Open Thread Friday
There are no School Board community meetings tomorrow.
Have a Hoppy Easter.
Have a Hoppy Easter.
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
Clueless in Seattle
Cordell, Michelle, and Maria should form a consulting firm to drive organizations into the ground.
Julian
(Yikes: “Special Assistant for School Turnaround”…”Entrepreneur in Residence”….eek!)
Events, Seminars, Topics, etc [my comments on or translation of titles in brackets]:
*(Tour): Denver Green Schools [a “Performance School,” a public charter, with non-union “Partners” for teachers, free to implement its own project-based learning…how nice it must be!]
*Career and Technical Education [Not OUR CTE, but rather “a career IN technical education,” because we all know technology is where it’s at; best to prepare the young-uns, there ain’t nuthin’ else!]
*Teacher Career Pathways [uh oh, you can’t just be a teacher anymore, you need a “career pathway.”]
*Race to the Top Implementation [‘cuz you just can’t get there fast enough!]
*Advancing Reform during Budget Declines [ or, “Diverting Taxpayer’s Remaining Money Into Private Accounts”]
*Teacher Effectiveness : …improve teacher effectiveness from multiple fronts. [“Media Manipulation, Humiliating, and Firing”]
*Evaluating Educator Effectiveness in Non-tested Grades and Subjects [or, “Are Your Teachers Too Old and Expensive?”]
*Innovative use of Technology in Schools [“Wired Metal Exam Chairs: Shocking, Real-Time Feeback”]
*Round Robins featuring: Rocket ship Education, School of One, Carpe Diem Now [ “Isolate Yourself in Space and Learn Today”]
“More so than ever, education leaders are re-thinking how education is delivered to the student. A confluence of factors, including public engagement, policy changes, proof points, and rapidly advancing technology, have made for an unprecedented opportunity for transforming the way students are taught. Alumni will rotate through sessions with representatives from three schools, each which have leveraged technology in very different ways. Understand how they differ from traditional schools for students, teachers and parents. Experience specific technologies, and discuss their success, barriers and potential for scalability. “ [“Scalability and Profit: Economies of Scale Utilizing the Technologies Available in the Production of Workers Educated Enough to be Workers”]
*Tom Vander Ark [Founder and CEO of City Prep, Managing Partner of Learn Capital; Previously Tom served as the Executive Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation]
*Debrief: Innovative use of Technologies in Schools [“The Abacus, Cattle Prods, Robots, and You!”]
Key articles include:
• The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning , M. Horn and H. Staker, Innosight Institute, January 2011
• Lessons for Online Learning, E. Dillon and B. Tucker, Education Next, Spring 2011
• Future Schools, J. Schorr and D. McGriff, Education Next, Spring 2011
Additional materials on featured schools and technology:
School: Carpe Diem (www.cdayuma.com)
Sample Technology: Acuity (www.acuityforschool.com) / e2020 (www.education2020.com)
School: Rocketship Education (www.rsed.org)
Sample Technology: Dreambox (www.dreambox.com)
School: School of One (www.schoolofone.org)
Sample Technology: Wireless Generation (www.wirelessgeneration.com)
Scary, isn't it? I like the survey "how to manage your energy!?"
Mr. Ed
Eliminate teachers and classrooms!
Mr. Ed
Rocketship Education
Individualized Learning Specialist:
A team of five Individualized Learning Specialists work in the Learning Lab of each school. Each Specialist helps to oversee the culture and effectiveness of the daily Learning Lab operation. He or she also works directly with students in whole class, small group, and individual settings to provide academic interventions in literacy and/or math.
Mr. Ed
I clicked on their financial statement for 2010
Income is mostly derived from federal and state moneys.
Scroll down towards bottom, with various incomes/outlays: They appear to be making a tidy profit for a non profit. But what else is new? People profiting off schools wherever possible....
The IT job market must be picking up. In the late 90's they went from stunning arrogance to, "oops! everybody is going to a dot.bomb" back to arrogance after the NASDAQ bust.
