easily removed for reuse instead of demolition.
“We tried to make the building as flexible as possible,” say Oderda, of Salt Lake City-based VCBO Architects.
The curved exterior of the building has sparkling blue reflective metal panels that evoke water in motion and reference the scales of a fish.
“The curved design makes it look like the building is moving,” says Oderda. “The building’s exterior is in sync with the school’s theme — movement.”
Physical design features like those found at Odyssey and Discovery might be architecturally stunning but they are above all else student-centered. While solar panels and digital dashboards may be all the rage in education construction, well-designed new schools seem to convey the simple message that society values education.
Students hang out in Roosevelt Elementary’s new cafeteria. (photo: courtesy of IDEO)
Cafeteria Cool: A Reinvented School Cafeteria
Designing school cafeterias as places where students might voluntarily choose to dine can be a challenge. In 2013, officials with San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) hired global design firm Ideo to help them determine how to get students more excited about eating at school.
After a six-month discovery process involving more than 1,300 district students, families, educators, cafeteria workers, and administrators, designers learned among other things that during lunchtime kids crave to be with friends.
“School cafeterias weren’t originally designed to make hanging out with friends a priority,” says Ideo’s Sandy Speicher. “Kids were waiting in long lines to assemble their food trays, and many students were skipping that process to get to the ultimate goal of social time.”
In addition to considering how to entice students to dine in, designers were also challenged by cost efficiencies and operations.
“One important component of the new design strategy was to create distributed points of sale so that students could access meals in multiple places in order to avoid long lines,” says Gentle Blythe, SFUSD chief communications officer.
Today, in place of dreary rows of long tables, stark fluorescent lighting, and long food lines, you will find outdoor mobile carts serving sandwiches, a Chill Out area with fluffy couches and bright yellow chairs, and family-style round tables, each with an adult leader and student-captain responsible for cleaning up.
“The new cafeteria makes for a comfortable, efficient environment,” says David Watson, who has taught English at Roosevelt for 12 years. “It encourages socializing but also offers quieter areas for students who might want to just sit and read.”
District officials say the cafeteria redesign project is an ongoing process where student priorities will remain front and center. For upcoming schools, the design team will involve students in the designing process so they can assume more ownership of the space.
Without hesitation, Jill Lauren said that the most critical program that should be included under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is proper reading instruction beginning in kindergarten.
“We know that children learn to read by using either a whole language or phonics approach. Some kids seem to pick up reading, as if by magic, while others need every sound and syllable rule explicitly taught,” said Lauren, who holds a bachelor’s of science and master’s degree in learning disabilities from Northwestern University.
Known as an expert in reading and writing, Lauren has trained teachers around the country to utilize a variety of structured, multi-sensory approaches to the instruction of reading and written language.
“Teachers of pre-K to [third grade] need to know how to teach both methodologies of reading instruction,” said Lauren. “Every child entering third grade should be reading on grade level, meaning we have four years to properly teach kids how to read.”
Lauren continued: “Without the essential skill of reading on grade level, the rest of a child’s school years will be troubled, and statistics show that most youth offenders, as well as adult inmates, struggle with literacy. This educational failing is a national tragedy.”
Lauren’s concerns come as Education Week reported a push by Republicans in Congress to overturn accountability regulations for ESSA could have far-reaching consequences for how the law works in states, and the potential end of the much-contested rules is dividing the education community.
Groups supporting the move argue that it would free schools from unnecessary burdens, while opponents contend that overturning the rules could hurt vulnerable students and create turmoil in states and districts trying to finalize their transition to ESSA, the 2015 law that replaced the No Child Left Behind Act.
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), comprised of 211 African American-owned media companies and newspapers, recently received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a three-year, multi-media public awareness campaign focusing on the unique opportunities and challenges of ESSA.
Bridging the academic achievement gap in education K-12 for African-American students and others from disadvantaged communities is of critical importance over the next several years, said Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the NNPA.
“The ESSA law was established to help increase the effectiveness of public education in every state,” said Chavis. “Our task is to inform, inspire, and encourage parents, students, teachers, and administrators to fulfill the intent and objectives of ESSA with special focus on those students and communities that have been marginalized and underserved by the education system across the nation.”
