Nov. 17-20, Lopez School personnel attended the Washington State School Directors Conference in Bellevue.

School Board Director Patsy Haber and Superintendent Bill Evans attended the annual conference, on behalf of the Lopez School District.

The conference was also attended by several hundred delegates from school districts around the state. In addition to conducting the annual business of the school directors’ state organization, the conference provided an opportunity for attendees to learn about the latest in educational theory, practice, and instruction, to assist them to fulfill their leadership roles in their representative school districts.

The conference theme was “Take Charge – of Innovation in Your Schools,” and provided attendees with valuable break-out sessions and the opportunity to hear national experts on education.

There were three nationally acclaimed keynote speakers, including Dr. Bill Dagget, Dr. Diane Ravitch and Ms. Charlotte Danielson. Renowned educational reform leader Dr. Yong Zhao was also present by Skype.

Dr. Dagget spoke about the need for schools to renew their efforts to more fully utilize the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that students of all ages bring to school, to further assist them to develop life-long skills they will need to be successful in the technological, global world in which they will be adult citizens. Dagget challenged the audience to aggressively take on the effort to prepare students for their future rather than prepare them for their past, as he asserts schools are wont to do.

Dr. Ravitch challenged the audience to address the need to improve education in this country by nurturing a strong, highly respected education profession, a rich curriculum, including arts and sciences, and assessments that gauge what students know and can do, instead of assessments that simply label and categorize schools and don’t assist teachers in their instruction.

Ravitch posited that public education will not be as effective as it can be until it is supported by a government that is prepared to change the economic and social conditions that interfere with children’s readiness to learn.

Ms. Charlotte Danielson spoke about the upcoming legislated reform that will change dramatically how schools evaluate their teachers and principals. Beginning with school year 2013-14 all schools in the state will be mandated to evaluate teachers under a new process that was legislated by the state legislature.

Danielson shared her perceptions and her expertise on what that new evaluation system will look like and how it has the significant potential to further improve instruction by our state’s teachers and empower effective teachers to be even stronger educators. Danielson is the author of one of the several models of instructional frameworks that many districts are considering for their required new evaluation systems.

“It was refreshing to attend this conference where the attitude was one of hope and excitement for the future of education, backdropped as it was against the doom and gloom of education funding reductions in this state,” said Superintendent Evans.