Franklin High had 51 of 253 seniors accepted to the U.W.
I've taught PreCalc Honors the last 2 years. I was joking to my principal and v.p. that I wanted a BIGGER piece of merit pay than anyone else, and then I had a flashback to some of the back stabbers I worked under in redmond between '97 and 2002!
The geniuses of Microsoft can't figure out how to pay people to keep them around, BUT, Bill Gates and the Ivy'd yuppies of national Astro - Turfs are going to fix classrooms with merit pay.
I feel bad for the busy and honest people who are being duped by the venal, and I wish the venal would just go work for Cheney at Halliburton or Blackwater or BP or Goldman or AIG.
B.Murphy
That has got to be the most worthless piece of nonsense that I have ever seen, and in a worthless PowerPoint format at that!
I wonder what the board members must have been thinking if and when they viewed this piece of you know what. And to think we probably paid this guy $90K like the rest of the Broadies!
One thing has become clear to me about who Broad brings in to "train". These folks are not the best and the brightest. I am assuming that, looking at the Broad supe's list, first thing is to be a woman or a minority or both, best way to get buy-in, don't look like the paternalistic, wealthy, pompous you know what's that are really running the show. Broad is not picky about capability. It seems rather that they want folks who are willing to do anything for a little power, position and money...anything, including selling their own people down the river.
I think that it would be OK for Jessica DeBarros to take her own time and money to participate in this Broad Reunion but is not an appropriate activity for us to be paying for.
I also think that Jessica is totally unprepared, inexperienced and therefore way over her head in her responsibility to handle TIF grants and oversee teacher evaluations.
It is not an appropriate position for her in terms of her experience or lack thereof and should be reconsidered as one of the many directives that our former supe put into place particularly in the light of this most recent piece of information about her interest and allegiance to Broad.
All those "dissertions", prepared by Broadie plants in large districts nationwide, point out the Broad formula for corporatizing public education. Porter's Five Forces model, my ass.
Julian
That is an astounding statistic... "Franklin High had 51 of 253 seniors accepted to the U.W."
That is an impressive 20% accepted at UW ... WooHoo WOWZERS.... congratulations.... to the entire school.
Watch Arne Duncan and the clowns figure out a way to find some other stat to require Firing You and restructuring Franklin .... because the students need the bold innovation of having their educational environment "turned around" with a big disruption.
See what the School Board President, in the RttT round 1 winning state of Delaware, at the Christina School District has to say about Arne's Turn Around Models..... "Take your RttT money and shove it .... because the MOU Christina signed is a big lie."
=>
http://wdel.com/story.php?id=34033
=====================
So B. Murphy how is it going with "Discovering?"
Andrew Wolf points out that "Dennis Walcott is more of the same: Bloomberg's new chancellor once again lacks classroom experience" (April 8).
Steven Krashen of University of Southern Cal ... writes:
Here is another obvious case: US Education Secretary Arne Duncan has never taught and has no actual credentials in education. He has no background in education other than administration.
His uniformed view that increased testing is the answer to improving schools demonstrates that, like Dennis Walcott, he "lacks the instructional experience to actually fix what is going wrong in our classrooms."
article by Andrew Wolf.
While Dennis Walcott certainly has an understanding of the policy side of education, he still lacks the instructional experience to actually fix what is going wrong in our classrooms. Moreover, as the deputy mayor who has had the education portfolio since the inception of mayoral control, he must share responsibility for the many failings of this administration. This is hardly the clean slate Bloomberg would like us to believe we're being handed.
Indeed, now would be the time for Bloomberg to take a different approach and find a true educator with an instructional vision that reflects his administration's aspirations for our children. But that is not something that can, or should, happen overnight.
The state education commissioner, David Steiner, must now consider a waiver for Walcott, as he did for Black. Certainly the Black fiasco left more than a bit of egg on his face. Perhaps that's why he, too, has announced that he will be leaving his position later this year.
