From the Superintendent's Desk -

The start to the new 2011-12 school year is in full swing as district staff and students came back from summer activities. Staff participated in trainings prior school starting at the both the building and district level that were focused on district instruction and learning initiatives. District enrollment is stable again this year and our online program enrollment continues to grow.

The district is working on a number of system-wide instructional practice initiatives this school year including our continued work with our Professional Learning Community (PLC) teams, P-12 vertical curriculum alignment, and a new K-12 math benchmark assessment. Our PLC team facilitators and mentees participated in a workshop before school started that focused on the effective use of student data for informing teacher instruction and student learning. Two additional workshops will be conducted during the year that will support building PLC teams in this effort. District vertical curriculum alignment efforts are being revised this year to allow more time for teams to complete this important work. While all vertical curriculum content area teams will meet during the year, there will be a concentrated effort in the areas of math and reading. Research suggests that a solid curriculum alignment effort is essential in connecting state standards and content, making measureable impacts on student performance, and improving communication and collaboration among teachers across grade-levels in making informed decisions that contribute to a students’ overall learning.

The third initiative involves a district-wide K-12 math assessment. The White Salmon Valley School District was asked to participate in an OSPI sponsored math assessment program this summer that is supported by our local ESD112. One of the instructional learning improvement goals for the district this year includes K-12 math and part of reaching this goal involves a need for a K12 math assessment that can provide teachers with student data throughout the school year. The Math Benchmark Assessment program will allow our district to test our students K-12 three times during the school year and the exams will be developed around the math standards our teachers teach. The value of this type of assessment is the ability to provide real-time feedback and data for teachers and students. Teachers can use this data to see how their students are learning and what changes are required in the instructional process to help each student be more successful. I will share more with parents and the community as we move through the process.

I want to thank our parents and community for the continued support our district has received. This support has never been more important than during these unprecedented times of economic hardship. Districts across the state are bracing for yet another round of cuts as a result of increasing shortfalls in the newly approved state budget. The district is working hard to make every dollar count in the education of each of our students. In 2012, our district will run its Maintenance and Operations Levy and it is our hope that community will continue to rally with us in providing the resources required for delivering a quality education for each of our students.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Lewis

Superintendent