SAP - Option/Alternatives
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
Where are the geographic zone enrollment preferences around each school?
Where is the programmatic thinking linking elementary options to continuing programs in middle and high schools. In this question I include Montessori at the middle school level and language immersion at the high school level.
Anyone have other thoughts/insight here? Madrona is the school that stands out to me as having one of the largest shifts in demographics/focus if it becomes an area assignment school.
I can't even imagine the boundary reshuffling that would have to go into making Madrona an option school, which tells me that's not the plan.
Since Madrona is under-enrolled, any student who chooses it gets assigned to it. Consequently, it is already as full as it would be as an Option school, which isn't full enough.
The attendance area for Madrona (from Cherry to John and from 23rd to the water) includes a good mix of income levels. If the school actually draws from this area and if the program is going to be responsive to the needs of the population, then the program is going to have to change. Of course, there is no reason to believe that the program will change to meet the needs of all of the students in the school. The school leadership may choose to continue to focus their attention, service, and program on the needs of a portion of the students and not on the needs of the rest of the students. In that case, I'm not sure what action - if any - would cause the District to intervene.
What's the tiebreaker?
Is this going to apply to Option schools?
South Shore WAS created to serve the neighborhood. It has something of an alternative feel (see their website) but frankly, I would call it alternative light.
One word of advice: When a superintendent points to the board and says "because they said so" and likewise when the board points to staff and says "because they said so", take it as the thinnest of excuses. If it's something you question or feel passionate about, push back via facts and community input. Those thin excuses can fall apart given a compelling argument and the dedication of A LOT of EXTENDED involvement on your end. But it is worth it, IMHO.
There is no geographic tie-breaker for enrollment and assignment to Option Schools. So any student from any part of the district has an equal chance for assignment to SouthShore.
The New School Foundation, however, specifically wants the school to serve students of a certain demographic and from a certain community.
So far, the numbers have worked out, but if all of the families who reject Aki Kurose want SouthShore, they will all get an equal chance at it. And if a family living in Mount Baker or Capitol Hill wants to sent their child to SouthShore - they get an equal opportunity as well.
Melissa notes that Dir. DeBell said at the workshop that definitions need to be worked out.
Montessori is another fire being created. If it isn't a special pedagogy, what is? It simply isn't going to be OK much longer for the District to skate by on its recently overused explanation of an Option school being "A School without an Assignment Zone."
PS: How you can have Graham Hill as an Assigment School Montessori and Old Hay as an Option School Montessori makes no sense to me.
I cannot understand the reasoning behind which schools have been deemed option schools. It seems more geographic convenience than anything else.
I am a proponent of educational choice. But what is the definition of an 'alternative' school in Seattle anyway? It seems to me that much of what was once 'alternative' has been adopted as best practice in general ed. Does a school culture (i.e. no rules, emphasis on social justice (which is hopefully the norm everywhere!) etc. constitute alternative education?
Just curious.
OPTION SCHOOL FEEDER PATTERNS BASED ON MIDDLE SCHOOL ATTENDENCE AREAS
Eckstein – AS#1 K-8, Thornton Creek K-5, Jane Addams K-8
Whitman – Salmon Bay K-8
Hamilton – Salmon Bay K-8
Mercer – Orca K-8
McClure – Old John Hay K-5
Washington – Tops
Aki Kurose – South Shore K-8
Denny – Pathfinder
Madison – Pathfinder
How does this provide equity in access? Ecstein families get to choose from 3 schools while McClure has no access to any true alternative. There is no way that Orca, Salmon Bay and Pathfinder could serve all the families in those geographic areas. They would fill up too quickly. Meanwhile, Jane Addams, AS#1 and Thornton Creek are set up to compete against each other for students in the overcrowded N/NE region but what happens when McDonald and Sandpoint come online?
Why is it that South Shore and Jane Addams are designated option K-8s but Madrona, Broadview Thompson, and Cathrine Blane are not?
The school district shows their ignorance for alternative schools with the new SAP as well as what parents are looking for in choices. All non-traditional programs (IB, Montessori, Language Immersion) should be option schools and there should be no geographic tie breaker or every attendance area should have a school within a school option for one of those. Alternative schools are different and they should have a separate, all city designation If transportation is the issue than they should open it to the public to brainstorm solutions to the problem. The fact that we only have one true alternative high school is a major equity issue.
The "gotcha" is that students will only be eligible for bussing from certain locations. Usually within a middle school service area, or a linked service area if one area has no Option school. Obviously, this puts practical limits on many families' enrollment choices.
As for the lack of definition around alt schools, or lack of a roadmap to place popular programs in all corners of the district, I have no insight. Many parents have been asking for years.
PS: Despite wording in the board policies around Option schools, the administration is currently working with this definition of Option: Any school that doesn't have an attendance area. Add an attendance area and presto, you're not an option school. Take it away and presto, now you're an option school. If you think that's wacky, join the club.
When setting the size of the attendance areas, the District starts with the functional capacity of the school. For high schools they start with 90% of the functional capacity. Then they add the number of students from the area that they expect to be assigned to service schools, the remaining Special Education programs, and APP. Then they add the number of students from the area that they expect to choose Option schools or out-of-area schools. This can be a big variable. What if they expect 50 kids to be assigned to Option schools but, for whatever reason, only 25 actually are? They have to find seats for the 25 students they didn't expect. The more Option schools, the greater the volatility, the harder to estimate. This could lead to some big variances resulting schools that are either over-crowded or under-utilized. It really complicates their capacity management work.
Of course, this is yet another example of operational preferences driving decisions that should be based instead on academic priorities.
1) Language Immersion (full or close to it)
2) Montessouri (full or close to it)
3) Experiential...look at Thornton Creek's/AS2's enrollment numbers on what kids attend from the service area. Put the same program in the South End and figure on equal or more interest.
4) TOPS K-8 school 2 with arts and social issues focus and expected heavy parental involvement including tracked volunteer hours. Put the same program in the South End and figure on equal or more interest.
These are not hard to track. What's hard to track are new program ideas, schools defined as "option" schools by the district for reasons other than programming (South Shore, I think, or schools whose future is uncertain due to district discussion about other use of their facilities (AS1, Jane Addams).