Mark Bergeson counts yawns.

That’s why Bergeson, associate director of Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board, was so impressed when he sat in on a day-long workshop of the Riverpoint Advanced Mathematics Partnership, aka RAMP. He reported seeing “zero yawns” and no laptop e-mail checking among the Spokane-area educators  getting instruction from the dynamic team of Janet Frost, Kris Lindeblad and Jackie Coomes. He did see many smiles.

Unlike its predecessor, the Riverpoint Partnership for Math and Science, RAMP includes some principals sprinkled among the participating teachers. Janet, the project director,  gives three reasons for the administrators’  interest:  “Principals can be more supportive of their (RAMP) team, because they know better what they’re doing. They can give better teacher performance reviews, based on what they know the person is trying to achieve. And they can make sure what we’re doing aligns with their school’s goals.”

Diversity honor
Ella Inglebret is an associate professor of speech and hearing sciences at WSU Pullman, but she deserves an honorary spot on the College of Education faculty for her work on the report From Where the Sun Rises: Addressing the Native American Educational Achievement Gap in Washington State.  Her research colleagues in Cleveland Hall can take shared pride that she has been named a Diversity Champion by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Ella was honored for her contributions to the report. She explains: “A part of what I did was to identify where there were tribe–school district relationships and where they were at in developing curriculum … My role was to find out what is working and who is doing it.”

Another member of the Native achievement gap research team, Susan Banks-Joseph, is pictured in this WSU ad that’s scheduled to run in the Oct. 16 Diversity Supplement of the Chronicle of Higher Education.  The photo in the ad montage, showing her happily engaged with a child, is a favorite of Susan’s.

Hear the Cougar fight song
Like you’ve never heard it before at thecoug.com.

Reading matter
The Rubber Room. The battle over New York’s worst teachers.
Seattle schools may lower grade-point requirement for graduation. They’re considering lowering the standard to a D average.