• Mission & Governance
• Services Overview
• How to Get Involved
• Standing Committees
• NCSL Foundation

• Issue Areas: A-Z
• State-Federal Relations
• NCSL Standing Committees
• News from D.C. and the States

• About State Legislatures
• Elections, Campaigns & Redistricting
• NCSL's StateConnect Directory
• Web Sites

• Online Guide to NCSL Services
• Staff Sections and Networks
• Meetings & Professional Development
• Staff Directories

• Meetings Calendar
• Online Registration
• Meetings Home Page
• Legislative Summit

• Bookstore
• State Legislatures Magazine
• NCSL's StateConnect Directory

LESN Home Page

LESN Summer Seminar Meeting
Adams Mark Hotel
Denver, Colorado
Friday, July 15, 2005

Minutes of the Meeting

Meeting in conjunction with the Education Commission of the States (ECS), the Legislative Education Staff Network (LESN) met on Friday, July 15 for their Summer Seminar Meeting.  Attending were: Cathy Eslinger, CO; Jerri Derlikowski, AR; D. Pauline Rindone, NM; Frances Ramirez-Maestas, NM; Jonathan Lowe, KY; Ruth Webb, KY; Ester van Mourik, CO; Carolyn Kampman, CO; Kathy Hanlon, IA; Jane Fletcher, FL; Jeremiah Barry, CO; Emily Gann, CO; Jane Ritter, CO; Jason Lidyard, CO; Julie Pelegrin, CO; Leslie Goldstein, WA; Jerry Lunney, KY; Audrey Carr, KY; Kun Shi, OH; Nicole Hoffman, CO; David Summers, FL; Ralene Padilla Allen, ECS; Charles Merritt, ECS; Julie Bell, NCSL; Jane Best, NCSL; Sunny Kristin, NCSL; and Sara Vitaska, NCSL.

Election of new Steering Committee members include:

Kathy Hanlon, Iowa, Co-Chair
Cathy Eslinger, Colorado
Wes Keller, Alaska
Audrey Carr, Kentucky, Immediate Past Co-Chair

Within the next couple of months, NCSL will elect new LESN steering committee members.  The LESN members representing the NCSL shall be a staff chair, two staff vice-chairs and the immediate past staff chair of the NCSL Education Standing Committee.  The staff chair shall serve as the LESN Co-chair.  Terms for steering committee members begin October 1.  The term is for one year.  The process leading to the composition of the Steering Committee was explained and efforts will be made by ECS and NCSL to ensure a more equitable rotation among LESN members.

Staff Recognition Award Suggestions

• Amend the current eligibility requirements which currently states, "all legislative staff working on education policy are eligible to receive the recognition award to "all legislative staff having worked on education policy within the last year are eligible to receive the recognition award."
• Give out two Recognition Awards. One to a new legislative education staff member and one to a veteran legislative education staff member.

LESN Goals for 2005-2006

• Make sessions more useful by providing additional opportunities for professional development.
• Incorporate a discussion about state level trends into the sessions.
• Provide LESN members with the opportunity to network at ECS and NCSL meetings by reserving breakfast/lunch tables for all legislative education staff.
• Disseminate ECS StateNotes on the LESN Listserv.
• Announce and disseminate recent state studies and other useful information on the listserv.
• Use multimedia to include more members at LESN meetings, including video and phone conferencing.
• Choose two, or at most three, goals and focus on those for the year.
• Produce bimonthly or quarterly progress reports among steering committee members and provide time for input from membership at each LESN meeting.

Presentations

1.  Restoring the Balance Between Academics and Civic Education in Public Schools
     Sarah Pearson, American Youth Policy Forum
     http://www.aypf.org/

Efforts are already underway at the national, state, and local levels to bring civic education and participation, service-learning, community involvement, and character education to students.

Leaders in this effort include:

Learn and Serve America
The Alliance for Representative Democracy
The Civic Mission of Schools
National Center on Learning and Citizenship
Campus Compact
The National Conference on Citizenship
We the People: Project Citizen
The First Amendment Center
The Character Education Partnership
National Service-Learning Partnership
The State Education Agency K-12 Service-Learning Network
Coalition for Community Schools
Communities in Schools
National Youth Leadership Council

Reports:

Restoring the Balance Between Academics and Civic Engagement in Public Schools (2005)
American Youth Policy Forum and Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
By Bruce Boston
Sarah S. Pearson and Samuel Halperin, Editors

Ready for the Real World? Americans Speak on High School Reform (2005)
Educational Testing Service

2.  NCLB Cost Studies
     Alan Endicott, US Department of Education Special Assistant for Regional Services
     www.ed.gov

3.  TQ Source Demonstration and Discussion
     ECS Teaching Quality and Leadership Institute Director Tricia Coulter and Cortney Rowland from the Learning Points Alliance
     http://www.tqsource.org/