Our Top Stories of the Year

The Teaching and Learning Department continued its work on many different prongs, bringing support to districts across the NWESD region in many different ways including a variety of professional learning opportunities on many subjects. 

Department staff also relaunched the Young Writers conference, providing students with the opportunity to work with an author and NWESD staff to learn about different writing styles.  

Throughout the department, the 2023-24 year's theme was partnership. Many of the programs within the Teaching and Learning Department are made up of one or two people. This past year they worked collaboratively to find how their programs intersect and to see where they could combine efforts to meet regional needs. The addition of the Stronger Connections grant has been a great opportunity for the Teaching and Learning department to work in partnership with the Behavioral Health Department by providing student support and academic enrichment. 

The continued work of the  EdTech staff has allowed us to develop digital literacy tools focusing on AI. This area of work has proved to be a great resource to our districts and will continue to grow in the coming years. 

The Special Programs and Services Department continues to thrive, connecting directly with students across the NWESD 189 region to help them find jobs, access resources and get the educational tools they need to make it to graduation. 

This department operates two Discovery Programs, offering students who are not succeeding in a traditional classroom the chance to learn in a different environment.  In many cases, the students return to their home school. This year, three students graduated directly from our Discovery Programs, allowing fellow students, family and staff the chance to cheer them on as they finish their high school journeys. 

For the 2023-24 school year, 48 students attended Whatcom Discovery, nine attended Northwest Regional Learning Center (in Snohomish County) and 21 attended Snohomish Discovery Center. 

The Special Programs and Services Department expanded its services by adding a teacher for the visually diverse. This teacher has been working with districts across our region, with demand continuing to grow. The department is looking to add two more teachers to keep up with the need. 

The Pre-Employment Transition Services program, which provides workplace readiness training and work-based learning, including paid internships, was able to provide much needed expanded services in 2023-24. The program met with 1,463 students that qualified for its services. The team also organized and facilitated 860 job site tours at 56 companies.  

The program served 553 students from 23 schools in Workplace Readiness Training/Self Advocacy workshops and placed 81 students in paid internships.