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PART III EDUCATION REFORM 1990-1994
Reform was also taking place at the local level. In Edmonds, Washington, located between Seattle and Everett, the process began several years before 1990. The Edmonds School District services 20,000 students and is part of one of the fastest growing counties in the country.
A Citizen Planning Committee was created in the district with parent representation from each of 32 schools and at-large membership from the community. The committee began studying school organization, demographics, and physical facility needs. In 1989, a "Strategic Thinking Task Force" was also established to develop an action plan for reform.
Several schools in the district won special grants from the state after proposing plans for Washington's "Schools for the 21st Century" program. Only one site was chosen each year for this state investment, and schools in Edmonds were winners in both 1988 and 1990. The winning schools served as catalysts for transformation throughout the district.
In 1992, the Strategic Thinking Task force finalized its report. Actions were proposed for achieving quality in five areas: student knowledge, staff knowledge, time, decision-making and facilities. The task force also recommended that Edmonds declare itself as a "transforming school system."
The vision to transform led Edmonds residents to link with other efforts around the nation to achieve the National Education Goals. In March 1992, they adopted the Edmonds 2000 framework to move ahead with their plans for reform.
The reform strategy was to concentrate on three areas: content standards, performance assessment, and program choices. In each area, an underlying question was the focus. CONTENT: What do we want our students to know and be able to do? PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT: How will we know when students are meeting the standards? PROGRAM CHOICES: How will we develop the capacity of staff and school communities to make choices about getting the performance results desired?
In the fall of 1992, four Community Forums were held, one for each quadrant of the district, to ask residents to define standards: "What do we want students to know and be able to do?" Five hundred parents, teachers, and citizens contributed their input. The hundreds of suggestions were distilled into a draft document, and in February 1993, the draft was mailed to every household in Edmonds, along with a schedule for a second round of forums.
After more input from residents, a second draft of content standards was formed, published with lines through the original document to show the changes that had been made. "We really invited our whole community to edit our content standards," said Edmonds Superintendent Brian Benzel. "We listened to our community."
Edmonds 2000 also presented the consensus of the community to date in a pictorial form entitled "The Tapestry of Student Learning." The Tapestry showed how a total of fifteen academic and skill categories were interwoven in the big picture of student achievement. Examples of the categories included producing quality and pursuing excellence, thinking and problem solving, self-directed learning, communicating, and working with others.
The Tapestry integrated academic learning with the skills the business community wanted students to possess. The district held Business Forums to create a continuing dialogue between business leaders and educators about what students should know and be able to do. School-to-work transition is a high priority in Edmonds, which is located near Boeing's 747 and 777 production plants as well as near a major county retail center.
Although some opposition to reform has emerged, Edmonds 2000 continues to move forward. The next major task is to devise fair and accurate assessments based on the academic and skill categories. Edmonds 2000 has no formal steering committee, but the School Board of five elected citizens serves in this capacity. Superintendent Brian Benzel is the community leader responsible for moving the agenda forward, and the Citizen Planning Committee contributes as well. Edmonds is optimistic that by the year 2000, the state of Washington will be using performance-based assessments to measure what students should know and be able to do.
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[Part III - Major Issues and Trends]