WAC 180-08-002 point 2. d. vi

ARC 25 Observations

July 20, 2009

 

Source	Summary of What I Learned	Importance and/or application to my own growth as a teacher
	This chapter of the article on practice, procedure and access to public records had a lot of information on the way the schools and students get assessed and what happens to that information after the assessment takes place.	I was not aware of a system where there were performance incentives for student achievement. I find this to be an interesting concept and would like to learn more about how it is used in WA. I think it is important to know that something like this might exist having worked in situations where students sometimes lack the intrinsic motivation or even the basic extrinsic motivation provided by the classroom educator isn’t effective enough. If the performance incentive systems have been indentified and the truly have the potential to improve the student achievement, I would also be interested in exploring the moral and ethical implications of the incentives.
WAC 180-16-163	Strike defined and strikes rules and policies	I am curious about what my rights are as a teacher who works in a private school. What would my colleagues and I do if we wanted to strike because we didn’t agree with terms provided by our school?
WAC 180-44-010 point 2	Responsibilities of the teacher related to the instruction of his/her students	I have heard of some school districts in WA that require their teachers to all teach the same exact material and to be on the “same page” at the same time during the year. If this is in fact true, how can this continue going on with the language of the point mentioned here which allows for the teacher “to direct and control within reasonable limits the studies of the pupils.” Where has the freedom gone for the teacher and how can they be applying best practices if their school district is so stringent?
WAC 180-44-020 point 1	Responsibilities of the teacher related to the discipline of pupils	I didn’t know there was code specifically laid out stating that it is my responsibility as a teacher to maintain and have some form of discipline in the classroom. It seems obvious and I do my best to maintain decorum in the classroom but I am surprised. This is one more reason why I am looking forward to taking the classroom management course. Without the management course I have had fairly good success in 10th-12th grades and even as young as 6th grade but I find that the 7th-9th graders are very hard to manage and I look forward to being able to discipline them in an effective and appropriate way.
WAC 180-51-025	Local school district application of state requirements.	One example of the local school district making a modification to their requirements is the foreign language requirement. The policy states that if there is a foreign language requirement, it may be filled by taking American Sign Language. This is something that I have been hearing about in WA state and I am very confused about it. I don’t know if it is a very sound decision to allow such a replacement for a spoken and written language. I feel that it defeats part of the purpose of learning a foreign language because we focus on teaching reading, writing, listening and speaking, not just 2 of the 4 skills. I look forward to discovering the meaning and rationale behind this statement.
WAC 180-51-061 point 1. D. i	Minimum requirements for high school graduation — Students entering the ninth grade as of July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2009. (i) Each student shall complete a culminating project for graduation. The project shall consist of the student demonstrating both their learning competencies and preparations related to learning goals three and four. Each district shall define the process to implement this graduation requirement, including assessment criteria, in written district policy.	I am interested in knowing what a culminating project entails and how these projects compare throughout the state. It seems that even with assessment criteria that are set locally, this can be a very subjective requirement. Is there a requirement for some level of rigor or difficulty? How would I be able to be involved in the project as a teacher of an elective course?
WAC 180-51-066	The mathematics requirement has changed from 2 credits to 3 credits. Minimum requirements for high school graduation — Students entering the ninth grade on or after July 1, 2009.	I am very surprised to see the level of specificity in wording that the state government has put in regarding mathematics graduation requirements. I know that there must be significant pressure from national level legislation about education but I just find the attention to detail very interesting. I find it especially interesting in comparison to the fact that the state still only requires 3 years of English which I consider to be quite low.
WAC 180-90-130	Approval — Annual certification — Adverse findings. The approval of a private school comes from the superintendant.	I have been hearing a lot about the accreditation process at my current school which is a private school and I am beginning to wonder how the accreditation process is different from the approval process. I have only worked in a private school for 1 year so I don’t know much about the accreditation process and how it works and if this approval process is at all linked to the accreditation process. I also would like to know more about what criteria we are being measured upon considering that the private school I work at has an established 9-12 program and has just added the 6-8 program this year.
RCW 28A.150.210	This article is a summary of the goals of education in the State of WA. Basic education act — Goal	I never knew that states had a statement like this one so I am pleasantly surprised. It always seemed like the individual schools put out their own goal statements but I am glad to know one for the whole state exists. I look forward to doing my best to fulfill the state’s goal of education.
RCW 28A.150.211	This is an outline of the values and traits the State of WA feels important to be learned.	I also like the statements regarding the values and traits recognized as valuable to be taught. Even if it doesn’t always seem like all the kids are being taught these values, it is nice to know that we can be expected to teach some sort of values system to our students. I feel that in a private school I have more influence over the values and traits the students learn as opposed to a public school. Knowing that it is written into law in WA state, I will feel more confident in my attempts to try and teach the values mentioned in the law.
RCW 28A.150.220	Basic education act — Program requirements — Program accessibility – Rules (c) If the essential academic learning requirements include a requirement of languages other than English, the requirement may be met by students receiving instruction in one or more American Indian languages.	I find this particularly fascinating as a language teacher but I am curious as to where and when it is applied in the learning process and which EALR’s it may apply to. I may not teach an American Indian language but this law makes me think that one day soon I may have to opportunity to teach fully in Spanish.
