DEAR READER,

The future for international education in Washington state looks brighter or is it that there are just more sunlight hours these days?  Please see the information about the new World Language Supervisor position out of OSPI!

In this edition you will also find a brief summary from the survey we distributed in January about the future of the Coalition, and highlights of the accomplishments facilitated by the Coalition in the last year.

As always, please email any questions or suggestions to the editor at intledwa@gmail.com. Happy Spring!

Over the last five years the Coalition has served as a virtual clearinghouse for international education in Washington state and worked toward the goals of integrating international perspectives into P-20 curricula, the expansion of world language education, and the encouragement of all forms of international exchange. In these years, the Coalition has applied for and received five State Innovation Grants from the Asia Society and Longview Foundation to accomplish specific goals in line with our mission---to enhance international education in Washington state.

Among the many accomplishments of the last five years:  three international education summits that have enlarged the folks invested in international education to all segments of society, and a section of the www.internationaledwa.org website devoted to Expanding Chinese Language Capacity in Washington, plus supporting the development of Starter Kits for International Collaborative Projects, Capitol Forum on America's Role in the World, and a variety of workshops on world languages and international education.

With the  $15,000 from this year's grant and a lot of time, creativity, and commitment from organizations and individuals that are part of the Coalition, and other volunteers, we, as a state, continue to move forward steadily. Here is some of what our state, with the help of this Coalition accomplished this year.

MAPPING AND ENHANCING LANGUAGE LEARNING (MELL) PROJECT: MELL worked on developing a new database and web interface for displaying school profiles during the summer and fall. The results of the survey of elementary and middle schools will be available soon. The MELL project is making it possible for the state to create both a snapshot and trend reports over time.

STATE TEACHER OF THE YEAR INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP: The Coalition awarded the international education scholarship to the 2007 Teacher of the Year, Andrea Peterson, who immediately used her scholarship to purchase African drums for her school in a small town in rural Washington. (She then went on to be selected National Teacher of the Year, but we don't think we can take credit for that.) The 2008 Teacher of the Year, Laura Jones from Pasco, WA, intends to use her scholarship to create a global learning experience for her students.

BRIDGES TO UNDERSTANDING "CURRICULUM GUIDE:" Bridges to
Understanding has developed a framework that guides teachers through three phases (Introductions, Shared Learning, and Final Project) in a project-based learning process. While this guide focuses on the theme of climate change, it is designed so that educators can develop and "substitute in" any global theme they choose while continuing to follow a thoughtful, efficient framework.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES IN EDUCATION: The "Best Practices for Language and Instruction" workshop held on February 2, 2008 attracted over 75 participants ranging from elementary to middle to high school world language teachers, teachers of English language learners, school psychologists, and others. To download photos showing the John Stanford International School teachers sharing some of the strategies they have incorporated into their classrooms, go to Best Practices (9MB).

Washington's largest school district, Seattle, has made the commitment to launch its second international elementary school---Beacon Hill International Elementary.

CAPITOL FORUM PARTICIPATION: We had 10 teachers participating in the Capitol Forum in Olympia this year on March 27, 2008 and we opened the fall workshop to other teachers, with a focus on demonstrating student deliberation on Iraq and teacher deliberation on the US Role in the World. We held a similar workshop at the OSPI Winter Conference in Spokane in January.

NEW INITIATIVES AND THE CHINESE LANGUAGE CORE TEAM: The Expanding Chinese language initiative accomplished more than we could have imagined possible this year.

We expanded our website to support this new initiative. Interest has been very high in the numerous announcements to the Chinese email list and our Job Openings announcements and web page.

The Chinese Language Core Team worked with the Chinese Language Teachers Network to sponsor two workshops. Each workshop attracted 40-60 teachers. The team also presented the two workshops: "Creating a Chinese Language Program" based on the Asia Society guide. Both workshops were very well-received.

The level of support and interest on the part of the local Chinese American communities has also been noteworthy. It was particularly exciting to see the Chinese Language Teachers Network organize itself as a non-profit over a period of about two months.

A BOOST: Our work received a major boost through the publication of the Washington State Kappan Journal (PDF), featuring an interview with Karen Kodama, "Global Education: Not Just for a Few," and articles by Walter Parker, "International Education in U.S. Schools: The Second Wave," and Michele Anciaux Aoki, "World Languages: State of the State."

As of this year, after assessing the amount of work that goes into maintaining the Coalition's presence on the web and serving as a hub for information dissemination and networking, it became evident that something needed to change. In January, to help determine the Coalition's next step as an organizational entity we conducted an online survey. Thank you to those that responded!

The survey asked you to give us a sense of what you received of value from the Coalition and what if anything you would miss, and asked for a general sense of what people think might be good next steps to take.

While the survey results did not yield anything conclusive, they do clearly indicate that many look to the Coalition as a central source of information and networking opportunities. Those of you that responded largely hoped that the website, emails listservs, the newsletter, and funding for various innovative projects would continue over time. In our survey, we also asked how important it was for the Coalition to seek 501(c)(3) status. Largely people did not have a strong opinion on this matter.

The responses to the survey also indicate that people feel a great need for enhancement of international education for our children, especially early foreign language learning, but are not clear who to turn to.

We would like to continue the dialogue that has begun with the survey and we would like to encourage your leadership. To help us do that, we thought we would begin by interviewing Michele Anciaux Aoki, longtime advocate for international education, webmaster and designer for www.internationaledwa.org, and a key leader supporting the work of the Coalition.

Please visit  Michele Anciaux Aoki's Blog to join us for an ongoing dialogue. The April 2, 2008 entry in the blog addresses questions about the Coalition and its future.

Please note that we recently applied for our sixth State Innovations grant. If we receive it, that will probably be a good sign that our work should continue.

For full details, visit the Calendar and Announcements pages on our website.