001greetings and welcome School directors friendss and colleagues uh from outside of wasda but within the K12 education space really appreciate all of you joining for our pre-learning session in preparation for the 2024 Wasa General Assembly which occurs one week from tomorrow um and this is the fourth of five of our pre-learning sessions in preparation for that event today we have several guest speakers ERS who are going to be chatting with you sharing with you uh a little bit about learning standards basic education graduation requirements and um graduation Pathways so my colleagues and friends from both OPI and State Board of Education will be joining us just a reminder that we are recording today's session for those School directors who are not able to join us in real time today will be able to watch uh
002this as a recording and benef benef from the learning as well a little about logistics um much of the content today will be the delivery of information for you to learn from however we will invite questions for our speakers as we go if you could please put those questions in the chat I will be uh monitoring the chat and keeping track of those questions as they come in so once our presenters have completed their segments of the presentation I'll have the opportunity to frame your questions back to them for them to answer uh in the meantime while we're waiting for our first presenter Jenny plaga to come to the screen she's logged in but I'm going to give her a little chance to settle in because we were just in a meeting together a moment
003ago I do want to show you all the wasda uh handbook and just walk you through a little bit about what to expect and answer some questions that I have heard from the field recently uh that may benefit you as well couple things again I just want to remind you this may be repetitive if you've joined us before um but they say in education you need to uh educate environments or groups seven times in seven different ways so maybe this is number six so you'll probably hear it one more time just want to remind you as you're reviewing the general assembly handbook which really is uh your guide to how to participate in general assembly that the rules of procedure are critically important for you to review in advance of general assembly a lot of
004the questions that I'm getting via email or by phone or text are actually answered in these several Pages you'll find this in the general assembly handbook Pages four through six small text uh so pretty juicy information but lots of information that you'll need to have um another thing just to note in preparation for General Assembly whether you're joining us in person or remotely I would ask that um if you like to have a printed copy near you it's sometimes easier to read that way that you make that copy on your own if for some reason you don't have access to a printer at home um go ahead and ask your school district if they're able to make that copy for you they they typically have a budget to support Schoolboard work and uh this is
005absolutely important Schoolboard work and you should be able to get uh a packet of this information printed for you at your District if you're unable to do so at home so please have your own copy prepared for those of you who are joining us in person we will not make copies for inperson delegates uh also just wanted to draw your attention to the voting order uh which will remain the same once we start general assembly you'll find the voting order here on page 13 this is the order of business essentially that you will be working through starting at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning so I've had a lot of questions about the schedule and it's such a tricky question to answer um because the meeting will be called to order at 9:00 a.m. on Friday
006we'll recess at 5:00 pm on Friday and will reconvene at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday when you all are done on Saturday it's anybody's guess it all depends on how much time is deliberated for each position proposal um prior to the adjournment so there are 58 total proposals for you to navigate over the course of the two days up to 10 minutes per Pro proposal um five minutes for pro five minutes for con sometimes the full 10 you 10 minutes is utilized and sometimes it's not so it's really difficult to gauge where we'll be and when during the proceeding proceedings um much less when you'll be done on Saturday uh in the last several years We've Ended as early as I think 1:00 on Saturday uh but I understand uh there have been times that we
007have uh not adjourned until 8 or 900 p.m. so again really really tough to gauge um if for some reason you don't think you'll be able to participate there through the end please have another Schoolboard member prepared to stand in for you uh as a voting delegate you are able to exchange your voting credentials with other members of your school board uh throughout the two days of event so you Tech technically could have all five Schoolboard members a voting delegate uh but only one of you can be voting at a time so those are some of the key questions in the interest of time you probably have others but I'm I want to be sure to give our guest speakers uh the ample opportunity to share what they have prepared for all of you today
008uh and we will be talking specifically about some of the position proposals that are within the learning category um and tangentially related to the Staffing category ategory um unusual this year there were very few position proposals submitted in the learning category and only one under Staffing predominantly under governance and funding and allocations uh those are the positions we're seeing the most of this year and actually over the last couple years I would encourage you to also think about one of the core um the one of the core elements of your work as a Schoolboard member probably also what encourage you to be a school board member was actually what the learning outcomes and experiences of students and staff would be as a part leadership so I would argue that these are the most important topics
009for us to be discussing so we're saving the best for last in this regard um and I'm G to pass the mic over to my friend Jenny PL at LPI to take it from here thanks for being here Jenny of course thank you so much Marissa and hello everyone Marissa um could you please enable screen sharing for me um so Jenny PL I currently serve as the chief policy and legislative affairs officer at OSI and I've been with you before so good to see you all again those of you um who I've met before and for those of you I haven't I hope to meet you soon in person or or on this on the zoom screen um let's get started so Marissa invited me to talk a little bit about learning standards so I'll
010have a little bit about the process let me see if I can did that work are you seeing the full screen slide yeah okay good thanks um I'll talk a little bit about the process but also putting it into context with like basic education in Washington and kind of the different roles I don't know how deep we all want to go today but I have a little bit of time so I'm going to bounce around a little bit um and then can be available for questions and I know uh Marissa is very knowledgeable in all of this as well so we can we can tag team it so I'm going to talk a little bit about basic education and the importance of learning stand s kind of frame it for us of what the requirements