RCW 28A.150.315	Voluntary all-day kindergarten programs – Funding.  The all day program will be providing experiences in science, social studies, arts, health and physical education, and a world language other than English;	I am glad to hear that this is occurring in the state. I think it is very important to have language learning available to students of all ages and I definitely believe that the earlier a student starts learning a language other than English, the better their ability to learn languages will be. This may give me a reason to one day considering extending my certification from Secondary to Elementary also.
RCW 28A.155.105	This gives all students the ability to achieve regardless of their ability to see and to do so in a regular school environment. Braille instruction — Definitions.	I think it is great that we can be encouraging of blind students and we are trying to be inclusive of them. I also think it is a good idea that we are expecting them to develop a certain level of proficiency in their ability to work with Braille because it gives the students something more to achieve towards. I am interested in looking into what I can do with this as a language teacher whose language, Spanish, uses the same alphabet as English, which I assume is what is used for Braille.
RCW 28A.155.170	This law allows all special education students to participate in a graduation ceremony with their appropriate age level peers, aka, Kevin’s law. Graduation ceremony — Certificate of attendance — Students with individualized education programs.	I come from a state where I thought this was the norm anyways so I am surprised to see that it has taken until 2007 for this to become a law in WA state. I am glad that it is in existence and that the notes included with this document are so comprehensive explaining the reasons as to why something such as this is necessary.
RCW 28A.185.040	There exists a transitional school at the UW for highly capable students. This school has a capacity of enrollment at 30 students.	I never knew such a thing existed but it seems like a great idea. I am interested in learning how the 30 students are selected to enter into this transitional school. I would like to know how language education is included, if it is included, in this transitional school.
RCW 28A.195.060	Private schools must report attendance.	I have no problem with this, in fact I am very pleased to see that we are required to do so but I would like to know what happens to this information once the state has it. I know that public schools depend on attendance for funding sometimes but private schools do not. I get very frustrated working in the private schools because the parents and students seem to have less regard for attending school on a regular basis and it does take a toll on their learning over the course of time. They think since they are paying for it, they can show up when they feel like it and expect the teachers to re-teach all sorts of material that the children missed.
RCW 28A.210.365	Future policy for food choice, physical activity, childhood fitness — Minimum standards — District waiver or exemption policy.	I am surprised to see that there are policies that are written to take place in the future not only currently. I am also glad to see the nature and content of this policy is going to be beneficial to many even if it doesn’t directly correlate to the content I teach.
RCW 28A.225.015	Age and attendance requirements for young students. Attendance mandatory — Six or seven year olds — Unexcused absences — Petition	What is it about the six and seven year old students missing school that requires legal action to be taken if they miss more than a certain amount of school days?
RCW 28A.225.090	3) Any parent violating any of the provisions of either RCW 28A.225.010, 28A.225.015, or 28A.225.080 shall be fined not more than twenty-five dollars for each day of unexcused absence from school. The court shall remit fifty percent of the fine collected under this section to the child’s school district.	This is very interesting that the parent gets fined and charged for the truancy of their student. Although I think it is the parents responsibility to help the kid stay in school, a parent cannot control what the kid does once he/she is in (or not in) the school building unless the parent sat next to their child all day long. It seems a bit unfair to the parent.
RCW 28A.415.020	Credit on salary schedule for approved in-service training, continuing education, and internship.	What are clock hours? I am familiar with the way credits earn advancement on the salary scale but how are clock hours equivalent? Also, where does one go to earn clock hours?
RCW 28A.415.330	Professional development institutes — Managing disruptive students.	Why has this only happened once in 2000? Does the state think that kids stopped being disruptive after this one institute? I think that the state should offer this kind of training more regularly if not find a way to include in teacher preparation programs. I feel like more and more these days that there are so many disruptive students that these institutes held frequently could be very beneficial when applied in the classroom.
WAC 181-78A-700	First peoples’ language, culture, and oral tribal traditions certification program — Findings, purposes and intent — Definitions — Program established — Tribal eligibility to participate — Program requirements — Assignment of teachers — Reports.	I appreciate all the thought and work that has been put into the preservation of native tribal languages in the state of WA but I would like to see this same type of legislation be put in place for students to be educated in two languages regardless of if it is a native language to them. I think many of the reasons for keeping tribal language education alive coincide with support bilingual/dual language education. We want our next generation of students to be able to communicate and thrive in the global world economy and they will need language skills to do that well.
WAC 181-82-110 point 1 (a)	Exceptions to classroom teacher assignment policy. -A designated representative of the district and any such teacher so assigned shall mutually develop a written plan which provides for necessary assistance to the teacher, and which provides for a reasonable amount of planning and study time associated specifically with the out-of-endorsement assignment;	Although I am very committed to my content area of language education, I find this policy to be particularly interesting. Given the right circumstances at a later time in my career, I would like to be assigned to a different subject area than the one that I am certified in. I feel that as a foreign language teacher, I am equipped to teach many other related topics since foreign language can be so broad.
WAC 181-82A-215 point 3	Teachers shall be required to obtain a minimum of one endorsement. Implementation policies.	I guess I need to start thinking about what endorsement I may be getting unless foreign language teaching counts as my endorsement already.
RCW 28A.180 TRANSITIONAL BILINGUAL INSTRUCTION PROGRAM	This article contains some information about the state’s commitment to providing a transitional bilingual instruction program.	As a multilingual person and educator, I feel that it is part of my responsibility to participate in this program in some capacity. I have had some of positive experiences abroad working with students in a bilingual setting and I look forward to exploring the possibilities in the state.

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