Under ESSA, states will adhere to more flexible federal regulations that provide for improved elementary and secondary education in the nation’s public schools.
ESSA, which also reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), received bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 10, 2015. The regulations are administered by the U.S. Department of Education and ESSA goes into full effect at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year.
Last week, the House of Representatives approved a joint resolution that would overturn ESSA accountability rules issued by the Obama administration.
Those rules, which became final in November, are intended to detail for states the timeline for addressing underperforming schools, how schools must be rated, the ways English-language learners must be considered in state accountability plans, and other policy issues.
As some education advocates push for more intensive reading instruction in pre-K and kindergarten, others argue that attendance is the key to success.
“One of the things that should be included in any modification of ESSA is the fifth criteria for schools which is about school climate,” said Helen Levy-Myers, founder and CEO of Athena’s Workshop, Inc., a texting application for educators. “The most important metric in school climate is individual student attendance rates. Measuring when individual students attend or are absent is a key indicator of school environment and more valuable than a survey, an acceptable option, which can influence results in the way questions are phrased.”
School attendance is often dependent on other factors, like the friendliness of the staff, school leadership, safety of the school and neighborhood, health of the community, and the level of engagement between students and teachers, she said.
A white paper presented by Levy-Myers noted that the “cold, hard truth is that chronically absent children end up leading harder lives.”
Students that miss just two or three days each month in kindergarten and first grade never catch up. They become chronically absent, defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year.
About 83 percent of the chronically absent students in kindergarten and 1st grade are not reading at grade level at the end of third grade. Not being able to read well means that everything gets harder and that a student is four times more likely to drop out before graduation, Levy-Myers said.
Without a high school diploma, getting any job or advancing beyond the lowest, entry-level job is almost impossible, and that person is now eight times more likely to end up in jail, she said.
“Teachers and administrators know these facts, but parents often do not understand how small absences add up. Parents that do not visit the school or district website do not get the message about the importance of daily attendance,” Levy-Myers said. “They have not calculated that being absent two days a month, every month for nine months of school equals 18 days or 10 percent of the typical 180-day school year and that chronic absenteeism translates into a long list of negative outcomes.”
While many Republican lawmakers have moved to strike down the implementation of ESSA, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told state school officers around the country that despite a delay, several regulations will be reviewed and changed by March 21.
DeVos told the officers that state ESSA plans will still be accepted either in April or in September.
In a memo to state school heads DeVos wrote: “Due to the regulatory delay and review, and the potential repeal of recent regulations by Congress, the Department is currently reviewing the regulatory requirements of consolidated State plans, as reflected in the current template, to ensure that they require only descriptions, information, assurances, and other materials that are absolutely necessary for consideration of a consolidated State plan.”
Chairman Kruse and Members of the Senate Education Committee:
With SB 416, we have the opportunity to strengthen Indiana’s School Accountability System. A strong accountability system must be in place; a system that is accurate and transparent—a system that drives improvement. I believe in accountability, and I have been held accountable as a classroom teacher for 34 years.
The Department of Education is committed to strengthening our school accountability system to address its flaws that have been talked about in our schools and in our community. As you know, there has been previous testimony opposed to our current accountability system. I am sure several of you have heard stories in your own communities, as well. Our current A-F system is so complicated that the grades are unexplainable; educators are unable to communicate to parents and the community the meaning of the grades. Schools and communities can’t comprehend how a school can be a 4-Star school one year and D-rated school the next year with very little change in ISTEP+ performance. There is no apparent explanation for how some schools went from being A schools to being F schools and how F schools became A schools in a year’s time. While the assigning of grades A, B, C, D, or F should invoke a sense of security and transparency it has instead cause great controversy in our communities.
During the past few transition weeks, there have been many questions to the department regarding A-F. My department is doing its due diligence to provide answers. For the 2011-12 school year, 135 appeals were filed. Inconsistencies have been found to cause question about the system’s integrity and validating the accuracy of the calculations is daunting. Because of this, I am not able to answer specific questions at this time regarding the inconsistencies, but the department is doing a thorough review. Right now, I am unable to communicate to a school how they can improve their overall grade. Schools deserve to have straightforward data to inform their school improvement plans. With sanctions placed upon schools for poor performance, we must have a system that is accurate and transparent.
