Redmond, Wash. – Through partnerships with Lake Washington Schools Foundation, Lake Washington School District (LWSD) has established a District Innovation Program. It makes funding available to schools to implement innovative ideas. The goal is to celebrate and recognize innovative programs in our schools. 

As LWSD strives to accomplish its vision of Every Student Future Ready, it explores innovative strategies and programs to: 

• Increase student engagement 
• Increase student achievement 
• Provide students with additional challenge and rigor 
• Close achievement and opportunity gaps 

The schools listed below will be the first to receive LWSD Innovation Funds for their innovative programs.  

“We look forward to learning more as these new programs are implemented, and we will look for the potential to expand promising programs as well as fund new programs in the future,” said Dr. Traci Pierce, Superintendent. 

Sandburg Elementary/Discovery Community School
Creating Innovators: Providing small group hands-on learning experiences for students to explore the Engineering Design Process and STEM challenges. Learning topics include structure building, coding, and modelling. 

Lake Washington High School
Urban Gardening: A newly developed course will focus on the basics of plant identification, the benefits of growing and maintaining your own garden, and how urban gardens present sustainable solutions inspired by local community issues. Grant funds will provide startup funds for gardening and green house materials. 

Ben Rush Elementary School
Family Engagement to Support Math Education: To increase family engagement and remove barriers to participation for families, structured and scheduled volunteer opportunities for families of first grade students will focus on creating math games. Transportation and food will be provided. The project culminates in a family math game evening. 

Lake Washington Learning Community (Elementary)
Elementary STEM Symposium: The traditional science fair gets a new look at three Lake Washington Learning Community Elementary Schools. The STEM Symposium includes in-class STEM learning opportunities culminating in a Symposium of STEM learning projects and community presentations. The three participating schools will be identified by staff survey. 

Lake Washington Learning Community (Elementary)
Elementary Computer Science Leadership Program: Teacher leaders from three Lake Washington Learning Community Elementary Schools will participate in professional learning on computational thinking and computer science and implement a variety of elementary age-appropriate computer science learning experiences with their students. The three participating schools will be identified by staff survey. 

Thoreau Elementary School
Attacking the Gap at Thoreau-A Multi-Faceted Approach: Teacher leaders from Thoreau Elementary will participate in a “Pathway to Equity” learning experience focused on strategies for closing the achievement gap through literacy practices and, with building leadership, guide staff through implementation of innovative teaching strategies and cycles of inquiry. 

Einstein Elementary School
Einstein PAL (Passionate About Learning) Time: There will be embedded weekly learning opportunities during the school day for all students to select from a menu of high interest project-based learning topics such as art, coding, maker space, cooking, shark tank/business entrepreneurship and nature. 

Redmond Elementary and Redmond Middle School
Comunidad Matematica/Math Community: This after-school math support program, led by bilingual teacher leaders, will utilize middle school students from diverse background as mentors for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from diverse backgrounds who have been identified as potentially benefitting from the program. The program will focus on developing a math community, mentoring and closing the math achievement gap for participating students. Snacks and bus transportation home will be provided.  

Rockwell Elementary School
Outdoor Education Classroom: An outdoor education classroom will be established alongside the currently existing school garden to enable teachers to facilitate experiential project-based learning across grade levels. Additionally, this learning space provides a venue to connect with local community members to include farmers, produce experts, engineers and natural scientists. 

# # # # 

Lake Washington School District is a high-performing public school district serving Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish, Washington. It is the third largest district in the state of Washington, with over 29,500 students in 52 schools.