curriculum

Why Change?

Critical Content

• Examine international, U.S., Washington state, and local data, disaggregated by key student demographics that present the disparities in student achievement across our nation, state, and local systems.
• Examine beliefs and expectations regarding the goal of achieving high levels of learning for all students, and an emphasis on social justice that responds to the call for high achievement for all children.
• Understand changes in our world that shape what skills and knowledge students need in order to be successful.
• Hear what students currently say about their educational experiences in our Washington state school districts.

Expected Outcomes

• Participants will personally commit (or recommit) to tackling the moral imperative of all children learning.
• Participants will gain new insights and access to resources that they will use to bring the sense of urgency about all children learning back in their home districts with constituents and colleagues.
• Participants will develop specific plans for how to bring this sense of urgency back to their home districts.

Strand Texts

• Wagner, T. "Why Change" piece
• Wilkins, A. and Education Trust Staff. Education Trust (2006, September). Yes We Can: Telling Truths and Dispelling Myths About Race and Education in America. Washington, D.C.: Education Trust. (http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/DD58DD01-23A4-
  4B89-9FD8-C11BB072331E/0/YesWeCan.pdf)
• Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools. Education Researcher, 35(7), Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. (http://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Publications/Journals/Educational_Researcher/
  3507/02ERv35n7_Ladson-Billings.pdf)