This bill voids the administrative rule that has established the current A-F accountability model and allows for the creation of a subsequent rule that provides Indiana with a more rigorous accountability system in compliance with P.L. 221 that can report accurate and direct percentage data for schools in both student academic growth and academic achievement. In other words, the percentage of students showing academic growth from school year to school year would be reported and the percentage of students meeting or exceeding at grade-level performance cut-scores would be reported.
Measuring Academic Growth
Our current method of showing academic growth takes students’ scores and compares them with their peers around the state of Indiana; thus educators and parents do not have a clear picture of each child’s academic growth. To strengthen accountability, educators and parents need to see each child’s true measure of growth from year to year. The most direct method of reporting percentage data for student growth is to administer true student growth measure assessments at the beginning of the school year and the end of the school year to show individual growth in a given school year.
However, since Indiana does not currently have true student growth measure tests in place, we must calculate individual student growth on our pass/fail ISTEP tests from school year to school year using individual scores.
Conceptually, one way to calculate individual student growth can be determined by calculating the gap between a student’s performance score and the cut-score from year to year. The percentage of students in each school showing academic growth could then be reported.
Measuring Academic Achievement
For achievement, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding the cut-score can be reported which reflects grade level achievement.
Establishing P.L. 221 Improvement Categories
According to Indiana’s Elementary Secondary Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver that has been granted by the U.S. Department of Education in February 2012, schools would ultimately be classified as Reward Schools, Focus Schools, or Priority Schools. Classification in these categories would be determined by performance in both growth and achievement.
With both growth and achievement being reported, schools can determine a course of action through the school improvement process to raise both students growth and student achievement in language arts and math.
Under this system, each student’s improvement counts equally. This means there would be no comparison to a student’s peers, attention would not be paid to only the “bubble” students who are close to meeting the cut-scores, and schools would not be penalized for students already demonstrating high achievement.
Every student would carry equal weight and focus. School improvement would be focused on each and every child…creating a very rigorous system that is accurate and transparent to strengthen school accountability.
Thank you for your attention. I urge this committee to support SB 416.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) is accepting applications for a new state superintendent of schools. The deadline for receipt of applications is by 4 p.m. eastern standard time on March 10, 2017. A full job description can be found by visiting: http://wvde.state.wv.us/wvde-vacancies/index.html?vac_id=1732
WVBE President Thomas Campbell appointed the following board members as part of the superintendent search subcommittee: Miller Hall, Chuck Hatfield, David Perry and Scott Rotruck.
West Virginia’s current superintendent, Dr. Michael Martirano, announced his resignation effective June 30, 2017 in order to move closer to his family in Maryland.
Applications can be mailed to: Thomas W. Campbell, President, West Virginia Board of Education, Capitol Building 6, Room 617, 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East, Charleston, West Virginia 25305. Applications may also be emailed to West Virginia Board of Education Secretary, Virginia Harris: vharris@k12.wv.us.
For more information, contact Mary Catherine Tuckwiller at the West Virginia Board of Education at (304) 558-3660 or mctuckwiller@k12.wv.us.
Lake Washington School District (LWSD) is located in a picturesque setting between Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, just east of Seattle. The district is not only known for its natural beauty covering 76 square miles, but also its vast residential coverage and booming student growth.
In 2016, district officials equated their growth to being the equivalent of opening a new elementary school of 625 students per year for the previous five years. Yet, staffing levels, particularly among education support professionals (ESPs), have remained stagnant.
“The district has been relying on many part-time ESP members and volunteers,” says Libby Boucher, president of Lake Washington Educational Support Professionals (LWESP), comprising approximately 200 office worker professionals.
Almost 30,000 students from the robust cities of Kirkland, Redmond, half of Sammamish, and from sections of Bothell and Woodinville attend the district’s 53 schools. In recent years, about 1,200 new students have flocked to LWSD per year.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t added support staff in proportion to our growth,” says Kevin Teeley, president of the Lake Washington Education Association (LWEA).
