SAP - Immersion/Montessori
Open Thread.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
My kids are at JSIS and Hamilton in Spanish immersion and the address-locater says they will go to Roosevelt (as most JSIS/Hamilton kids probably are). But will immersion students have an opportunity to go to Ingraham, or is the entire program doomed to Roosevelt?
Also, I'm cautiously optimistic about Mercer Middle becoming an "International" school, but what does that mean exactly? Will it be in international school, or an international program at a school? Obviously, only the kids coming from Beacon Hill International will have years of immersion experience, how will the kids from the remaining feeder elementary schools be included?
Some families will move older children to the new assigned school of the younger sib, others will live with having kids at several schools. A few will get younger sibs in with the older through "option seats" via lottery. If your cousins have all their children at Bagley now, the way I read things they can stay there. But they won't be able to move on to the middle school that Bagley feeds; they will need to go to the middle school fed by their assignment elementary. (Of course, in your cousins' case it looks like Bagley and Loyal Heights both feed to Whitman, so the point is moot.)
Hope someone can correct this if I got it wrong, but I think this is the plan as it stands now.
Hamilton needs to advocate for a designated immersion high school and if Ingraham wants it, then tell the district. Don't blame Roosevelt.
They said at the meeting last night that kids from other schools (than Beacon Hill) could participate in the foreign language immersion at Mercer but no details.
Cas, they can stay where they are. Tracy said and the presentation reflects that as long as you stay IN the district, you can stay where you originally enrolled. Sibs, there's another story. However, if you leave a school and go to another school, then try to get back in the original school, you can't get back in (unless there's room).
Lisa, I think they would feed into whatever middle school their address is attached to, not where they went to elementary. Good question to ask Tracy just in case.
1) sibling
2) attendance at an elementary feeder school
3) lottery
Sorry about the "doomed to Roosevelt" comment. I really am overjoyed -- Roosevelt is, after all, the gold standard of high schools in Seattle, and we're very lucky to live where we do.
About international middle schools ---
Hamilton is the first "international middle school". All that means is that Spanish and Japanese language classes are offered in all grades. And now we have a full band/orchestra program at Hamilton, which competes with language (if you want to do both music and world language you have to get a P.E. waiver).
What each international middle schools needs is an international program director (at least 1/2 time) on staff to develop ways to infuse an international focus into all curriculum areas. But the district can't pay for that.
Beyond providing world language classes, there is no "international" program at the "international" middle schools. That is -- unless parents/PTA can somehow provide it. And I don't see that happening at Denny or Mercer. Maybe someday at Hamilton, but that's a nice bit of inequity.
My point is that the district should decide what constitutes an international middle school and then make sure those things are funded at all international middle schools. Don't wait for parents to make it up at each individual school.
Same thing with high school -- so far it's been left to parents to take the lead and "advocate" for an international high school, without any guidance from the district. It's just a little weird.
I am in the fortunate position of having a kindergartner who has just started in a SPS Montessori program (we missed out on immersion) - however, based on the new SAP, it seems that her 2 year old sister will not be afforded the same opportunity. Is there any thought for providing some form of sibling preference for Montessori programs and the like?
We are new to SPS with a K student, so I don't know what the early discussions were about language immersion tracking in the district, but I wish that from the beginning an international high school had been part of the deal.
From my count, Portland has nine elementary schools, three middle schools, and six high schools with language immersion! Incredible! They also have a range of other option/magnet schools:
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/docs/e_rsc_focus_options_0910.pdf
A little history...
The Montessori Program at Graham was developed as a response to low enrollment at the school, which sits smack dab in the middle of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood that, understandably, sends its children to religious school. A group of parents from the surrounding neighborhoods lobbied for Montessori and made it happen approx 15 years ago.
Consequently, the Montessori program draws from a much wider circle than the one now indicated by the District. I suspect the school may have problems filling the program if it can't draw from further away (though I guess then there'd be space and people could get in easily?).
Upshot: I agree, Montessori schools should be Option Schools (or as in the case of GH, an optional program with a broader reach than the traditional program in the school).
One thing to consider: There are very few schools that train and certify Montessori Teachers at the upper grade levels. Staffing Montessori elementary schools can be a challenge; I assume it's even more difficult at the MS level. And, for those in the know, Maria Montessori was not a huge proponent of academics at the MS level. She believed the kids were so busy dealing with physical development and hormonal changes that they should spend those years working on a farm.
Isabel, you're right that the District needs to clarify what an International School is and provide resources and equity. Great that there will be foreign language classes, but will there be different levels of instruction based on a student's experience? Five years of language immersion would seem to give students from international elementary schools a distinct advantage. Remember, there is only one of five or so feeder elementaries offering immersion.
Hamilton offers world language classes to all their students. Students who already have high proficiency (JSIS students and heritage speakers) are in advanced classes, but most classes are beginning/intermediate to serve the majority of Hamilton's students who did not take a language in elementary school.
I agree that JSIS and all language immersion elementaries should be option schools with a clear path through high school.
I suggest others do the same.
I think the comment that the superintendent made at the Eckstein mtg. that Beacon Hill became an international school to serve the community rather than to provide more access to immersion programs hilarious. Is that why JSIS was started out north?
Why don't we have Tagalog, Amharic, Oromo, Somali & Vietnamese language immersion programs in the south end then?
I'd be very curious to see statistics about "heritage" speaker participation at Beacon Hill. All of the folks I know who have kids there or are clamoring to get in are native English speakers.
If they are decisions, how were these decisions made? Did they follow the usual Program Placement process? Where is the data and the rationale to support these decisions? How was public input gathered for these decisions? How were stakeholders engaged?
If these are not yet decisions but only proposals so far, the same questions apply. Will they follow the usual Program Placement process before being finalized? Where is the data and rationale to support these proposals? How will public input be gathered for these decisions? How will stakeholders be engaged? In addition, how will any changes in these proposals alter the boundaries? Will there really be any possibility that these proposals will not become final decisions? At Seattle Public Schools, proposals have a way of becoming decisions largely through inertia and without any authentic opportunity to divert them from that path.
So I want to know, how was the program placement decision made to put a Montessori program at Old Hay (soon to be Sharples)? Is this a decision or a proposal? What process was done and what process is coming?
What other program placement decisions could be made at the same time? Is the process open to others? Could I get a proposal fast-tracked the same way? For example, could I get a proposal for a language immersion program at Columbia fast-tracked the same way that the District has fast-tracked the Montessori program at Sharples? If not, why not? Wouldn't it take up the same capacity as Rainier View? Couldn't the District re-open Columbia instead of re-opening Rainier View? Wouldn't that make more sense since we already have a tenant for Rainier View and we aren't getting any revenue from Columbia?
Then again, evidently the Superintendent claims Beacon Hill became an immersion school to serve neighborhood needs rather than to provide equitable access to immersion programs.