Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is organizing a State Network of Partnership Schools with several partners to set an agenda for school, family, and community partnerships for the state. The leadership team includes representatives from the Washington State School Directors’ Association (WSSDA); Washington Education Association (WEA); Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA); Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP); Washington State PTA; the regional Education Service Districts (ESD); and other professional and advocacy organizations involved in promoting school, family, and community partnerships.
The leadership team meets monthly. In August, 1999, the team set a vision and mission for the State Network, and developed a One-Year Action Plan to create an organizational structure for their work on partnerships. Action subcommittees were formed to carry out the following goals: 1) Promote the importance of school, family, and community partnerships in schools throughout the state; (2) Provide training to schools and districts on school, family, and community partnership strategies; and (3) Identify regional expertise to provide training and assistance to districts and schools in the state.
This work on partnerships is strongly supported by State Superintendent, Dr. Terry Bergeson. She noted that, over time, "…we will include action steps for inservice education, training workshops, communications, recognition, research, and evaluation."
To increase awareness of the State Network, the leadership team created a diagram of its mission, vision, and priorities for display at statewide conferences, institutes, and symposia. In 2000, the leaders plan to implement the goals for training and assistance, and encourage more schools to become members of the State Network and National Network of Partnership Schools at Johns Hopkins University.
Washington’s leadership team has already taken some important steps to increase and improve partnerships.
Washington State is off to a great start. It is fertile ground for growing programs of partnership!
For more information on Washington’s activities, contact Chris McElroy, OSPI, Program Administrator, Readiness to Learn/Partnerships for Learning, cmcelroy@ospi.wednet.edu; or Elizabeth Frausto, Director, School, Family, and Community Partnerships, Puget Sound Educational Service District, 206-439-3636; efrausto@psesd.wednet.edu.