Valiant, Etc.

SCHOOL FACILITIES PLANNING

Do any of these Situations fit your District?

Do all of the buildings in your district provide an environment conducive to learning?

Do you anticipate growth and don’t know where to start in the facilities planning process?

Are you currently starting to plan a new building and want to ensure that the architect knows exactly what is needed to meet your district’s educational requirements?
Is your long-term facilities plan out of date (or non-existent)?

Our senior consultant can help.

Bob Valiant combines ten years experience as a school facilities planning professional with twenty years of district-level instructional leadership to provide you with the help you need to solve these and other school facilities planning problems. He has worked with school planning groups from rural Oregon to inner-city Seattle to create educational specifications, determine educational adequacy of current buildings, and to create a future vision for elementary schools through community colleges.

Examples of Recent Projects Include:

• Studies of overcrowding in a Pasco Washington high school.

• Educational Specifications for large high schools in Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick Washington.

• Educational Adequacy studies in Seattle and Touchet, Washington and Milton Freewater, Oregon.

• Educational Specifications for middle schools in Seattle, Richland, and Pasco Washington.

• Space alternatives for a private school in Bellevue, Washington.

• Educational Specifications for elementary schools in Pasco, Seattle, Kennewick, and Touchet Washington.

• Future Vision workshop for a large high school in Seattle, Washington.

Science Inquiry Training

Is your school prepared to meet the challenge of teaching the processes of science inquiry required to meet new state standards?

Are your teachers comfortable with the questioning strategies that will help students master the higher level thinking strategies of inquiry?

Do you have a plan to ensure that students will have had appropriate hands-on experiences to prepare them for the science problem solving activities that are a part of the new mandated testing programs?

VALIANT, etc. can bring the experience and training you require directly to your school and teachers. Science inquiry is becoming a focus of the standards movement and most teachers have had little experience in developing the activities necessary for students to learn the skills needed to meet the benchmarks. It is not just a matter of teaching new material in the same old ways. Inquiry requires a different way of teaching that focuses on process rather than information. Our senior consultant, Dr. Bob Valiant, brings years of experience as a secondary school and university science educator, staff developer and trainer to your school to help develop the skills and attitudes necessary for teachers to implement inquiry-based science education.

Recent projects include:

• One-day workshop for Jefferson County (Oregon) K-12 teachers

• Science Inquiry curriculum development project, Crook County (Oregon)

• Trainer for Central Oregon Eisenhower Consortium Inquiry Project

• One-week inquiry workshop for K-12 Central Oregon teachers

• Dozens of inquiry demonstrations in regular classrooms with K-12 students using materials and topics requested by teachers

• Two Keynote speeches to educators at a Science-Math conference in Wenatchee, WA

• Graduate class for Southern Oregon University in Prineville, OR

• Series of workshops for North Santiam School District (Oregon) science teachers.

Learning and the Brain

Is your school using the most effective strategies to help students master the adopted curriculum?

Are the teaching methods you currently use consistent with what is known about the brain and how we learn?

Bob Valiant has spent the past ten years following the very active field of brain research and its application to educational settings. Dismayed by much of what he saw being dished out to educators, he began to search for areas of agreement in the work of brain researchers and other cognitive scientists. The search resulted in a list of eight promising candidates for the basic theorems of learning. The listing was presented at an invitational lecture during the Learning and the Brain Conference at Harvard and MIT in May of 1999. Since that time he has developed a matrix of the eight propositions to use as a template to map the teaching strategies employed in a school or classroom. He can help your school identify areas of growth potential and provide you with the tools you need to realize that potential.

Examples of recent projects:

• Development of Personal Intelligence Management curriculum for Gear Up program in Pasco, WA.

• One-day workshop for a private school in Pittsburgh, PA.

• Presentation to Oregon Small Schools Institute in Monmouth, Oregon

• Two-way video presentation to high school students in five Oregon schools.

• Presentation to Oregon ASCD retreat and follow up consulting with schools from around Oregon.

• Two-day workshop for school teams in Redmond, OR.

• Presentation to Washington ASCD with son, Bob Jr., in Seattle.

You can reach Bob at rvaliant@clearwire.net

2007: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2006: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2005: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2004: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2003: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2002: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2001: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2000: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

November 2007

• BACK TO THE REAL BASICS by MARION BRADY

March 2007

• PLANNING A TRIP TO THE FUTURE? Get a Good Map

January 2007

• THE CABINETMAKER
• TIPS ON WRITING A “WASL” LETTER TO THE EDITOR

November 2006

• OFF-GRADE TESTING
• A COMMON MISCONCEPTION?

