Dr Goodloe-Johnson to be on KUOW's The Conversation Today
From the KUOW website:
"Seattle's new school Superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, is in her third week on the job. What has she figured out? She is our guest for this hour of The Conversation. There is no shortage of people with ideas on what's wrong with Seattle public schools. Mayor Greg Nickels says every year the Seattle public schools lose 600 students to private schools or other districts. That's the equivalent of losing a large elementary school each year. We'll find out from Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson where and how she will start to improve the state's largest school district."
The Conversation is from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on 94.9 FM. They archive the show about an hour after it has aired so you can listen to it on your computer anytime.
"Seattle's new school Superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, is in her third week on the job. What has she figured out? She is our guest for this hour of The Conversation. There is no shortage of people with ideas on what's wrong with Seattle public schools. Mayor Greg Nickels says every year the Seattle public schools lose 600 students to private schools or other districts. That's the equivalent of losing a large elementary school each year. We'll find out from Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson where and how she will start to improve the state's largest school district."
The Conversation is from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on 94.9 FM. They archive the show about an hour after it has aired so you can listen to it on your computer anytime.
Comments
The consistent topic was how do we achieve what we want to to lower the achievement gap and keep class sizes down without state funding. She did mention she plans to do a detail analysis to see how they are currently spending money (the school district) and see if there were any better ways to spend it.
It will be interesting to see how things go. The positive is you can definitely tell how she has a strong background in education and knows what she is talking about in that regard.
Well, Greg, I wonder if that has anything to do with the numbers of single family homes being replaced by condos to house, singles ?
We consistently hear that the School District's market share is stable at 71% or 75% or whatever (I have little confidence in the precision of this data). If that's the case, and I have never heard anyone dispute it, then changes in the District's enrollment are due to changes in the city's school-age population.
Havent found that yet
However in 1970s SPS were over enrolled- there were 86,000 students in 117 schools.In 2006, there were 45,900 in 100 schools.
In 1970 Seattle had lost 25,000 residents to other parts of King County- Seattle pop was 530,800.
In 2004, Seattle population was 563,300.
While over half the Seattle population has a B.A. they either aren't having kids or they are moving elsewhere to raise them when they do.
I estimate the latter, given the mobility rate of Seattle residents.
Seattle residents make up about 1/3 of King County.
Density is about what it was in 1950(6,604 per sq mile)
and from the
2000 census(6,715 per sq mile)
Personally- I would rather have the kids back in the city, than all these 25 year olds.
5th graders, don't take up my parking place :)
So obviously Mr Nickels- the reason why the school age population is going down, cannot soley be dumped on the doorstep of SPS.
Has the fact that Seattle is not as liveable a city for families as other areas in the region been considered?
I agree with you.
Anon at 9:34AM
Info pulled from census.gov for the Seattle Public School district.
Total population of SSD: 517,388
Enrolled Public (ages 5-19): 50,492
Enrolled Private (ages 5-19) 11,237
Not Enrolled (ages 5-19): 3,173
Total Ages 5-19: 64,902
Based on this info (2005 data), in SSD, 78% attend Public, 17% attend private, 5% other (home schooled?)I didn't put the age breakdowns in but it varies widely by age (higher private as age increases)
Also, ~13% of the SSD population is aged 5-19. If you add in 3-4 yr olds you get an additional 8,930 kids for a total of 73,832 or ~14% of total population. I don't see how it can work that 80% of residents of SSD don't have children.
By household:
113,030 Households in the SSD.
34,205 HH Married have kids <18
10,547 HH Single mom have kids <18
9374 HH Single dad have kids <18
Total HH with kids <18 = 54,126 or 48%.
I got the number from the district-from a demographic report that is put out for each school& compares the schools to the district.
it is for 2006
in 2005- the number cited was 46,200
However- these numbers are on each schools report- but when I go to OSPI the enrollment for 2005-2006 is 46,070- a smallish difference perhaps- but no wonder we seem to having difficulty teaching math!
Oh, and do we know how many attend out-of-district public schools like Shoreline or Mercer Island? Are they counted in with that "25% in private schools"?
Helen Schinske
The suburbs do a great job in a lot of cases of meeting the needs of middle income families. Their schools are great (Northshore, Bellevue, Shoreline), and cost of living is somewhat lower (though not much). They also seem to be more old fashioned in that the school is the center of the neighborhood. When we lived near Bothell, on football nights, all of the reatail stores would paint their windows and cheer on their teams! This may be appealing to families also.
I personally wouldn't trade living in SEattle for any suburb, but then we are lucky enough to be a able to afford to live in a neighborhood with decent schools.
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Research/
Population_Demographics/Prior_Censuses/
1900-2000_Population_Housing_Trends/
DPDS_007032.asp
In Seattle- the percentage of residents under 20 years is 18.5
In King County the % is 25% and in Washington state 28.6% of residents are under 20 years of age.
