Seattle School Board Candidates' Perspectives on Alternative Schools in Seattle
Sorry to interrupt the open thread (please do carry on!), but…
TOPS Parent Wayne Duncan hadn't heard a lot from this year's school board candidates about alternative education, so he asked each of the candidates in the contested School Board races to respond to some questions via email.
The questions were:
Thanks for taking this on, Wayne.
TOPS Parent Wayne Duncan hadn't heard a lot from this year's school board candidates about alternative education, so he asked each of the candidates in the contested School Board races to respond to some questions via email.
The questions were:
- What role do you see for alternative schools in the Seattle School District?
- How do you think alternative schools should be evaluated in the district?
- What goals(s) would you have for alternative schools for the next four years if you are elected/re-elected?
Thanks for taking this on, Wayne.
Comments
In a related note, I wonder if the alternative school audit will ever happen? I know it's been postponed to some unstated time, but do we think it'll ever come back?
Helen Schinske
Helen Schinske
WD- "What goals(s) would you have for alternative schools for the next four years if you are elected/re-elected?"
KSB-"To be used in an aggressive student-teacher collaboration with all colleges/universities in our region…"
owlhouse- Ick. I do not want representatives with no knowledge of alts, let alone the wider school system/ed spectrum, leading the charge in determining what alts can and should be. Note to board candidates, district staff, and edu-philanthro-teers: My child is not your pet or experiment. He is a student and citizen.
Mary has my vote.
I'm thinking of writing in Charlie for Dist 4. sigh.
Why are our options so poor?
Oh, right. Thankless job, no staff, tiny stipend, rubber stamp pressure, budget woes, lack of leadership...
Yet I, too, am concerned about Ms. Patu's statements regarding alternative schools. When she heard the term "alternative school," she automatically thought, "struggling students" when in fact the District recently went to much trouble to separate the concepts of "Alternative" (Board Policy C56.00) and "Safety Net" (Review June 2007 and formation of Safety Net team)
This illustrates too well the problem we have, not just here but nationally. Not only do ALL alternative schools suffer this mistaken idea, but it is partly behind the drive to districts to charters: The public is sold on the idea that schools are "failing, something must be done." The suggestions for "safety net" charters come mainly from "on high" (feds, districts) because, partly, those struggling kids thus targeted often do not have savvy parent/guardians are committed community supporters - they get "choice" in the form of regimented, focused, perhaps scripted pedagogy. Perhaps there's some "business skills" thread or theme (ala' Duncan's Ariel School in Chicago)
Conversely, TRUE alternatives, "merely" different ways of learning to address different learning styles and themes, spring up from the committed community, the active parents (most Seattle Alts were parent/community initiated).
So alts are in danger when alternatives are seen as "Safety Net": programs are delivered from up on the top of the pile (think tanks and corporations, in consultation with often well-meaning movers and shakers)
"Choice" and "Alternative" schools should, in my opinion, be created by the communities who want them, not be dropped into town on some unproven theory, with no community buy-in.
If everyone thinks "alternative" means "students who aren't doing well," then evolving "choice" schools will become safety net, not alternative (unless they're alternative/safety net, but...but RIP, John Marshall, your ghost is walking)
Whither goest the true alternatives, in this scenario? If "data" says students are suffering, and suffering students need alternative schools, and alternative schools are nationally developed charter schools...then lets have some alternative ("safety net") charters!
I'm not being too clear (ach, Friday, yea!) but I fear that alts are seen as troubled kids and troubled kids get regiment and regiment means charters.
Helen Schinske
I wrote in Charlie for #7.
...Ick, indeed.
Think tank alts!
Think tank alts wit' veddy skeddy teeth...dees beeg...veddy skeddy teeth dahdipping wit' da poor remains of the deceased "people's schools"...PS#1, AS#1...
bwah ha ha ha!
(raises cape around face, under eyes...)
And definitely thanks for this info. I'm voting for Mary Bass and WIlson Chin (and I had been somewhat undecided). Patu does seem to view the entire District through the eyes of RBHS--a little too narrow in my opinion.
It would be interesting to know if he could win in district 4 ... though I suppose his address makes him ineligible.
Helen Schinske
I wrote in Charlie for District 7 as well. I know it won't count, but I couldn't vote for either of the names printed.
I think in the best of all worlds SC, they'd be both. What if public education were reflective of and responsive to the community it served WHILE providing the academic, civic and social learning required for a healthy democratic society?
Academic learning, problem solving, recreation, communication, critical thinking, resource allotment, and so on are all part of the growing up experience. To recognize these and other skills necessary for empowered and meaningful experience in the world (as a child or adult) is valid, important, necessary. I think the combination of these qualities are key indicators of "quality" when it comes to schools- alternative, traditional, optional, re-entry...
Now, back to the Halloween costumes.
She may not be able to move the other directors to vote her way but she makes the staff answer the hard questions and she does her best to articulate to her fellow directors that there are other facts/perspectives than the ones the staff gives them.
I'm also voting for Chin. I'm not crazy about him either, but Patu seems completely out of touch with reality.
I'm not very excited this election......sure wish Charlie was still in the race.
Alts are "of" the community when they are supported and "grown" of the community - they are NOT "for" the community when they are airlifted in from outside.
Yes, any public school is "for" the community in that it provides a framework of academic expectations, etc,...even better when these are well thought out and collaborative with the people involved. Some curricula is "for" the community, whether it wants it or not, and that's not necessarily bad; that's why we have boards and compromise.
The "for the community" schools I was referring to would be those designed by think tanks as alternative - esoteric, conceptual, driven by scientists rather than citizens. I was thinking of, "It's FOR your own good...I promise!"
Organize
Choose a spokeperson
Find data and studies that discuss alts (pros and cons)
Find data that serves to demonstrate "success" (surely there is broader data available than mere WASL scores, but find those, too, to demonstrate THAT success...particularly where it represents those identified by the national reformers as "sufferers of the achievement gap."
Pore over data, make the achievement gap a broader, more nuanced picture.
Research "choice": What do people want in choices, what's successful, what's not.
Differentiate between Alt choice and Safety Net choice (again).
Research national safety net trends vis-a-vis charters, et al, and demonstrate that this is not what parents want when they ask for choice (are, say, Roosevelt parents scrambling to support charters for their children?)
Connect to groups targeted by "reform" efforts that aim to close the "achievement gap." Demonstrate that a rich and diverse alternative school offers so much more than a narrow and homogenous charter school.
Use spokesperson as media liason and District liason. Back up spokesperson with solid support and documentation. Use Policy to support efforts. Point out that Policy can change to support effective choices...It already has: IB schools, APP, Safety Net...any school that dvierges from the minstream, at-level district-mandated curriculum must already have some sort of dispensation. Grow these, while staying true to district desires regarding curriculum. Argue for freer pedagogy where it meets district curricular expectations and requirements for assessments. Develop/find/publicize alternative modes of assessment that are effective and can be correlated to nationally normed crap.
When you're done, have a celebratory potluck and congratulate yourselves for helping to rescue quality education from the jaws of mediocrity, and offering all sorts of students...SPP, SpEd, Safety Net, IB, ELD, Multiple-intelligenced...who aren't finding what they need in traditional schools alternative pathways to bright futures.
As for us, a series of unfortunate events has resulted in the fact that more than likely, me and mine are moving to Fullerton, California come semester break. Not all bad though. Of the eight schools in the district we are seriously considering, Great Schools website ranks six high schools higher than a "7." After everything we have gone through with SPS, I was completely amazed that the three top schools have room for my kids. Attendance is dependent on where we choose to live. This means that my boys may actually attend my alma mater . . .
Helen Schinske