More from the media. First up, Danny Westneat from the Times. Pretty simple and to the point. Schools in crisis? Not really
A new editorial from the Times, this one a little less shrill and strident. However, they now say, grudgingly, that the Mayor could have handled his plan better, Mayor Rice should come in because he knows the lay of the land (no, he doesn't, he knows a lot of people and there's a difference) and that Mayor Rice should not have any time limits on his interim period.
The school district's credibility deficit.
And, an interesting op-ed piece from a former Times editor who moved to Penn. Kind of sobering.
Maybe education matters more here
A new editorial from the Times, this one a little less shrill and strident. However, they now say, grudgingly, that the Mayor could have handled his plan better, Mayor Rice should come in because he knows the lay of the land (no, he doesn't, he knows a lot of people and there's a difference) and that Mayor Rice should not have any time limits on his interim period.
The school district's credibility deficit.
And, an interesting op-ed piece from a former Times editor who moved to Penn. Kind of sobering.
Maybe education matters more here
Comments
It does remind me of when I moved to Berkeley, CA from the Tri-Cities in 8th grade (1984) just for one year. I was in enriched math (advanced) in a upper income middle school in 7th grade - moved to a very urban public middle school where I was a minority (55% of the school was African American including many teachers). I was no longer in the highest advanced math class and I struggled with the second highest level math all year. I also enjoyed a ton more elective classes compared to my middle school's offerings of 3. Even though I was moving back to the Tri-Cities for 9th grade, I was required to register for Berkeley High - it's course book was huge! I couldn't believe how many different classes they had!
Back in the Tri-Cities my freshman year I placed in Honors Algebra - the highest level class a 9th grader could take in math at the time. They used the same text book as the advanced 8th graders used in Berkeley and I ACED the first semester because it was all review work on what I had done the prior year.
Now that I am a parent and reading this article, I'm feeling beyond frustrated that our State's government is not doing more - especially with a budget surplus - I feel like priorities are all messed up.
It does remind me of when I moved to Berkeley, CA from the Tri-Cities in 8th grade (1984) just for one year. I was in enriched math (advanced) in a upper income middle school in 7th grade - moved to a very urban public middle school where I was a minority (55% of the school was African American including many teachers). I was no longer in the highest advanced math class and I struggled with the second highest level math all year. I also enjoyed a ton more elective classes compared to my middle school's offerings of 3. Even though I was moving back to the Tri-Cities for 9th grade, I was required to register for Berkeley High - it's course book was huge! I couldn't believe how many different classes they had!
Back in the Tri-Cities my freshman year I placed in Honors Algebra - the highest level class a 9th grader could take in math at the time. They used the same text book as the advanced 8th graders used in Berkeley and I ACED the first semester because it was all review work on what I had done the prior year.
Now that I am a parent and reading this article, I'm feeling beyond frustrated that our State's government is not doing more - especially with a budget surplus - I feel like priorities are all messed up.
( Seattle spends over $11,000 per student FTE, Bellevue spends $10,000-note that itsn't all directed to the classroom- it includes general- debt service- transportation & capital projects)
However as long as we say " there isn't a crisis in the classroom" in SPS & tolerate students graduating high school ( while we back off on exit exams) only to take remedial classes in college- we can continue to delay real change that will make a difference for the students.