October 2006

• MORE HIGH-STAKES MYTHBUSTERS
• THINGS THAT BOTHER ME ABOUT THE WASL
• WASL-WIKIALITY: Sounds Like a Job for Mythbusters

May 2006

• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: OBSERVING
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: OBSERVING
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: OBSERVING
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: CATEGORIZE
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: CLASSIFY
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: ANALYSIS
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: ANALYSIS
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: ANALYSIS
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: HYPOTHESIZING
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: DETECTING PATTERNS
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: INTERPRET STATEMENTS
• THINKING SKILLS ACTIVITY: CREATIVITY
• Using 21st Century Skills
• CREATING A COLLABORATIVE CONCEPTION: FACILITY FUTURES: by Bob Valiant

November 2005

• New School of Thought / Personal Intelligence Management

June 2005

• HIGHER LEVEL THINKING: COLLECTING AND ORGANIZING DATA by Bob Valiant

May 2005

• WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE OVER CHARTER SCHOOL PERFORMANCE? by Gerald W. Bracey

April 2005

• SELNET NEWS 2005: Submitted by Elizabeth Manning

March 2004

• SELNET NEWS - MARCH 2004 Submitted by Elizabeth Manning
• HIGHER-LEVEL THINKING SKILLS: BECOMING A SKILLED THINKER by Bob Valiant

February 2004

• DRIVING OVER DOOLEY by Bob Valiant

November 2003

• TEACHING FOR THINKING by Bob Valiant

October 2003

• Solutions for Overcrowding

August 2003

• THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE BREAKFAST by Juanita Doyon

July 2003

• WHAT IS YOUR LIFE SCORE? by Bob Valiant

June 2003

• SELNET NEWS JUNE 2003: Composed by Elizabeth Manning
• A TEACHER’S MANIFESTO by Dave Butts

May 2003

• COMPUTERS IN FUTURE CLASSROOMS by Paul Abramson

February 2003

• Letters to the Editor
• Dear Dr. Pfill
• Federal Control

January 2003

• Higher Level Thinking: a Learner’s Perspective

November 2002

• Site Based School Improvement
• 21st Century Basic Skills

October 2002

• Recognizing Propaganda

September 2002

• Longitudinal Effects of the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning
• Responses to Growing Your Child’s Brain

August 2002

• LAB FOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS by Lee Burch
• Growing Your Child’s Brain

May 2002

• The Washington State School Planning and Design Process… in Brief
• Compulsory Microsoft Licensing for Schools
• SELNET-ASCD Introduction

April 2002

• Science Instruction in Oregon and Washington

March 2002

• WHAT’S WORTH KNOWING, and what role can Inquiry play? (Notes for Wenatchee Keynote)
• CHECKLIST FOR PRE-PLANNING RURAL SCHOOL FACILITIES by Bob Valiant

February 2002

• Creating a New School of Thought

January 2002

• SELNET ASCD Membership Information
• Service Learning Featured in ASCD Update
• Service-Learning in the New ESEA Legislation

December 2001

• Performance Assessment Activity #1

November 2001

• Using Technology to Teach
• Red Hat proposes to Enhance Microsoft Settlement Offer by Providing Open Source Software to all school districts NATIONWIDE!
• Science Inquiry Student Investigation Form

September 2001

• Invention
• How Surface Area Affects Evaporation
• PLANNING FOR EDUCATIONAL SPECIFICATIONS by Bob Valiant
• Visitors From the East (8.5)
• In the Bag (8.4)
• A Trip to the Market (8.3)
• Mapping Your Space (8.2)
• Who Walked This Land? (8.1)
• THE PENDULUM
• Visitors Arrive (5.5)
• What’s My Line?: Activity 5.4
• Creating a Lifeline: Activity 5.3
• Surviving the Big Storm: Activity 5.2
• Chromatography Inquiry: Scientific Performance Task
• Sound Inquiry
• Finding Your Place: Activity 5.1
• How Futuristic are You?

