Washington Educational Research Association (WERA)

We're excited to partner with WSU Everett for our next WERA Webinar on Wednesday, May 27! Join us as Anna McLeod, Director of Student Services, and Alex Tadio, Director of Admissions, share their firsthand experience building collaborative pathways to expand postsecondary access.

⭐ Scaling Access: Lessons from Collaborative Pathway Building⭐

Expanding postsecondary access requires intentional, cross-institutional collaboration that addresses persistent barriers to transfer and degree completion. This session examines what prompted the development of agreements with community colleges and local school districts, including the larger challenges of access, alignment, and student mobility these partnerships were designed to address.

Drawing on lived experience, we’ll explore how relationship-building and trust were cultivated across institutions, the organizational and cultural barriers that emerged, and how teams worked to navigate them. We’ll highlight the importance of alignment across leadership, policy, advising, curriculum, and student support systems in creating more seamless pathways.

➡️ Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/hZHsBHznSF-E4jb-AqACvw

▶️ Can’t make it next Wednesday? WERA members can view the recording at any time! Learn more about the benefits of WERA membership here: https://www.wera-web.org/membership-benefits

📢 Call for Proposals is open! The Conference Committee is now accepting proposals for the 2026 Winter Conference, December 9-11 in Tacoma. If your work and insights reflect this year’s theme, Rigorous & Responsive Research in Times of Change, submit by July 17 and be part of shaping this year’s conversation. You can learn more, view last year's conference program, and submit a proposal on our website: https://www.wera-web.org/.

We can't wait to hear from you!

Our next WERA Webinar is coming up on May 13! Join Dr. Brit Henderson, Annabel Utz, and Betsy Tessler from MDRC as they share what Washington’s data reveal about how students navigate postsecondary pathways, and what those patterns mean for workforce outcomes.

➡️ Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/L3ItOibKSkW8N9aLkYRGpA

⭐ From High School to the Workforce: What Washington's Data Reveal About Student Pathways ⭐

Washington has set an ambitious goal: 70% of adults age 25 to 44 holding a postsecondary credential. But how are students actually moving, or not moving, from high school into college and careers? In this session, Dr. Brit Henderson, Annabel Utz, and Betsy Tessler from MDRC will present findings from the Sequences to Success in WA State project, which used sequence analysis and state longitudinal data to map the postsecondary pathways of Washington high school graduates. By tracing how students move through community and technical colleges, four-year universities, and the workforce, the project identifies 12 distinct pathway patterns and links each to early labor market outcomes. The team also conducted interviews with recent high school graduates to better understand the nuances of different pathways. Attendees will come away with a richer picture of where Washington students are succeeding, where they are stalling, and what the data suggest for policy and practice.

We are thrilled to be partnering with Renaissance Learning for our next WERA Webinar: 6 Essential Ideas for Effective Progress Monitoring! Grab your lunch and join us on Wednesday, April 18, from 12-1pm as we dive into progress monitoring and RTI with Dr. Gene Kerns.

Monitoring student progress has always been critical, but it’s becoming even more so with AIMS 2028’s emphasis on RTI. The formal Progress Monitoring process of RTI represents a deep psychometric concept for teachers and the edge of performance for assessments. Join us as we discuss ways to make it as effective as possible.

In this webinar, we will discuss the following aspects of monitoring student progress:
- psychometric essentials behind formal progress monitoring
- the optimal length for interventions
- the most efficient approaches for monitoring intervention students
- realties around the scale of growth needed to achieve definitive changes in student performance
- how testing companies link student scores to eventual performance levels on the SBA

🟢 Register for the webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3Ylex-6TR8Ob5JAT3FqQkg #/registration

WERA members: voting for the board election ends today! We have a slate of excellent candidates, and this is your opportunity to help shape the future of the Washington Educational Research Association. Our board plays a critical role in setting direction, strengthening engagement, planning high-quality professional learning and networking opportunities, and ensuring WERA remains the go-to community for data-minded educators and researchers across the state.

If you haven’t cast your ballot yet, please take a few minutes to do so before the end of the day. To learn more about the candidates and place your vote, visit https://wera.memberclicks.net/feb2026_election.

Submissions for WERA’s 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award are due tomorrow! If you defended your dissertation and earned your PhD this year, we’d love to consider it!

As the 2025 Annual Conference comes to a close, we’re grateful for the collaboration, curiosity, and commitment we saw in today’s breakout sessions!

Dr. Dylan Wiliam’s keynote is underway! He’s challenging us to think critically about evidence, assessmet, and how we assign meaning to data.

Sessions one and two are in the books! There was great energy, sharp insights, and a lot of collaboration and discussion!

Dr. Amy Hawn Nelson kicked off her keynote with great storytelling and was this 🤏🏻 close to breaking out the painters tape. Her talk was grounded in data governance and a simple but powerful set of questions we should ask every time we touch data:

✅ Is this legal?
✅ Is this ethical?
✅ Is this a good idea?
✅ How do we know and who decides?

Thank you for sharing your team’s incredible work, Amy!