011are and why we're doing this I'll talk a little bit about the project goals and process um very briefly on the public comment period just because that is the point of the process we are in right now and a little bit on next steps so the Constitution outlines the basic um structures and functions of government so the executive branch legislative branch Jud judicial uh it's it's organized in a way article one is about the rights of the people people Article 2 the legislature article 3 the executive branch Etc um article 9 then goes further to outline education most notably these two sections here which indicates that it is the Paramount duty of the state to make ample Provisions for the education of all children residing within its borders and then the other piece of that
012that it gives um as a related to education it gives the legislature the authority to provide for a gen General and uniform system of public schools so the con Constitution kind of sets out the importance and the prioritization of Education as a Paramount Duty and then it gives the legislature that responsibility for creating what the system is of of public schools of basic education So within that we have a whole lot of laws that describe what basic education is this is when we're looking at the goals of school district so when we get down at the at the local level um the basic education Act was established in 1977 so that's the legislature taking their powers and authorities and saying we are going to Define what Public Schools what basic education means it includes things
013like goals requirements um distribution of funding uh and then there's been a lot of court cases um or court rulings that further kind of get into what does that mean I'm not going to go into all of those today um but it's very interesting it's a fascinating road to go down and kind of see how cours law has continued to define the role of the legislature and what it means what basic education means especially what it means for basic education to be provided to each and every student um the statute has more language than what I put here uh that is I think is really important to us because it talks about basic education being an evolving program of instruction that provides students with the opportunity to become the languages responsible and respectful Global Citizens
014uh and then it also says that the state intends to provide for a system that's able to adapt in order to better focus on strengthening the educational achievement of all students so it's I think that's really important because it does say it's not this one thing in time they established it in 1977 and it's going to look like that forever a lot has changed since then in in what basic ad is um and in all of our lives uh but it is something that we that we want to continue to be asking ourselves questions and you know looking at best research and partnering with the with other states and and with local communities on what it means to provide basic education okay so the goals of school districts there's four primary goals that are that
015are in statute so I have the RCW there but the key goal is oh was our question oh no okay I'll just everybody sorry about that um if everybody could mute your microphones I'd sure appreciate it and then if you have a question go ahead and put in the chat thanks Jenny sorry for the interruption no that's okay at the last one somebody was shouting the name of their dog which I loved because Huber um so the goals are here uh to provide opportunities this is the responsibility of school districts for every student to develop the knowledge and schools essential to read with comprehension write effectively communicate successfully in a variety of ways to know and apply the Core Concepts and principles of math social physical and Life Sciences Civics and history different cultures in
016part participation in government geography Arts health and fitness to think analytically logically and create creatively and integrate technology literacy and fluency into all of it in addition to kind of critical thinking um and problem solving and to understand the importance of work in finance and how performance effort decisions affect future career and educational opportunities so as you're hearing this these are very big broad goals there's a lot of other um numerous statutes it's describing the required elements of a program of basic education there are kind of the foundational elements so the 180-day school year minimum instructional hours things like that about what the minimum kind of structural requirements are of basic education there are specific statutes related to offerings that are required and the law puts those into the basic Ed kind of box um
017Arts instruction Temperance and good to citizenship um the Standalone Civics course are some of those and then there's additional things that are required legislatively but they might not be so like uh explicitly baked into basic education I think there's always the question of what a court would rule if it were challenged um but like since time in Memorial Financial education where those are required things that are required by our state but not um specifically put into the context of basic education so that's the goal of school districts let's look at the duties of ospi um so the legislature grants ospi with a lot of responsibilities um they center around if I want to go higher level most of what I'm going to talk about today is trying to put the context of learning standards but
018if we step up one level um we H ospi is responsible for General supervision of all matters pertaining to public schools so that's I mean what supervision means there's been um conversations with the courts of what that means we collect data we report information to the legislature and to the governor's office teacher certification um promoting the adoption of school-based curriculum and policies so promoting we don't do it but we promote it getting funding out to districts developing rules standards guidance there's uh kind of there's a lot of things that OPI is responsible for but those are those are kind of the high level funding guidance and rules um implementation there's some monitoring requirements some of which are federal a condition of receiving federal funds and then some that are built into to kind of our
019system of basic education um with related to the learning standards OSI has specific responsibilities to develop learning standards that identify the Knowledge and Skills that all students need to know to meet those goals that I had on the prior slide um to periodically revise the learning standards as needed based on the goal goals that are in that statute to include a screening for biased content in each development or revision of the learning standards to ensure that the concepts of diversity equity and inclusion um are incorporated into each revision and then to review and prioritize the learning standards and identify with concise descriptions the grade level content expectations so opi's responsibilities in a nutshell are to develop the state learning standards and to periodically update them so getting into kind of what are learning standards um
020and this helps to give the context of like what is school board's responsibility related to learning standards so learning standards are the big and there's a lot of text on this page sorry but I do plan to um give these slides to you so that you have them they are the goals for instruction identified for each content area so like math science the goals identify what students should know understand and be able to do by the end of that grade level or grade band that in comparison to curriculum which I think these terms are often uh interconnected in conversations I know we're we're always answering questions about like what is the state required curriculum when people are really asking what are the state required standards um because as we know there isn't one state required