While operating under an expired contract since August, LWESP members and Washington Education Association (WEA) state staff created an organizing plan to build awareness among members and other educators, parents and the community.
“We informed parents and others about the grossly inappropriate staffing levels,” says Boucher, office manager at Samantha Smith Elementary School. “They were very supportive.”
WEA UniServ Director Kathleen Heiman says state staff and local members coordinated an organizing strategy that focused on face-to-face member engagement.
“We were able to visit every school and worksite and work one on one with educators,” says Heiman. “We connected with members and generated a buzz and awareness that lead to signing up 32 new LWESP members.”
With stronger numbers and solid community support, LWESP members on January 25 bargained a new three-year contract with the district. The settlement included improved staffing allocations, an 8.8 percent wage increase this year, and a minimum 4 percent over the next two years.
“People have told me that this contract is life-changing for them,” Boucher says. “Not only are their working conditions going to be less stressful, the pay raise is substantial enough so people won’t need second jobs and can qualify for loans they’ve not been able to secure before now.”
Libby Boucher (left) is president of the Lake Washington Educational Support Professionals. Carolina Borrego is vice president.
Much of the stress among members was the result of a rapid rise in student growth coupled with a drop in district employee personnel. This dynamic added to the stress levels as well as workloads of remaining education support professionals, according to Heiman.
“We reached out to fair share payers one on one and talked about the strength of a united union,” she says. “Some were new hires and some had been fair share payers who wanted to join.”
By the time the contract was ratified, the organizing team had cut fair share payer numbers by about 50 percent.
“We built strength from within the union,” says Heiman. “Members made this happen.”
The new contract also addressed insurance costs, student safety, and health room coverage.
“Just last year, the district allocated no more than three hours a day for health room coverage at my school,” says Carolina Borrego, office manager at Louisa May Alcott Elementary School. “It was impossible to give students the care they needed and provide parents with the feedback they deserved.
For example, out of 31 elementary schools only 10 had 90 minutes of daily scheduled health care for students who were ill or injured. Borrego says the organizing team collected data from the Washington State Department of Health and every school health care room in the district in preparation for contract negotiations.
“At the bargaining sessions, we were very prepared and all of our hard work paid off,” says Borrego, LWESP vice president. “Also, allocations for secretary time were updated to reflect the growth of our schools and district offices.”
Under the new contract, schools are guaranteed six hours a day of health care room coverage.
LWESP received full support from LWEA’s 1,870 certificated staff members, who wrote notes and sent cards to school board members and community leaders, posted member photos on Facebook and other social media outlets, and “personally let LWESP members know how much they are appreciated,” says Teeley.
“We know that our schools are better for kids when we all stand together and support each other,” he says. “Schools simply would not function without them, yet their behind-the-scenes and front-of-the-scenes contributions are frequently overlooked.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) took several actions regarding statewide testing at its meeting today. The WVBE voted to eliminate English language arts and mathematics statewide assessments in grades 9 and 10. Beginning during the spring 2017 testing window, high school students will only be tested in grade 11. The change puts West Virginia in line with federal requirements to test at least once at the high school level. The WVBE also voted to move away from the Smarter Balanced assessment beginning with the 2017-18 school year and directed the West Virginia Department of Education to explore options to adopt another statewide assessment.
In response to comments received during a 30-day public comment period on assessment policy 2340, the WVBE voted to remove policy language which would have utilized end-of-course exams in selected high school courses. The public overwhelmingly did not support the use of end-of-course exams within comments received.
The WVBE also approved a change in grade levels for the statewide science assessment from grade 4 to 5 in elementary school and grade 6 to 8 in middle school. Mountain State students will now be tested at the end of each programmatic level in science, resulting in a more accurate depiction of how well students master science skills.
“As a board, we are committed to finding the best assessment solution for the students in West Virginia,” said State Board of Education President Tom Campbell. “With that goal in mind, our board will listen to the public and our state’s educators who always have students’ best interest at heart.”
Lake Washington School District (LWSD) is located in a picturesque setting between Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains, just east of Seattle. The district is not only known for its natural beauty covering 76 square miles, but also its vast residential coverage and booming student growth.