August 2001

• The Skills of Observing

March 2001

• Personal Intelligence Management

January 2001

• Inquiry on the Road

August 2000

• Native American Culture Curriculum
• Using What We Know About the Brain To Design Learning Environments

January 2000

• Brain Research and the Great Debates of Learning

Curriculum Planning

Designing Learning Environments

Educational Futures

It's time to kick back

Learning Activities

Learning and the Brain

SELNET-ASCD

Thinking Strategies

WASL DEBUNKING CENTER: What's Wrong with the WASL?

519 North Vancouver
Kennewick, Washington
(509) 783-8883
DEGREES

B.S. in Secondary Education, Eastern Oregon College, 1957.

M.S. in Dairy Chemistry, Cornell University, 1958.

Ed.D. in Ed. Administration, Washington State University, 1984.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES

2000-Present Owner and Senior Consultant, VALIANT, etc. Kennewick, Washington.

VALIANT, etc. is an education and training consulting firm specializing in curriculum, instruction, facility planning, and education management. The firm has clients throughout Central Oregon and Eastern Washington.

Duties include development of Educational Specifications, facilitation of Strategic Planning, design of curriculum materials on Native American Culture and Science Inquiry, long-range facility planning, workshop development and delivery, and grant writing.

1998-2000 Curriculum Specialist, Crook Deschutes Education Service District, Redmond, Oregon

The Crook Deschutes Education Service District serves a large section of Central Oregon including the Bend, Redmond, Crook County, Sisters, and Brothers School Districts.

Duties included curriculum, instruction, planning, professional development, and other consultant services for the districts in the ESD. In addition, these services were provided to districts in Lake, Jefferson, Sherman, Gilliam, and Wheeler counties on a contract basis.

1991-1998 Manager, Education Services Division; Quality Coordinator, SCM Consultants, Inc. Architects and Engineers, Kennewick, Washington.

SCM Consultants is a full-service architecture and engineering firm employing over fifty design professionals. The firm serves a wide area in Washington and Oregon and specializes in educational facilities.

Duties included long-range educational facility planning, program planning, project management, and design and delivery of various professional development activities. Total Quality duties included staff training, team leadership, and marketing.

1979-1991 Assistant Superintendent. Kennewick School District, Kennewick, Washington

During this period the Kennewick School District grew from approximately 10,000 students to 11,500 in grades K-12. The population also became much more diverse during the period with both minority and poverty levels increasing dramatically.

Duties included supervision of 16 principals, directing the basic and special education programs, planning for school renovation and new construction projects, and various other duties as assigned. Fiscal responsibilities included supervision of the development of all school building budgets, the District instructional budget, and budgets for special education, federal and state special purpose grants.

1978-1979 Associate Director, Teacher Corps Project, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

While completing the residency requirement for the Doctorate I was employed full time by Washington State University to administer this project.

Duties included coordinating professional development efforts for teachers, supervising the budget of the project, and serving as liaison with the national Teachers Corps office. I was the lead author of a successful $1,200,000 proposal to continue the project beyond my tenure at the university.

1958-1978 Increasingly responsible positions moving from high school science and math teacher in Oregon to administration in Kennewick.

GRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT

Southern Oregon University: Science Inquiry for Teachers (Prineville, OR)

Heritage College: School/Community Relations (Maui, Hilo, and Tri-Cities); Developing Higher Level Thinking Skills (Tri-Cities)

Washington State University (Pullman): Improvement of Instruction; Supervision; Teaching for Higher Level Thinking

Washington State University (Tri-Cities): Basic Curriculum Design; Improvement of Instruction

Eastern Washington University: Developing Higher Level Thinking Skills (Tri-Cities); Teaching for Higher Level Thinking (Interactive Satellite TV)

Central Washington University: The Change Process in Education

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Presentations:

“Implementing a Native American Culture Curriculum,” a presentation to the Native American Education Summit, The Dalles, Oregon, 2001.

“The Brain, Learning, and Personal Intelligence Management,” a presentation to the National Management Association Hanford Chapter, Richland, Washington, 2000.

“How Does Brain Research Inform the Standards-Based Movement? Or Does It?” A presentation to the New England School Development Council Annual Meeting, Harvard University, 1999.

“Teaching to the Brain: Designing Instruction Based on Brain Research,” a presentation to the Learning and the Brain Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999.

“Current Research on Learning and the Human Brain: Implications for Facility Planners,” a keynote address to the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International, Kelowna, B.C., 1997

“Linking Brain Based Learning to Classroom Activities,” a seminar for secondary school practitioners and architects, Schools Exchange, Minneapolis, 1996.