021curriculum except for since time in Memorial and different different thing um but so curriculum is the structure of content and the materials that support the teacher and the student so there's teach teacher guides and things like that um or a curriculum that students actually engage with and it helps to provide that sequency over over time and can be modified to meet individual learning standards for students but it is so it it takes the learning standards and applies them so going back to what are learning standards on the left teachers use the learning standards as goals for the student learning when they use curriculum to support the instruction of the learning standard so not all curriculum is aligned to the learning standards there can be supplemental materials and things that are outside of that depending on
022the Local District goals and the even down to individual Educators um back to the left so learning standards are develop at the state OPI develops learning standards with a lot of input from different partners around the state uh heavy focus on Educators because they are the users of the standards educators are um the ones who are are really engaging in taking the learning standards and applying them but we do want to make sure that the learning standards are reflective of those larger goals of basic education and what our communities and what our legislature are wanting to see in education um but I think in the past as different sets of learning standards have been adopted and developed they've gotten a little bit um unwieldy maybe there's just there's a lot of documentation there's a lot
023of different standards um which is good there's more information than Educators could ever want right now on learning standards so you'll see that as part of our Focus this year and how we are trying to really focus the learning standards and have them be interconnected so that it's a more smooth and comprehensive tool for educators um so learning standards develop at the state level curriculum is selected at the local level so local school boards all of you select and adopt the curriculum for the schools based on you know state requirements and then Local District policy and procedures so there are processes for selecting it um that that include you know bringing in the the public or having kind of a Review Committee so curriculum is adopted at the local Schoolboard level standards are set at
024the state level so the current standards review project goals so we as I mentioned really are trying to refine prioritize and clarify existing standards they've all kind of just stacked on each other as they've been developed and selected over the years we also want to develop wraparound guidance for educators that talks about cross-content integration social emotional learning language development Universal Design a lot of these other pieces that are really critical when we're looking at what our system needs to be in order to be responsive to the students that we serve um establish a uniform process for the periodic review I have a slide that will show you that but it's um for so long we were getting new kind kind of Standards the environmental uh sustainability standards we were always we had a project to
025work on and we got to the point where it had been almost 10 years since our main content area so Ela math had been revised so we want to get on a more routine schedule so that we are planning for and preparing for those standards revision processes um it also signals to our partners at the State Board and the legislature so that we can all kind of have a plan in place and know what what updates are coming up um so that we can work together to make those smooth because it's a multi-year process to update the standards um yeah and then the multi-year plan to support Educators which if educators are supported in the in implementing these new standards what is it all for so here is the review and revision cite goal in
026a nutshell um the content area standards are down the left side column with a little image and then the years go across the or yeah the years go across the columns from left to right the different little icons is sort of indicating the process of of updating standards you start with a review so you go down and and piece pick it all apart and look at it then you hit the adoption Target which is when the new standards will have been revised so you review them decide what changes are going to be made you have the target for when that is the target is going to be made available to the public professional learning and transition implemented in schools and then the assessment changes come after that so that's a question that we get fre
027frequently too does the assessment Drive the standards or does the standards Drive the assessment and it's definitely the standards Drive the assessment um and then the new revision begins as that kind of cycle so we're in this grouping right here of ela Math and Science we'll be picking up health and physical education World languages and financial education in the next round uh that is starting now um but that's kind of where we are in the bigger revision cycle process um I'm gonna skip over this one probably just for sake of time because I want to make sure we have time to go through kind of more process but this gets into more detail and I could go way deeper I already deleted a bunch of slides from this deck in what that means when we're
028looking at um pulling examples from content of what the specificity looks like what it looks like to prioritize and clarify uh this just gives some examples um here's I pulled high level summarized content over overview so math builds from Common Core Mathematics standards which we have um adopted and it adds specifically da standards in data science so that's one of the new Focus areas that we're building in in our math review science pulls from the Next Generation science standards which these are bigger standards that are used in in multiple states often and it embeds the environment and sustainability education standards I mentioned that earlier that was a new requirement that we add standards for those and they were they were set aside so it's one more document one more set of Standards so we're now
029embedding those in and making explicit climate science connections so that they're all a part of the science standards um Ela built from the common core standards same same as math and adding really specific focus in media literacy and digital citizenship as well as early literacy so there's um a lot of research that has happened in the last 10 years and data that we have around what early literacy looks like in ela so being more explicit about those components the prioritization is focusing on streamlining being responsive to educator feedback uh District need what we're hearing um data that we're seeing so it's a universal set of standards that all students should have the opportunity to develop and meet those goals of basic Ed and then there there are some kind of tangental areas that are helpful
030that is up for local districts to figure out how to embed those in there's the the common state assessment data does not determine priority standards assessments are adjusted as needed after adoption so that process will come later um that's the timeline I'll just make a note because it's really important I think that we are right here in this August so we've already done the review revision and amendments we've had multip multiple feedback rounds from from a lot of different groups across the state Educators ethnic commissions um advocacy organizations and different Community Partners who are working with schools uh various associations and their representatives um made final revisions in July now we're at the point where we're in the public survey feedback so we do want to make sure that the public understands what the purpose
