Tuesday Open Thread

From  Seattle Spec Ed PTSA: first meeting of the year - Tuesday, September 27, 7:00-9:00 pm at the John Stanford Center. There will be some time devoted to an open forum to discuss member concerns/ideas, Parent Partners will be joining us, our own Hannah Marzynski will present on the new SPS Spec Ed website and Wyeth Jessee will be our featured speaker talking about all the recent staff changes in special education. And there will be plenty of time for some Q and A. Please join us!

From The Stranger on Mayor Murray's budget and public education:

He's also pledged to "triple public preschool classrooms by 2018 and undertake several education programs focused on racial inequities."

He proposes expanding “My Brother’s Keeper,” a mentoring program for African American male middle school students, increase slots in summer learning programs, and expanding efforts to improve attendance and behavior in schools. 

No word on where he's going to put all those pre-K classrooms.


No word on his promise earlier this year at the Education Summit to end homelessness for Seattle children by the end of this year.

KUOW has a story on the SGP (student growth percentile) that appears on your child's state test score report.
"I hate to hear myself give you this advice, but my advice to parents is to ignore the student growth percentiles," Sireci said. Measurement error is much greater on standardized tests than on a doctor's office scale, he said.
"These growth percentiles are based on two or more tests administered over two or more years, and that measurement error actually compounds," Sireci said. "There is a need to come up with new and better ways to measure students' progress over time, but this is not the way."
 KUOW also had a good (early) story on the new SPS bell times.

Oh joy, a Minecraft game for public schools, from Engadget.

I'm adding this one in - one boy's guide to 3rd grade.  Very cute.

What's on your mind?

Comments

Anonymous said…
@Benjamin Leis, consider going back to the old commenting system. It would be beneficial to have a discussion of the Cascadia split scenarios you've presented and it seems folks are unwilling to post under the new system.

NP
Anonymous said…
what happened with the Principal at Center School and has she moved to world school and what about Rainier Beach was that Principal named.

- curious
It looks like World School's principal is Concie Pedroza who I know nothing about but I don't think she was the principal at Center School.

And Curious' query reminds me why I dislike that the district does not ask for some uniformity for school webpages. I couldn't easily find all the principals so I actually don't know who is the principal at RBHS.

One interesting thing - it appears RBHS has a larger staff than West Seattle even thought West Seattle has a much larger population.
madpark said…
What is the story with Center School? Enrollment down, someone posted arts spending had been cut, principal moved. Is it change of direction or end of the line?

Anonymous said…
With the staffing adjustments announced yesterday, I'm wondering how many schools were able to eliminate split level classrooms?

-StepJ
Cynthia K said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Just sayin said…
I recommend reading the last Friday memo-- Nyland says that due to the projected growth In our area each region needs two comprehensive high schools and that after Lincoln is built central will be the only one w/o two. he mention Seattle Center, meeting with Mayor, and discussion points... Interesting.... Difficult to imagine...

http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/Friday%20Memos/2016-17/Sept%2016/20160916_FridayMemo_SeattleCenterVisioningTalkingPoints.pdf


http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/Friday%20Memos/2016-17/Sept%2016/20160916_FridayMemo.pdf
Anonymous said…
the Center School was rumored to be losing their Principal Briskova and she was moving to World School for what position I have no idea. Not that the World School is any great shakes but it makes people feel good until you go there and actually witness the classes and the warehousing.

But then you have Center School where the website does not show Jon Greenberg Did he leave finally?

And RBHS should have had an announcement of a Principal given their problems with the IB funding this may mean that no one wants the gig and they still have an interim?

- Curious
SusanH said…
I too am curious about the principal situation at both Center School and RBHS, as those are the two schools we are looking at for our daughter for next year.

So if anyone has insider info - or an opinion about the future viability of the Center School and/or the IB program at Beach, I'd love to hear it!
Lynn said…
The agenda for today's work sessions has been posted.

The district is so far behind on planning for the increased graduation requirements (which will affect next year's ninth grade students) that I had assumed there would be a sense of urgency on this issue. They are making just one recommendation now - that the policy that requires 21 credits for graduation be updated to reflect the new law. The presentation notes that staff will be reviewing additional policies but no other changes will go into effect in 2017.

To recap, next year's freshman cannot fail any classes, take less than six classes per semester or have a T.A. period on their schedule and graduate on time. Every one of them must pass two years of world language classes (or substitute personalized pathways classes - which are not yet defined). High schools will have to hire more world language teachers or limit the number of third and fourth year language classes offered. Students will have to pass three science classes. Schools will have to hire additional science teachers.
Anonymous said…
Fascinating - thanks for posting the link Lynn
- I'm guessing that the whole discussion of Executive Directors rests on page 30 - where they show that other districts have lower ED to Principal supervised ratios, and thereby hangs a tale - "we need more EDs...our poor little EDs are overwhelmed...." aiyiyi

If ever there was a cost cutting measure that would truly help the classroom, it would be doing away with the Executive Director category entirely...everyone who believes that will happen, raise their hands...nope didn't think so ;o)

reader47

r
Just sayin said…
See nyland's Friday memo... Plan for comprehensive high school at Seattle center. I imagine center school would...?
Anonymous said…
Hear, hear, reader47. I think that every single time I hear the district say they simply don't have the money for a teacher to keep every child in a school being shuffled a month into the school year, or a counselor for a school 1 under the line which will certainly get more kids during the year. Yes you do. You are just wasting it on ED's and depleting the principal corp while you do it.

-sleeper

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