An elected school director works every day as an advocate for public education in his community. At each board meeting, crucial decisions that affect the lives and education of children are made as he determines the needs of the students and families he is accountable to. But are those needs being communicated to his elected representatives in…

This guide is intended to give individual school board directors an introduction to some of the legal issues they may encounter in their board service. This material is not intended to answer every question, even in the subject matter areas they cover. This guide is merely intended to alert directors to the legal issues that they will encounter…

This guide is designed to inform school directors about the value of a data dashboard and to provide information on how districts can create a data dashboard for school directors. A data dashboard is a tool for viewing and analyzing student achievement and performance data. Key data for monitoring student achievement and directing policy level…

Nearly every legislative session in the last decade has changed state law in a way that requires school board members and superintendents to be more highly sensitized to conflict of interest issues, regardless of the size of their district. Prior state law simply forbade most opportunities for financial conflicts of interest, especially those…

Designed for newly appointed vocational directors in Washington's community colleges, this handbook provides an overview of the functions associated with the administration of vocational education programs. Following a section outlining the role and qualifications of the vocational director, information is presented on the personnel…

This booklet is intended to aid school officials in collective bargaining and dealing with employee disputes, in accordance with the provisions of the Washington State Educational Employment Relations Act. Individual chapters focus in turn on preparing for negotiations, carrying on negotiations, concluding negotiations, resolving disputes, and…

This booklet presents a model for use by any size or type of school district in developing an affirmative action plan. The model is intended to give districts a clear idea of what affirmative action requires and what type of program must be implemented for affirmative action to be successful. Separate sections of the booklet discuss numerical…

This handbook includes suggestions, guidelines, and techniques for helping a school or school district in planning and managing a system for involving the local community in career education activities for students in grades K-12. Guidelines cover initial planning and organization through implementation and evaluation. A coordinated, systematic…

This guide presents some of the best thinking about the difficult and puzzling work of improving student achievement. Taken as whole, it gives a complete picture of what it will take to close the achievement gap. It contains background, findings, and key policy recommendations from a 22-month study conducted by the Washington State School…