031of standards are what students should be able to know and do and we'll take that input and make one more round that will happen through September it it actually was extended a little bit the survey goes through um tomorrow or Friday tomorrow is Friday go through tomorrow um and then we'll do another round of final edits and start translating all of those and getting those ready to roll out to schools and the superintendent plans to adopt in December some of the products this I think is getting into what can school boards do to support so I want to make sure you're aware of some of the products and things that we're developing to support Educators awareness is probably the biggest thing as you head into those curriculum adoption conversations at the local level having awareness
032of what the standards are and how they're used engaging with your your Educators on what they're seeing as the needs for what content and curriculum is is necessary for them to be able to implement and make sure our students all know um and are able to achieve those basic goals of education so we will have um a document that that just describes it so it'll be really helpful for use when communicating to the public to parents um to legislators to to anyone of like what is what are learning standards what are the priority standards what do we want our kids to be able to know and do there will be a family grade level resource guide that your districts will be able to provide to their families teacher implementation guides uh to support that work
033and then a lot of crosswalk documents so that help to identify the changes um again just so that that implementation is is smooth in addition to that there will be some um unpacking documents so like unpacking the ELA standards unpacking the math standards there will be similar formatting across the content areas so when you switch from math standards to ELA standards um it won't be such an Abrupt like they're structured completely different labeled completely different you'll see some of that formatting which I think will be helpful for all of uh you and and others in the district who maybe don't um engage with the standards as much to be able to kind of figure out how to read them and how to use them um we'll have examples guidance connections to previous and future learning
034just to again to make that easier um and then the standards will be grouped and bundled that can actually be taught together a lot of you are exploring more Mastery based options and looking at how you provide education in in a more kind of fluid environment so we we really think this round of standards and the tools that come with them will help facilitate those decisions that you won't be like Ela happens in this in this classroom with this educator we can we can be a a bit more fluid in those we'll also have family caregiver guides that are for we you know we don't give them directly to the families we give them to to you all to be able to share with your families to make sure that they have what they need
035to navigate what their Learners should be should be learning and doing and what their what's happening at school and kind of what the processes are um okay I think that's kind of it I do have more if we need to get into the well here's the public comment um so it's available through tomorrow we're getting a lot of really good feedback um the links are there this also takes you so you can actually go and review the standards if you haven't yet um and are interested we welcome that and then we will be so compiling the feedback making final revisions and adjustments and then um getting those launched after December and professional learning begins in 2025 so next fiscal year and we do have a request to the legislature for more robust funding to support
036the implementation in a stable way um with a focus on early literacy and media literacy in the first two years and then consistent stable funding so that as this whole revision process is happening and new standards are being adopted the districts get ample funding to be able to um allow their Educators to engage in the professional learning to to update materials as needed so that's it I don't I think I'm good on time I think I supposed to go till 12:30 great I mean this is such important and Meaty content um we do have a couple questions um but before we get into the questions I just want to recap kind of in a nutshell for just some common understanding amongst our members because oftentimes there's confusion about who has authority to do what um
037just just as a reminder that the Washington State Legislature your state elected officials have a Al um granted Authority um or directed authority to OSI to develop the state learning standards the overarching what students should know and be able to do for K12 by content areas so it is the state legislature who has the authority to say who's responsible for developing the standards and they have given OSP those um that Authority so I think that's important just to remind you all um in addition to that they have given the authority to Local School boards to essentially adopt curriculum who meets those learning standards the learning standards are are pretty broad generally speaking it's basically what the students should know and be able to do and the curriculum is how the teachers will help students get
038there essentially so just just remembering that learning standards are sort of the what um and curriculum is kind of the how and there's different Authority placed for OPI and school boards based on those different categories did did I capture that okay Jenny any corrections you'd make to that NOP that was perfect great um there was a question about where to see those standards there was a slide that you just showed towards the end of your slide deck that actually had some links so for the person that asked that question um we will share the slide Deck with all of you um and uh within that slide deck are links to access the draft learning standards as well as all the existing learning standards that have already been adopted and are yet to be revised um
039I closed the PowerPoint so that I could put those links in the chat right now so I'll do that awesome that's great thank you so much um then there is a question about um does ospi and if not why uh create a list of curriculum that meet the various learning standards by content area we do not um I think it's the the main reason is we're not resourced to do that or tasked to do that I think there's so much curriculum out there we do in a lot of our content areas our like math experts our Ela experts they are aware of the curriculum that are available and that districts are using so if you ever need kind of a where should I start or what are other districts doing kind of thing our our
040content experts here can give you that it's just we aren't tasked with doing that so we don't there are a few places where we do since time in Memorial is one where that is a required curriculum so we do have responsibility in developing and updating that and making it available to districts um the other one is comprehensive sexual health education that that was the legislature tasked us to do a review of what curriculum is available and do a standards alignment thing so we still don't if a district picks one that isn't aligned to standards we don't really have a role other than notifying them like just so you know this isn't align to the state standards but we do have a list in that subject area because the legislature tasked us to of which curriculum
