Our Roz Thompson sits down with Jill Patnode, Thriving Schools Program Manager for Kaiser Permanente of Washington, to talk about all the programs and resources KP provides to support schools and the people in them.

AWSP is thrilled to announce that the 2019 Torch of Leadership Award is given to Representative Laurie Dolan (D-Olympia). Prior to becoming a state representative, Rep. Dolan worked for 30 years as a teacher and school director advocating for the needs of children and schools. She has also worked with former Governor Gregoire as her policy director and now serves as Vice Chair on the House Education Committee as well as on the Appropriations and State Government & Tribal Relations Committees.

Representative Dolan is an excellent communicator who values the work of all educators and who knows the success of our schools and districts is tied to the quality of our principals. She reaches out to work closely with AWSP on legislation that impacts our work such as school safety, teacher and principal evaluation, high school graduation requirements, civics education, and more. She Is always willing to speak with groups of principals and with our high school student finalists for the U.S. Senate Youth Scholarship.

Immediately after we recorded with OSPI's Dr. Michaela Miller, Linda Drake from the State Board of Education stepped into the hot seat. She's their Director of Career and College Readiness Initiatives. Watch her talk to Scott Friedman about the role the State Board of Education plays, learn about their rulemaking process for graduation pathways in HB 1599, and find out how you can help shape those rules with your feedback to the Board.

OSPI's Deputy Superintendent Dr. Michaela Miller came by our studio for the second time to talk about HB 1599, which transforms the assessment expectations for graduation and how students can approach fulfilling requirements for earning a diploma. She joined our Scott Friedman for an in-depth conversation about some of the changes the new legislation brings, some of the new pathways brought about, and what principals should be doing now.

The conversation you're about to hear comes from a group of principals we call the MPLN, Mastering Principal Leadership Network. With a 2 year grant from the Gates Foundation, we were able to bring together about 50 principals from all levels and all demographics across the state.

We invited these principals from superintendent recommendations, OSPI, data analytics, and also improvement trends from the Centre for Educational effectiveness. What we ended up with was an exceptional group of passionate gap closing leaders. We brought them together through the gates grant for 2 years; 3 times a year, 2 days at a time. The following conversation you’re about to hear was recorded at our second to last meeting with them. The following conversation was recorded and moderated by Gary Kemp who at the time of the recording was still our executive director.

We hope you enjoy our conversation and we hope there is something you can pick up and learn and put to use in your school. We would love to hear feedback on what you like to hear in the future episodes. But for the time being, enjoy the conversation.

In our seventh episode of AWSP TV, OSPI's Sue Anderson (Director of Educator Effectiveness) talks to our Ron Sisson about putting the G (growth) in TPEP, as well as a few more topics around evaluation, coaching, mentoring, and induction.