The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) "Communities of Practice" project builds upon SHEEO's ongoing efforts to measure the capacity and effective use of state postsecondary data systems and provides states with opportunities to develop solutions to common issues with those systems. The sixth Community of…

Annually, states are required to monitor whether school districts disproportionately refer certain student groups into special education services. However, these monitoring methods do not account for student factors theorized to be associated with the presence of a learning disability. I explore whether conclusions drawn from current measures of…

With Response to Intervention (RTI) increasingly used for identification for special education services, interventions are systematically being implemented and evaluated to improve achievement for students with disabilities. This descriptive study provides baseline data on RTI interventions and tiered instruction from 15 school districts (5 large,…

The stunning rate of change in modern society will make today's education obsolete tomorrow. Limiting educational planning to short-range objectives is no longer sufficient. To be effective, education must be committed to achieving goals and objectives reflective of the desires of the community and of school district personnel. The eight…

The Beginning Teacher Assistance Program (BTAP) was piloted in the state of Washington during the 1985-86 school year. Each of 89 beginning teachers was assigned a mentor teacher to provide continuing and sustained support during the school year. A survey of beginning teachers, mentors, and school principals at the end of the school year yielded…

Although numerous studies target classroom teacher performance or principals' ability to improve instruction, little attention is given superintendents' leadership and managerial skills. Especially neglected are relationships among superintendents--despite their serving a critical function. This study examines the interpersonal network existing…

This paper provides current information about the funding of Washington's K-12 school finance system. Schools in Washington State derive most of their revenues from state sources. In response to a 1977 court ruling, 'Seattle v. State of Washington', the state assumed responsibility for funding "basic education" for a "uniform system…

This paper describes the structure of a superintendent network in each of two western states (Washington and Idaho); what the networks look like; and how superintendent attributes such as age, ethnicity, gender, salary, years of experience, and size of school district influence the network. The study further compares similarities and differences…

Seven school superintendents in the state of Washington with varying levels of exposure to Iannacone and Lutz's dissatisfaction theory of democracy as well as varying degrees of experience with electoral conflict in their careers were interviewed to determine the level of their understanding of the theory, their acceptance of it, their ability to…

A series of four questionnaires were mailed to schools in the state of Washington over a 12 year period to: (1) determine trends in media availability; (2) attempt to establish data for projections of media availability in the near future; and (3) consider geographic regions according to different availability. The surveys included 76 items…

School board members with concerns for success benefit the entire school district. An ambiguity between administration and policy-making necessitates a clarification of the role of the school board. The board should care about the quality of education and the district, recognize the increasing complexity of education, and represent the goals of…

This is a compilation of the Executive Summaries from several documents: "Professional Development District Team Survey Results" (July 1997), "CSL Assessment Training Survey Results" (January 1999), "CSL Assessment Professional Development Evaluation Additional Data Analysis of District Surveys" (February 1999);…

This short paper is part of a collection of 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002. It discusses educational voucher programs. It states that proponents of voucher programs, having scored a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court with "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris" (2002), will…

This paper uses the urban setting as a case study of some of the persistent challenges facing school principals. It uses data from Washington State and the University Council for Educational Administration's "Thousand Voices from the Firing Line" project to examine the perceived challenges of leading urban schools from the perspective of…

Washington State faces the challenge of balancing a number of conflicting economic and political conditions that impact K-12 education either directly or indirectly. These include reduced vehicle license fees, an existing statewide spending limit, a state revenue surplus, proposals to provide property-tax relief, proposed voter initiatives to…