How public education can meet the needs of this century will be examined Friday at a Columbia Basin Badger Club lunch forum in Pasco.
Scott Oki, author of Outrageous Learning, and Mike Ragan, Washington Education Association vice president and a former Kennewick science teacher, will be speaking and taking questions.
The open event begins at 11:30 a.m. with a buffet at the Pasco Red Lion. Cost is $20. For reservations, e-mail badgers@charter.net or call 586-7858. The Tri-City Herald is a sponsor of the forum.
Oki, an early Microsoft innovator, is a former president of the University of Washington Board of Regents and started the Oki Foundation with his wife Laurie. His book describes the ills facing public schools and offers 11 ways to bring positive change to public education.
Ragan, long active in WEA, served on its bargaining, grievance, budget and executive committees. WEA is a labor union that includes more than 83,000 teachers, higher education faculty and staff, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.
The club takes no position on candidates or issues but encourages a public discussion of civic matters. To learn more, go to columbiabasinbadgers.org.
Similar stories:
Badger Club forum to focus on poverty
Badger Club forum to focus on poverty
Educator Sally Storm will talk about "The Culture of Poverty" at the Columbia Basin Badger Club forum Oct. 27.
Storm is an adjunct professor for Washington State University and the University of Oregon, and also has been a K-12 teacher, principal, curriculum director and superintendent.
She will talk about how poverty becomes a way of life for generations, and how the culture of poverty affects schools, courts, jails, the medical system and government programs at every level.
Regional projects topic of Badger Club forum
Regional projects topic of Badger Club forum
Pasco Mayor Matt Watkins will talk about whether regional projects are possible at a Badger Club forum 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Richland Red Lion.
Watkins is chairman of the Tri-Cities Regional Public Facilities District. The district recently surveyed Tri-Citians to discover which project locals prefer: a performing arts center, aquatics center or helping pay for the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center.
The forum is open to the public and the cost is $20 per person. Reservations should be made by leaving a message at 736-1979 or emailing RSVP@ColumbiaBasin Badgers.com.
Yakima teacher to keep teaching certificate
Yakima teacher to keep teaching certificate
YAKIMA -- A Yakima teacher who was acquitted of sexual misconduct charges will keep her teaching certificate, but it has been suspended for a year.
The state Office of Public Instruction revoked Michele Taylor's teaching license in June, but she appealed that decision to a state teacher conduct board.
The physical education teacher was acquitted last June of criminal charges that she had sex with a 16-year-old student and sent inappropriate text messages to him and a 15-year-old.
Fast focus: Punishing teachers
Fast focus: Punishing teachers
The federal government should have a role in education. But to date, it has not been on the leading edge of improving education in the United States.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was a poorly disguised political attempt to leverage the federal government's 7 percent (on average) contribution to school budgets into a club to create the public perception that all public schools are failing, that teacher tenure (mistakenly confused with seniority) is the cause of the perceived failure, that "expensive" teachers' union perks should be eliminated and NCLB-defined "failing" schools should be turned over to lower paying private corporations hiring only "at will" employees who can be easily fired.
Negative side effects of NCLB include: the bullying by administration of senior staff that we endured in Edmonds (and also reported locally in Ki-Be); lower Washington Assessment of Student Learning scores after the experienced teachers were driven from the classroom; the test cheating scandal in Atlanta (Texas had these
LEGISLATURE: Gregoire proposes education reform bills
LEGISLATURE: Gregoire proposes education reform bills
Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed Tuesday to overhaul how Washington teachers and principals are evaluated, providing them with more feedback and placing poorly performing educators at risk of being fired.
Gregoire said the new evaluation system would replace one in which teachers and principals are now rated as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory with one that would have four categories: unsatisfactory, basic, proficient and distinguished. Teachers need to know what they’re doing well and how they need to improve, she said.
“It will be fair. It will be clear. It will be effective,” Gregoire said.
Print
Email Story