041have been kind of prev vetted or pre reviewed and do align to The Standard standards we also take input so if there's a new curriculum out there or a curriculum that your District wants to use you can submit it to be reviewed and we have a team in partnership with the Department of Health because there are Health elements in the required comprehensive sexual health education um law that do that review to see if it is in alignment with what the legislature has Ted us to so that's one one example um the last thing I would say is we do have the open educational resources Hub that we house um through OSI and that's somewhere where anytime there is materials curriculum resources that are available at no cost we make them available in a place where
042you can search by subject area you can search by kind of keyword um and if it is a free resource it's housed there and we do we do some like bias and sensitivity reviews um in some places we have identified which content areas they align to but it isn't a requirement it's just kind of a helpful tool to to draw those connections um so that is another thing a lot of the curriculum that you all use is for charge though so we don't post it there that's all for free resources yeah mostly the our our work is directed by the legislature so unless they tell us to do that um we don't have staff that are sitting around waiting to do extra stuff you don't have the capacity not to mention the fact that depending
043on the content area although probably this is true for all of them just the breadth of curriculum that's available out there inevitably you'd miss something and get in trouble for not reviewing something and having it on the list too so it's a little bit of a lose lose prophecy um because there's so many curriculum available um and oftentimes a resource a curriculum or a supplemental material will meet some of the standards but not all of the standards in a given grade level or content area so there's a necessity at the local level to really consider um how to meet the learning standards by combining more than just one tool or resource so um again why it's so important at the local level to an Eng to engage your content area experts uh because you know
044your math educators will really understand what it means to implement the learning standards through uh curriculum and materials in a way that most of us are just not expert at doing so uh really important for you to engage in the local level one more question and we could talk about this forever because it's a little philosophical in nature um uh how how do we evaluate whether or not students are meeting the standards yeah so we do have our state assessment which is one tool um that is one a lot of the curriculum comes with interim assessments and assessments that you can use to monitor so I think if that alignment is their Educators have resources that they are using um um continuously through the school year to say are are our kids meeting the standards
045and then we have other places where we look at the bigger the bigger picture kind of Statewide assessment and things like that I think the important thing to recognize is all of our kids are on a Continuum and so e even our state assessment um is divided into four levels level two being meets grade level with limited complexity so they're still at grade level they just it's like once you start adding that's how the assessments work as they build on different complexity in our braing and other things around critical thinking and that kind of stuff so we ideally want our kids to get up into the threes and and the fours but um level two even is they have that grade level knowledge it's just the complexity that's building and and as you get into
046level three it's like able to demonstrate grade level with more layers of complexity so the question of I mean ideally every single one of our students do the Third third grade checkpoint is a time for us to say what are we missing um how do we make sure that those students get the additional resources and supports they need but typically as students move through the system they the kind of success rates and the and the rate we're able to get them to um meeting the standards grows the more kind of time they're with us so I don't know if that answers the question I could probably talk about this all day I think it is kind of a we could talk about this for ages and ages thank you these are really good conversations to
047be having with local school boards too as you set goals for the district and create like your kind of strategic plan for what your District's going to focus on bringing in data and looking at you know how you're implementing curriculum and what the educators are focusing on um yeah great thank you so much we are Beyond Time and um I I want to give um Alyssa and Jay Lee from the State Board of Education the opportunity to move us into to graduation requirements and graduation Pathways another very important issue or issue areas as it relates to your uh proposals and member adopted positions so with that I'm going to pass it to you Alyssa I think you're uh presenting to us first thanks for being here thanks Marissa good afternoon everybody I'm Alissa meller I'm
048the director of policy at the State Board of Education um I'm going to try to go a little bit fast to try to make up some time and make sure we so have time for your questions today I'm going to kick us off by briefly reviewing our current graduation requirements including some recent updates in that area before turning it over to my colleague Jaye to talk about the board's Future Ready initiative so as most of you know in Washington we have three big components in the State graduation requirement framework that work together to signal that a student is ready for success in post-secondary education gainful employment Civic engagement and lifelong learning based on the students high school and Beyond plan goals a student will choose how to meet the subject area graduation requirements as well
049as choose which graduation pathway option makes sense for them based on their post-secondary plans next slide so we have 17 foundational or core credits in the State graduation requirement framework and then we have seven elective credits three of those are personalized pathway requirements so we recommend that a student takes a second Arch credit and then two Global language credits um but those can change based on the students goals for After High School and what electives might make the most sense for that student next slide as you can see the graduation requirements align fairly well with the College academic distribution requirements which are the minimum College admission standards although of course each University can set additional requirements for their campus what isn't included on this slide is that students are also required to take a math-based
050quantitative course during their senior year however students who have completed math Beyond Algebra 2 or integrated math 3 prior to their senior year are exempt from this requirement next slide so I'm sure all of you remember House Bill 1599 that in 2019 established the graduation pathway options and then last year House Bill 1308 added the new performance space pathway that I want to spend a little bit of time talking about today next slide so the performance-based pathway option really came about based on stakeholder feedback that we needed a graduation pathway that was more student centered and that was intended to be a little bit more customizable so the performance-based pathway really allows students to show what they know and can do in real world Hands-On ways that align with their individual goals for Life After