“Learning and the Brain: Application of Recent Findings to the Design of Learning Environments,” a seminar for school planners and architects, Council of Educational Facility Planners Northeastern Regional Conference, Annapolis, MD, 1996.

“The Brain and the Information Revolution,” a panel discussion with Joel Swerdlow (National Geographic Magazine) and Bernard Solomon (Philadelphia Public Schools) presented to the Council of Educational Facility Planners Northeastern Regional Conference, Annapolis, MD, 1996.

“Use Real-Life Urban School Vignettes to Learn Change Process Strategies,” with Bob Valiant, Jr., an Action Lab presented to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Annual Conference (ASCD), New Orleans, 1996.

Publications:

“Native American Culture Curriculum Units,” North Central Education Service District (Oregon), Condon, Oregon, 2001.

“Cognitive Research and the Great Debates of Learning”, Oregon ASCD Outlook, January, 2000.

“Growing Brain Connections”, Schools in the Middle, NASSP, March/April, 1998.

“Using What We Know About the Brain to Design Learning Environments”, Issue Trak (Council of Educational Facilities Planners International monograph), 1997.

“Planning Your School’s Technology Future”. Designing Places for Learning, ASCD, 1995.

“Schools for a Changing World”, ASCD Educational Futurists, November, 1991.

Consultancies:

RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Richland, WA: Research services regarding class-size policies, Washington State, 2007.

RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Richland, WA: Research services regarding the WASL, 2006-2008.

COLUMBIA BASIN COLLEGE, Pasco, WA: Curriculum development for Critical Thinking Skills course, 2003.

RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Richland, WA: Educational Specifications for Richland High School remodel and replacement, 2003.

TOUCHET SCHOOL DISTRICT, Touchet, WA: Educational Specifications for Touchet School remodel and addition, 2002.

NORTH CENTRAL EDUCATION SERVICE DISTRICT, Wenatchee, WA: Design and deliver four half-day science inquiry professional development workshops and two keynote addresses for K-12 teachers, 2002.

REDMOND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Redmond, OR: Facilitate science inquiry curriculum development project, 2002.

NORTH CENTRAL EDUCATION SERVICE DISTRICT, Condon, OR: Native American Culture Curriculum Development and Staff Training, 2001.

CROOK DESCHUTES EDUCATION SERVICE DISTRICT, Redmond, OR: Design and deliver a Scientific Inquiry professional development program for six school districts, 2000/2001.

NESPELEM SCHOOL DISTRICT, Nespelem, WA: Write Federal grant for Native American school facilities, 2001

NESPELEM SCHOOL DISTRICT, Nespelem, WA: Facilitate district Math Curriculum Study, 2001.

NESPELEM SCHOOL DISTRICT, Nespelem, WA: Develop Study and Survey of school facilities for OSPI report, 2000.

TOUCHET SCHOOL DISTRICT, Touchet, WA: Develop Study and Survey of school facilities for OSPI report, 2000.

REDMOND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Redmond, OR: Facilitate development of district Long-Range Technology Plan, 2000.

MILTON-FREEWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT, Milton-Freewater, OR: Building Condition Report for all district schools, 1998.

MILTON-FREEWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT, Milton-Freewater, OR: Growth Potential and Building Educational Adequacy Study for all district schools, 1997.

SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT, Seattle, WA: Educational Adequacy Report for four “Landmark” schools, 1997.

RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Richland, WA: Long-Range Facility Planning for the District, 1997.

RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT, Richland, WA: Educational Specifications for Carmichael Middle School, 1997.

SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT, Seattle, WA: Ballard High School Adequacy Study, 1997.

PULLMAN SCHOOL DISTRICT, Pullman, WA: Educational Specifications for two elementary schools, 1996.

LAKE WASHINGTON TECHNICAL COLLEGE, Kirkland, WA: Educational Specifications for new science facilities, 1996.

SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT, Seattle, WA: African American Academy Educational Specifications, 1996.

SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT, Seattle, WA: TOPS at Seward Educational Specifications, 1996.

PASCO SCHOOL DISTRICT, Pasco, WA: Long-Range Facility Planning for the District, 1996.

COLUMBIA SCHOOL DISTRICT, Burbank, WA: Educational Specifications for Elementary, Middle, and High School Vocational School Renovations, 1995.