A Message from Our Team: Celebrating the TMC Journey and Looking Ahead
As we welcome the warmth of Washington summer, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the incredible journey we’ve shared this past school year. At the True Measure Collaborative, our commitment to fostering collaboration and building educator capacity is growing ever stronger as our organization marks its first-year anniversary and we continue to witness first-hand the systemic under-resourcing of schools, districts, educators, and students across Washington.
March 2024 was an organizational milestone – our one-year anniversary as an independent nonprofit organization! This year, our team achieved notable milestones. From leading professional development programs, presenting our impact and learnings at conferences across the country, to forging impactful partnerships with statewide organizations, we were excited to work with district and organizational partners across the state to help ensure that educators are equipped with the tools and guidance they need to support all learners.
We also worked hard to create a strong foundation for the organization we aspire to through our internal equity work for the True Measure Collaborative board and team, focusing on understanding the function of belonging and what it means to be an anti-racist organization. This shows up in terms of our structures and approach to relationship building, as well as how we bring an anti-racist focus to our work with schools and districts. Our staff collectively shares the belief that this work matters deeply. As one team member expressed, “We do this because every student deserves to feel valued and supported.”
We have received heartening feedback from our client schools, with satisfaction survey quotes from workshops highlighting the positive impact of our work:
One educator shared, “What I value most about TMC is that the focus is centered around the whole student, emotionally and academically, as well as the outlet it provided to discuss the needs of the students openly and honestly, and the collaboration towards the best interest of all students.”
Another noted that the TMC team member “did a great job of listening to challenges and helping guide solution based conversations.”
Restraint and isolation practices are an area of significant challenge for many public schools across Washington state. Supporting the reduction of restraint and elimination of isolation in order to help ensure student and educator safety is a part of our commitment to all classrooms being safe, student-centered learning environments. Earlier in the year, the True Measure Collaborative participated in a statewide coalition to advocate for legislative action around the reduction of restraint and elimination of isolation. This action resulted in a budget proviso and a mandate for professional development. We are excited to be partnering with OSPI and their coordinated statewide network efforts to equip educators in Washington public schools with trainings for implementing alternative strategies in schools.
Thanks to our community of support, our first annual fundraising campaign to support the experiences of Multilingual Learners was incredibly successful – we beat our fundraising goal and were excited to see an outpouring of support for our work! The generosity and support we received will enable us to expand our program in close collaboration with Seeing Beyond, LLC and reach even more educators and students in the coming year.
As we look ahead to the new school year and the upcoming legislative session in 2025, we are filled with excitement and motivation about opportunities to further our mission. We will embark on new collaborations with districts, continue actively engaging in education coalitions, and advocate for inclusive policies. We also plan to continue to refine and build out support for family engagement in special education in collaboration with statewide experts in the field. Together with our partners and communities, we hope to pave pathways to ensure that every student has the opportunity to thrive.
Stay tuned for more updates in our upcoming mid-year report. Here’s to a bright future filled with promise and possibility!
– Sarah Okun (Executive Director) and the True Measure Collaborative team