051High School it's a really flexible pathway because it can take a variety of forms um so the student could do a project or have a work-related experience community service or cultural activity um that could result in a variety of different types of student work that can be evaluated so for instance a performance a portfolio a report a film or an exhibit and then depending on how the district sets up the performance-based pathway it may or may not be completed as part of a class where the student also earned credit next slide so the performance-based pathway um really has two different components um as far as you all might be concerned there's the district policy that has certain requirements that I'll talk about and then there's the requirements for the student learning experience itself so for
052the district policy it really needs to include a process for how student learning experiences are going to be approved it should cover if the district allows for both student proposals and learning contracts or just one of those so a student proposal for a learning experience would be created by the student with the help of an advisor or some districts might choose to set up a more General learning contract created by the district and then approved by the student so in other words a student can create the experience themselves or a school can create that experience and then have the student customize that through the learning contract process so for instance I've heard of some districts that are thinking that they would just build the performance Spas pathway into their Ela senior year course so that
053every student might have an opportunity to meet that pathway requirement through their senior year Ela course that might be a good case for having a learning contract at the district level for the student experience um this has to include the proposal or learning contract that outlines very specifically the state required Focus standards in math Andor Ela that the student would meet as well as the locally determined Focus standards the student would choose with help of their advisor depending on if the student is using that performance-based pathway to meet their pathway requirement in just Ela or just math or both the product to be evaluated must also include a reflection on how the learning experience aligns to the students goals as described in the students high school and Beyond plan and a self-evaluation on how the
054student really gained skills and knowledge through that learning experience the evaluation of the student product must also involve at least one educator with appropriate endorsement in the relevant subject area so for instance an Ela endorsed educator if the student is meeting their Ela pathway requirement through the performance-based pathway and per legislation the evaluation has to include the use of the focus standards and the rubrics that are posted on the stateboard website that we collaborated with OPI to develop so just a reminder that whether the student meets the pathway requirement through the performance-based pathway is locally determined this is not like the old collection of evidence that was sent to the state to be evaluated because we have heard that it is not it's locally determined if the student has met this pathway next slide so
055some districts may have just the educator with the appropriate endorsement due the evaluation but we've heard of some other districts that may allow for multiple people to sit together on a panel to evaluate the student project um so you want to be really clear in your District policy about what that evaluation process might look like in your District I think some districts are really interested in a panel because it might allow for instance um external folks so not School Employees to be part of that evaluation panel which might make a lot of sense for students who do a Community Learning Experience they may want their Community member to sit and be part of that evaluation panel Additionally the district policy needs to include reference to how you're going to ensure safety of the student learning
056experience for example including a reference to work-based learning rules and Industry Safety standards Washington lni youth employment laws if applicable as well as talking about your local District risk management practices so we worked with wasda to create a model policy and procedure for the performance-based pathway and that's number 2415 if your District hasn't adopted it yet but is interested in doing so next slide okay finally I wanted to make sure that folks are aware that the emergency waiver of graduation requirements that was available for the first couple of years during covid is no longer available so the final year that the emergency waiver was available was last year the 23 to 24 school year so that means that there are no longer waivers available for core credits or for graduation Pathways so I know a
057lot of districts are really interested in implementing their Performance Based pathway this year to give their students another option for meeting their pathway requirements however I do want to make sure that folks understand that the local two credit waiver for individual student circumstances remains that's part of the 24 credit graduation requirement framework it's not part of the emergency waiver program so it will not go away unless there's a statutory change to graduation requirements so that waiver allows school districts to wave up to two of the flexible credits for an individual student based on their student circumstances but districts do have to have a policy in place first to be able to grant that waiver so that might be uh depending on your District you could have adopted wasda model policy 2418 or it might be
058included in your 201410 more General High School uh graduation requirements policy and this waiver can be granted proactively you don't have to wait for a student to fail a course it can be part of their plan to graduate with this waiver so with that I am going to turn it over to my colleague Jay Lee to take over from here hi everyone I am Jaye Schultz Deputy executive director for the State Board of Education and I would like to share what's on the horizon for graduation requirements so uh back in June the board adopted its new strategic plan for 24 to 28 and within that plan there is a strategic plan initiative we're calling Future Ready which is aimed at comprehensively updating High School graduation requirements through an inclusive and collaborative process this initiative aligns
059squarely within the board statutory authority to established graduation requirements periodically reexamine them and propose changes to the legislature so this is part of the board's regular business and duty to periodically re-evaluate and update graduation requirements the last time that the board has done a comprehensive review was over a decade ago and since then there has been a lot of ads and tinkering uh which is something that's putting a lot of strain on the system as I'm sure you're all feeling and familiar with and so this is really to get get away from the tinkering and the adding and to look at it more comprehensively I do want to emphasize that the board is not proposing any changes to graduation requirements at this point in time instead the board is proposing an approach to to doing
