SPS Updates

Looks like the Highly Capable item on tonight's Board agenda has an updated superintendent procedure draft. The most interesting part is this:


Identification
A Multidisciplinary Selection Committee reviews each candidate's test scores and Teacher/Educator Rating Scales to determine eligibility. SPS’s established eligibility thresholds are not absolute qualifiers or disqualifiers; teacher input is also an important consideration. In order to provide equitable opportunities for all students and to uphold the intent of WAC language regarding protected classes [WAC 392-170-035], the MSC will give special consideration to and assess the impact of the following factors: cultural diversity, SES, linguistic background, and identified disability.



In the field of gifted education, students who are both gifted and disabled are considered twice-exceptional learners. Seattle Public Schools' Advanced Learning Office recognizes the importance of identifying and serving these students both with specialized educational services and through 504 accommodations. Working in close collaboration with school and Special Education personnel, our staff supports these students in a number of important ways. Advanced Learning staff provides accommodations for students during intake assessments, observes students in classes to determine the best accommodations and specially designed instruction (including individual classes in a student’s areas of strength), and participates in Student Intervention Team and Individual Education Plan meetings as needed to ensure students’ needs for gifted services are recognized. Advanced Learning staff also collaborates with experts in the Special Education Department and from the community to provide ongoing professional development for teachers in advanced learning programs. 

As well, it seems that Director Blanford has decided to have a December community meeting after all.  It will be December 20th at the Douglass Truth Library from 10-11:30 am.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I would like to read this, at the 11th hour, with no power to comment or try to change it, but the SPS website keeps giving a 503 error message

-figures
Anonymous said…
"experts in the Special Education Department "

Sorry there are no experts at SPS only minimally qualified people at best, but maybe that's the SPS definition of expert.

--Michael
2E parent said…
Roger Daniels really tries to make AL work for 2E kids.

Unfortunately, Spectrum and APP, with their current focus on acceleration, are just not good programs for a lot of 2E kids. They can be fine for some disabilities, but when the disability results in a low achievement scores, especially if it also makes dealing with 'boring' work difficult, the kid is pretty much out of luck in SPS.

I like this language, but I think any changes will be too late for my kid. We're looking at private middle schools, after a painful elementary career with a bunch of amazing teachers who tried really hard but could only do so much within the constraints of SPS curriculum and student loads.
Anonymous said…
Boom says...

DISTRICT SPECIFIC:
OSPI has ordered the District to complete the special education comprehensive corrective action plan (C-CAP), which includes developing and implementing procedures to address the same type of procedural violations identified in this citizen complaint. OSPI will continue to closely monitor the District's progress toward the completion of the C-CAP.

Some people never learn.
Anonymous said…
exciting to see 2e included in advanced learning - however the current program very much does not support 2e and there will be A LOT of principal and teacher training needed, curriculum changes, and testing changes to accommodate those kids. agree roger daniels knows the challenges and has been active in the SPS 2e parent support group - but he's just one person. trying to explain 2e and getting support/accommodations for my 2e (dyslexia) kids within the current program has been mostly exhausting and frustrating at the elementary school level.

-diane
mirmac1 said…
Roger Daniels is like Gail Morris, Native Amerian Program Mgr, who stands ready to support schools who truly want to fulfill their duty - except those schools don't really give a toot.

That's our district's winning formula that, given the Interim's Friday memo, really amounts to nothing.
Anonymous said…
@ Boom

Where did that come from?


--Michael
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
The APP/HCC haters gonna hate…..

shake it off
2E parent said…
2E = twice exceptional. It means gifted and with a disability. That might be a physical disability like blindness, a neurological disability like autism, or a learning disability like dyslexia or ADD.

General Ed is particularly ill-suited for gifted kids with learning disabilities. Unfortunately, these kids often don't test well, and have a hard time getting into APP. Acceleration isn't what they need anyway, since they can have very uneven development (talks like a college student, writes like a second grader, freaks out in a noisy cafeteria).
Anonymous said…
"In order to provide equitable opportunities for all students and to uphold the intent of WAC language regarding protected classes [WAC 392-170-035], the MSC will give special consideration to and assess the impact of the following factors: cultural diversity, SES, linguistic background, and identified disability."

So HCC program entrance requirements will move from an objective measure to a subjective one based on skin color and ethnicity? Will there be a matrix published listing the different entrance requirements for different categories of students? This is ridiculous, even for PC Seattle.

Stop Institutional Racism.




SIR, I'd like to see the matrix for that one as well.
Anonymous said…
OMG please don't stir up the AP elitist parents...they just don't get it.

de linked
Charlie Mas said…
The Board doesn't vote on superintendent procedures. The superintendent writes them and changes them at his discretion. The Board does have authority to review them and can ask the superintendent to revise them if they have a concern, but I don't think it has ever happened. The superintendent has to make an annual report of all of the procedures that have been added, removed, or amended over the previous year.
De-linked, do you mean APP or AP? Not clear. Or do you not know the difference?
Anonymous said…
I mean the Martin Floeist.

de linked
Anonymous said…
SIR

Do you mean stopping the institutional racism towards non-whites here? That would be a grand idea.

Not Post Racial Yet

Lynn said…
Dude - this blog isn't an institution.
Anonymous said…
Dude, you're right.
Think bigger.

NPRY
Anonymous said…
Working in close collaboration with school and Special Education personnel, our staff supports these students in a number of important ways. Advanced Learning staff provides accommodations for students during intake assessments, observes students in classes to determine the best accommodations and specially designed instruction (including individual classes in a student’s areas of strength), and participates in Student Intervention Team and Individual Education Plan meetings as needed to ensure students’ needs for gifted services are recognized. Advanced Learning staff also collaborates with experts in the Special Education Department and from the community to provide ongoing professional development for teachers in advanced learning programs.

I find to extremely hard believe this is more than pure rhetoric.

Serving 2E SLD students is by far the most difficult and challenging issues facing SPS SPED. These students realize their disability and are more prone to hide it thru various methods, they are also the most at risk of suicide. Unless you are trained and skilled in dealing with these types of students you will only cause harm in attempting to help them.

What a great day it will be when 2Es can get a level playing field, but that day is a long way off for SPS.

Boomer

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