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School Recognition Work Group

Staff Contacts

The State Board of Education (SBE), the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee (EOGOAC), and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) have jointly decided to pause the Washington School Recognition Program this year. View the message sent to superintendents and ESD superintendents in early March 2021.

The State Board of Education (SBE), Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee (EOGOAC) staff collaborate on school recognition as directed in statute. In spring 2018, the three organizations initiated a three-year effort to revamp Washington’s school recognition framework to be more equitable and to better highlight the successes across our K-12 educational system. 

The SBE, OSPI, and EOGOAC plan to refine the recognition framework over the next two years to create an even more equitable recognition system that highlights success across our K-12 system and considers state level accountability data as well as local qualitative and quantitative information. The organizations are following a general work plan in order to complete the Phase II and Phase III revisions by the end of the 2020-21 school year. Central to the proposed or planned recognition framework revisions are the following:

  1. To include other measures (including local measures) in the recognition framework,
  2. To include measures that are more qualitative in character,
  3. To provide the opportunity for stakeholder input and review, and 
  4. To develop a platform to collect and share the ‘best practices’ of recognized schools.

Work Group Meeting Dates

Date Meeting Place Meeting Materials
January 22, 2020  Olympia School District Office
December 3, 2019 Highline College
October 1, 2019 Renton Technical College Annex
July 30, 2019  Renton Technical College Annex

State Board of Education's Role and Background Information

In May 2018, the SBE, OSPI, and EOGOAC agreed to suspend school recognition for one year in order for a work group to be formed for the purpose of redesigning the school recognition system. The rationale to redesign the system was driven in part by the changes brought about by the shift to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability system and by the desire of the organizations to make the school recognition system more equitable. 

SBE, OSPI, and EOGOAC staff worked closely together in consultation with the recognition work group to design a pilot recognition system as the first phase in the development of a new recognition framework for Washington that incorporates state level and local information to identify schools that are exemplars in terms of growth and achievement. The new approach to recognition is designed to identify schools throughout the continuum of support. Phase I of the revised framework recognized schools that made gains in targeted areas and are on a path toward overall improvements in achievement and growth.  Phase I of the Framework is best described as a single system of recognition that incorporates three routes to recognition, and multiple measures within each route derived from the Washington School Improvement Framework (WSIF).

Work Group Leadership

Organization Contacts Organization E-mail
Randy Spaulding, Executive Director  State Board of Education  randy.spaulding@k12.wa.us
Tami Jensen, Executive Assistant State Board of Education tami.jensen@k12.wa.us
Michaela Miller, Deputy Superintendent OSPI michaela.miller@k12.wa.us
Jami Peterson, Executive Assistant OSPI jami.peterson@k12.wa.us
Maria Flores, Director Title II, Part A EOGOAC maria.flores@k12.wa.us
Heather Rees, Administrative Assistant EOGOAC heather.rees@k12.wa.us

Statutory Charge of the Work Group

RCW 28A.657.110(3) specifies that the SBE, in cooperation with the OSPI, shall annually recognize schools for exemplary performance as measured on the Washington School Improvement Framework. The SBE shall have ongoing collaboration with the EOGOAC regarding the measures used to measure the closing of the achievement gaps and the recognition provided to the school districts for closing the achievement gaps.