060the review and for um developing the recommendations and so as I mentioned you know this is the board's regular work but what we're trying to do is do it in a different way do it better based on what we've heard from our partners and from Schoolboard directors like you all about the very important need to be hearing from uh the those who are doing the work and from those that it impacts like students and families Educators and others so this approach is designed to be more collaborative and inclusive and more comprehensive with better attention to implementation um so what are some of the problems that we're trying to solve with this well in a lot of the work that the board has done in hearing from students families and Educators and in different aspects of
061the board's research and Outreach we hear some consistent themes so on the one hand we often hear about the not enough um the skills Gap or students lacking the opportunity to develop critical skills that they're going to need to be successful in a rapidly changing world so a good example of that is the attention around Financial education we also hear about a lack of engaging and relevant opportunities for students and how important an that is coming out of Co and re-engaging students as well as with our youth Mental Health crisis so really a need for more relevant and engaging opportunities at the same time we hear about there being too much that the tinkering and adding over time has resulted in a framework that is unnecessarily complex hard to communicate and understand inequitable and in
062some cases too rigid and these two ideas you know not enough and too much might sound contradictory but we are recognizing that these can be simultaneously true which really warrants a comprehensive approach to figuring out how to better balance it I'm going to Breeze through these slides but this is just to show a snapshot of some of what we do hear when we ask the public about their perception of current graduation requirements you can see common themes of them being confusing comprehensive overwhelming and this is what folks would vision for what they would like the requirements to be in the future wanting them to be relevant flexible and clear so for the board's initiative we are wanting to bring together Partners to thoughtfully create space for students to develop the Knowledge and Skills they're going
063to need and this isn't just about adding it's also about rebalancing so so not just about adding things but really looking at it comprehensively and thoughtfully to create space this would be a multi-year initiative leading to a legislative proposal and really holistic and that's a changes will be phased in for well supported implementation the approach that we want to take to this initiative aligns with the approach the board adopted in its strategic plan that is moving toward a more collaborative approach where the policies are designed in partnership with the communities we serve so we're proposing a task force a cross- sector group that will help inform the recommendations and really help keep that holistic lens there would be subcommittees that are focusing in on specific topics and then Community Liaisons who are members of the
064task force that help uh bring in additional Community Voices they'd be doing their own Community listening sessions and helping Center those voices in the conversation um what as far as cross sector these are some of the groups that were talking about students and families K12 Educators policy makers employers post-secondary education partners and Community Based organizations and it's important to note that there will be a special Focus On Target populations that have not been well served by the K12 education system and that have historically been excluded from the policymaking process and also attention to a range of learning environments knowing that graduation requirements um can pose different barriers depending on the type of learning environment so needing to be attentive to that as well I already mentioned some of this but I want to focus in
065here talking about subcommittees um so while the task force will be keeping that holistic lens we see a need for subcommittees that will be providing additional expertise and able to focus in on certain topics in some cases that may be subject matter specific like in the example of financial education there might be a subcommittee looking specifically at that topic and we're not intending to reinvent the wheel we're in we're intending to lean on the expertise of existing groups like the financial education public private partnership helping support that effort so that's one example but also Beyond subject matter areas we also see a need for an implementation subcommittee to have additional and intentional focus on implementation considerations so then as the task force has questions they could pose to the implementation subcommittee to ask you know
066we're considering this and what are some of the implementation issues that we need to keep in mind and then as the task force moves more into uh developing recommendations subcommittees will have a opportunity to review early drafts as they're being veled and be able to critique and provide feedback or raise questions that the task force would then have to address so this will really help refine and make for stronger recommendations with that more intentional consideration of implementation um and then this is a tenative timeline for the work and really what we're talking about is on the leand side here in blue the timeline for the Future Ready initiative so this is going to be multiphase and span over a couple of years we are aiming to Launch in early uh next calendar year we want
067to begin with level setting visioning Gap analysis and scoping to really lay the groundwork and have a shared understanding and vision for the work before moving into recommendations and then that would be phase two developing recommendations we'll probably have an interim report in December of 2025 then there will be ongoing work on those recommendations refining them and turning them into a legislative proposal so that's what this initiative is really culminating in is is a legislative proposal that would be for consideration during the 27 legislative sessions so right now we're just talking about the approach that we want to take to develop that future proposal we don't have recommended changes at this time and so what you might really be interested in is the implementation timeline on the right hand side of what will be the
068timeline for new changes we don't know that yet because we don't know what those changes would be that would be the work of the task force and the informing the board's proposal so that is to be determined and I also wanted to emphasize again that with the any policy changes that are part of that proposal there is intentional focus on also identifying the resources and supports that would be needed at both the state and local school district levels for successful implementation and to develop appropriate and realistic timelines for those changes with that said the earliest that any new requirements could take effect would be with an entering nth grade co- class of 2031 assuming that this task force work follows on track with the timeline proposed and that would be the earliest that would have
