District Communications
I can't help noticing the District's utter failure to communicate with the public on the Denny/Sealth project. Even after the dreadful lack of communication is noted, it doesn't improve. Despite specific promises, the improvements don't appear.
As of this moment, there is no mention of this evening's public meeting about the Denny/Sealth project on the District's News and Calendars page, no mention of it on the News page, no mention of it on the News Releases, there is a mention of it in a P-I article that is referenced on the In the News page, but no help finding it. There is no mention of the meeting on the Building Excellence page, no mention on the Chief Sealth/Denny Campus page, no mention of it on the Project Updates page for the Chief Sealth Denny Campus project, no mention of it on the Building Excellence News and Press Release page, no mention of it on the BEX Calendar of Events page, and, of course, no mention of it on the promised but absent buildingexcellence.org page.
None of these pages have any information about the project beyond the most vague and general descriptions.
The only information about the public meeting from the District is a notice on the Sealth web site. The Denny site doesn't mention it.
As of this moment, there is no mention of this evening's public meeting about the Denny/Sealth project on the District's News and Calendars page, no mention of it on the News page, no mention of it on the News Releases, there is a mention of it in a P-I article that is referenced on the In the News page, but no help finding it. There is no mention of the meeting on the Building Excellence page, no mention on the Chief Sealth/Denny Campus page, no mention of it on the Project Updates page for the Chief Sealth Denny Campus project, no mention of it on the Building Excellence News and Press Release page, no mention of it on the BEX Calendar of Events page, and, of course, no mention of it on the promised but absent buildingexcellence.org page.
None of these pages have any information about the project beyond the most vague and general descriptions.
The only information about the public meeting from the District is a notice on the Sealth web site. The Denny site doesn't mention it.
Comments
I'm going to attend the Denny/Sealth district meeting tonight (there is a community meeting next week)and it should be interesting.
The West Seattle Blog (http://westseattleblog.com/blog/) has had excellent coverage of the issue and been extremely fair in presenting issues from both sides.
It is just going to take a while to move from the "status quo" of the past up to an effective new speed.
Because they were appointed by the Board, I believe that the meetings of the BEX Oversight Committee are open to the public.
I don't think these people are accustomed to having their meetings well attended by the public, but perhaps they would benefit from seeing the faces of families affected by their decisions.
They meet on the second Friday of the month from 8:30am-10:30am in Room 2765 at the JSCEE. Denny/Sealth is on their agenda for the February 8 meeting.
I just checked all of those web sites again and there is still nothing about the issues around the Denny Sealth on any of them.
Believing that stopping the long term damage that this plan can do to our students and community may be naive and might not be possible, but I will at least know we tried.
Thank you all for helping shed light on this.
I spoke with Eleanor Trainer about Hamilton many times. She was always forthright and responsive- more than anyone else in that building. There were a few times when she alluded that her hands were tied in terms of what she was able to do. I asked her specifically about the Building Excellence website and she said that the communications department decided it wasn't a good idea.
I saw her at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and she told me she was resigning her post. Too bad. Eleanor's value to the District was one of the only things all sides in Wallingford agreed upon during the Hamilton issue.
an Update has arrived:
Updated SPS Math page on 2/6/08
still has the same narrow absurd ethnically discriminatory definition of mathematics:
Mathematics is the language and science of patterns and connections. Doing mathematics is an active process of constructing meaning through exploration and inquiry.
The Math Underground
Patterns and Connections, which is a K–6 book, assumes teacher familiarity with either Math Their Way or Math a Way of Thinking. It is a book of why and how--the pedagogical and philosophical next step for both of the earlier books.
The book itself was begun before the Bush administration adopted the phrase “Leave no child behind” for its educational program. The use of the same phrase in Patterns and Connections predates the Bush usage and its meaning in the context of the book is quite different.
http://www.center.edu/Patterns_Connections.shtml
Not very original.
The effect has been a substantial number of software programs guaranteeing student success in any subject area. This is Pandora's Door that allows districts to purchase programs like Cognitive Tutor a product of Carnegie Learning, Inc, Carnegie Ed. Dept, and Diane Briars. The Dean of the Ed Dept has a brother who created the startup in Oakland.
What this means is less direct instruction in support programs with little or no evidence to substantiate their overall success with students. Even Marc Tucker gets listed as a constructivist researcher in Wikipedia. Its shameless and unethical.