Young children comprise smaller percent of Seattle's population in 2000.
Even as the city's population grew by 9 percent between 1990 and 2000 the number of children under 5 years of age fell by 10 percent. In contrast, the number of children ages 5 to 9 rose 2.6 percent during the decade; those 10 to 14 increased by 17 percent; and teens 15 to 19 expanded by 16 percent. Overall, children and teens comprised about one (0.7) percent less of Seattle's population in 2000 than they did in 1990.
I also agree with anon-
While we aren't in the 53.6% of Seattle households with college degrees, yet aren't in the under $30,000 income to qualify for FRL for a family of 4, and while we did send our oldest to private K-12 schools in Seattle, our youngest daughter has been attending SPS since 3rd grade.
We also know many who attended SPS at some point, even if they have gone back to private school & many families like us, who have one in private and one in public.
It isn't necessarily neighborhood-
but availability of programs & fit.
And, Melissa you mentioned that you thought Seattle was a great place to raise kids (I, agree by the way), but you are also in a great neihborhood and have been able to send your kids to Eckstein and Roosevelt. That makes a HUGE difference.
Anon at 9:34
A couple that we know became pregnant while in the process of shopping for their first home in Seattle - they quickly realized they had a choice, to either buy a home in Seattle but not have the baby, or continue renting and have the child. They opted to keep renting, and have a fabulous little boy. Still, this typifies the type of decisions many families have to make who are trying to buy their first home in the city.
Look at the new city Bicycle Master Plan. It is written specifically for adult bicycle commuters, not for recreational bicylists (ie me and my kids on the weekend), and not for kids riding bikes to school - in fairness, they say child bicyclists will be addressed in the pedestrian master plan that is being developed now, though it seems possible that child bicylists could be overlooked.
City buses and mass transportation are not very family friendly - I tried commuting from the south end with my son a few years back, since his daycare was near my work. I eventually quit, because I was tired of him having to endure the glares of fellow commuters (many who were unwilling to give up seats for a mom and toddler). The city is now pushing hard to increase mass transit use, but I don't see where the needs of families are being addressed.
And the schools - yes, we're in the Seattle Schools now, and are having a good experience. It required moving to a certain cluster based on hours of research. The problem for me is at the district level things seem incredibly chaotic, unstable, and disfunctional (even more so after reading this blog for the past 6 months). Your own school might be good, and you devote hours and $$ to improving the school, but you never know when the district will change course and turn everything upside down (past closure processes speak to this). Our son will be going into 4th grade this fall, and we're already planning for him to attend middle school in another district, because my perception is that middle school in Seattle is dismal, unless you're APP.
When we visit the grandparents on the Eastside, I'm always struck by how family friendly their neighborhood is. They have wide, well-maintained sidewalks. Parks that are as nice as Seattle's - festivals, too. A school district that appears to operate smoothly and efficiently. We can't afford to live on the eastside, and in the past, I've been one of those anti-suburban people, but when I look at what the best decision for my children is (in terms of consistent, quality education, the ability to be physically active in one's own neighborhood, adequate housing) the suburbs look pretty good.
Moving forward 25 years, Luckily, when raising my kids, we chose to stay in Seattle, for the very reasons I stated above, even though the burbs would have been much easier on me as a parent when the kids were little. We live across the street from Meadowbrook community center now. The kids can walk across a quiet street, and swim, play tennis, play basketball, attend a class at the community center, play in the stream, take a walk to the beaver pond, play baseball on a well groomed field, run on Nathan Hales track, or just play at the park. All the kids from the neighborhood meet there. In a couple of years, I will encourage them to ride the bus, and explore all of the things Seattle has to offer.
Love our schools too!
( my older daughter lives there)
we were looking at colleges for my rising senior.
not so much traffic as Seattle
1500% better public transportation
Hardly any condos where we were- most rentals seemed to be converted houses, like where my daughter and her two college buddies are living.
Landlords also seem to be more interested in keeping it that way- her house was being landscaped and painted.
The rental next to me in Ballard doesn't get painted or landscaped- possibly why no one stays there more than a year or so. ( when we bought- it was owner occupied)
There were also lots of articles that made the Portland schools sound more progressive- and I didn't bring the paper home cause I thought I could find them online.
Well- if I do find them- I will link.
But I hear ya bout the burbs- I grew up in Kirkland- was living in southwestern Bellevue when we started our family, but then moved to Seattle- because of the lack of independent activities for kids, at least when I was growing up.
I used to like Seattle quite a bit- I still like some parts of it, despite the ridiculous prices and lack of neighborhood parks, but I am looking for a city that has a strong middle class, not one that has subsidized housing and the wealthy and not a lot inbetween.
I Could not have said it better!