069to be requirements that the systems already kind of well set up to implement for things that are going to be a heavier lift or require more of a a building of capacity we would expect a longer phase and timeline to be built in for those changes and we do have some legislative requests to go along with this initiative we have a budget request to ask for some resources specifically to support the community engagement elements of the work with the task force subcommittees and Community Liaisons um especially those Community Liaisons who are compensated members of the task force who are doing their own listening sessions and their target population communities bringing in more V voices for folks who may not be able to participate on the task force but wanting to hear more from community members
070that are impacted by the policies and bring and Center those voices into the conversation of the task force so that we have a special proposal around that work and how to fund that work that goes kind of above and beyond the state board's regular capacity and then with this we also have an optional uh agency request bill that we are considering whether or not to move forward with um we don't really need a bill for this work because this is already the board's Authority and duty to do this kind of work um but we're considering whether it could be helpful to be part of the conversation during session um knowing that there are likely to be other proposals and I had meant to mention that that is also part of the kind of why now
071timing to this is that legislative interest is also growing in adding to the requirements and just last session we had two bills that would have added requirements um one on financial education and one on computer science and um we the board really wants to look at that holistically uh not just one subject area but to really consider how everything impacts everything else and the need to really thoughtfully create space for anything new and to consider how things may need to be adjusted accordingly so um we may have a request bill that would lay out our approach and it basically is directs the board to do what we're intending to do anyway as far as this comprehensive approach um so that might enable us to be part of the conver ation during session uh but we
072may we since we do not need the bill we might end up only moving forward with the budget request and using other communication tools to share about the approach so we're still deciding on that aspect and otherwise we just left some resources in the slide deck to share with everyone thank you Jaye really appreciate that background and also look to the Future both are important um we did have a question about um the nothing uh for us without us um policy affecting State board's process was that taken under consideration intentionally or un maybe it's it seems like it's unintentional if it wasn't intentional but my guess is for you it's intentional so could you speak that a little bit yes we are very excited about that legislation and um it has helped it's one of
073the reasons we're calling it a task force because it holds us to the requirements of that act which we want to be held to but actually the approach that the board is proposing goes well above and beyond those expectations so we would have more members with lived experience participating on the task force than what is required by state law and then that the additional layers of the um Community liaison role of bringing in additional listening sessions that are happening in community and bringing that in that is kind of um buil on work the board has been doing in the past couple of years to broaden our community engagement efforts so very well aligned and kind of along the same lines but I would say kind of going above and beyond what the expectation state law
074is thank you that's that's helpful and then not a question from our members but a question in their hearts probably whether they know it yet or not um what what are what are you thinking about the likelihood that a financial literacy graduation requirement bill bill will come back in 2025 and maybe even a computer science who knows or and then probably some others we haven't even thought of um how does your very intentional and systematic and systemic approach looking forward um that you know that's a best laid plan but then there are things that are going to be coming at all of us during sessions in the meantime how how will you grapple with all of that yeah great question so we are trying to Gear Up and and anticipate the likelihood that there very
075well may be bills proposing new graduation requirements and specifically since we saw Financial Ed and computer science last session anticipating we may very well see those again and as you mentioned other ideas as well some that we may not even have on our radar right um so that is very much kind of part of what we're considering right now around how do we communicate and share information so that uh legislators are well informed and our partners about the board's intended approach and also to be involved to the extent we can in helping shape any legislation in hopes that it can align with this effort um you know and and so really um hoping to see a connection where if the legislature wants to um weigh in by creating new requirements if this process that the
076board is proposing could be the process that is used to figure out how to fit them in because that's how we really intentionally get that comprehensive look at like not just um adding things in peac meal like one subject area at a time but really the need to look at it holistically so right now we're really thinking a lot about the communications plan around this and how to share out that information and would love the involvement you know from Schoolboard directors as well in the resources that we're sharing we have a one pager so far we'll have more resources to come so that we're really well prepared heading into legislative session and we also have an interest form where folks can fill out and express interest and getting involved nice thank you for that one
077last question then we'll let you go um the request bill that you're planning to bring forward will it increase access and support for students to be on the task force and if so how yeah so the the bill is written to require the board to have a task force with representatives from the sectors that were on that slide so that includes students and it also has a specific focus on making sure that both on the task force and through other opportunities that those who are most directly impacted by the policy and specifically um populations that haven't been well served by the education system and that have historically been excluded would have an opportunity so that those aspects are built into the request legislation so that that expectation would be the board would do that that's
078great thank you so much appreciate that um thinking Jaye and I think Alysa is gone thanks so much for being here to rep represent state board um more to come but uh We've at least dove in a little bit more than we have in the past and hopefully our members are more equipped to have conversations around these topics at our general assembly next week thanks so much everybody we're over time but if you have any outstanding questions for me about General Assembly which commences a week from tomorrow please do reach out to me we have one more of these webinars in the pre-learning series it's next Tuesday at noon but it will be more focused on how to participate so a bit of a test your technology learn how to use the voting platform I'll
079talk a little bit about how wda uses member adopted positions to Advocate on your behalf and then Mike Hoover our parliamentarian and wasda advocacy consultant will also be uh with us to answer some questions about Robert's Rules of Order so thanks again for being here and look forward to seeing you next Tuesday I'm obviously and always available if you need me in the meantime thanks so much