The idea that an under-qualified chancellor can be bolstered by a knowledgeable and certified No. 2 - the condition that swayed Steiner in Black's favor - must also be reexamined. The presence of Deputy Chancellor Shael Polokow-Suransky at Black's side certainly didn't prevent her from failing so spectacularly. We need a chancellor who can stand on his or her own.
From school grades to value-added data, there is a plethora of highly complex issues confronting our schools that require an experienced educator. Along with much of the nation, the state is engaged in the creation of a rigorous new "common core" curriculum, the implementation of which will require deep knowledge of classroom practice.
The irony about the Microsoft article is that while Bill Gates continues to trumpet the benefits of merit pay in education, his company continues a slow spiral towards insignificance. He never has realized that money does and will not buy the results like Google and Apple (See Dan Pink's Youtube video).
Interesting connection between DO NOT CROSS Eli Broad...... and
BROAD was a big Obama donor in the 2008 Pres Campaign. Look at Arne Duncan and Race to the Top's nonsense based turn around models. All four models are absurd.
We seem to have the best government money can buy when it comes to educational decision making.
Whether is was the 2007 Seattle school board election Aug. Primary, Nov. General Election or the 2008 presidential campaign ... Same-ol deal => money trumps evidence ... over and over ... in educational decision making in so aspects.
Read article IX section 1 of State Constitution... Nice unfulfilled words .... and sure to stay that way with the current leaders in place.
http://reuvencarlyle36.com/2011/04/24/an-early-win-in-race-to-the-top-2-without-discord/
Dear Ms Walker... I'm the parent of a 2nd grader at Room 9 Community School.
According to meteorological and nuclear science reports, radioactive fallout from Fukushima is being carried by the jet stream and has contaminated many parts of the US, including the Pacific Northwest.
Radiation from Fukushima has been found in tap water, grass, milk and other places/products. The problem is compounded when radiation is carried to the ground by rain.
I am particularly concerned that children are being exposed to radiation when they are playing outside during recess. It has been raining all day today and my son's school sent children outside for recess.
I asked his teacher and the school secretary what is the school's policy regarding childrens' safety in this situation and they did not know. They suggested I write and ask you.
I am not concerned about radiation sickness...
What I am concerned about is that rising levels of radiation being stored in the body happens cumulatively, no amount of radiation is safe (there are no safe levels of exposure), our childrens' bodies are particularly susceptible to exposure and to radiation accumulation and that exposure will result in high levels of cancer in their peer groups 20 to 30 years from now.
For more information on this issue, I suggest you research the work of Dr Helen Caldicott.
Would you please consider issuing a policy statement that Shoreline public schools should keep their pupils inside on rainy days.
Thank you
Sahila ChangeBringer
tel: 206 679 1738
Good job. Let us know what you find out.
I'm sure I'm obtuse in missing your logic.
You cite the cumulative impacts of radiation.
Per your stream of logic rain will transmit radiation to the soil, and from there it will not disperse during the lifetime of our children.
Are you suggesting children should never play outside in the Pacific NW ever again?
As radiation once introduced will be present in the soil rain or shine what is your suggestion? Move back to New Zealand?
-Soggy (and irradiated) in Seattle
NPR has been running a series of reports about the Chernobyl incident (25 year anniversary) and the its affect on public health over time...
And I have connections in Europe who talk about a ban on the transportation and slaughter of (radioactive) livestock in certain parts of the UK and Europe only just being lifted....
It seems to be perfectly logical to me that if exposure to radiation bearing rain brings an increased risk (particularly) to children, we should not expose them to radiation bearing rain!!!
We adults can choose for ourselves whether or not to take the risk - children dont have the knowledge to make that choice...
Why do we all agree to strap kids into carseats and seatbelts? Because of the (relatively) small risk that they'll be involved in a health-threatening car accident...
Same principle....
Sorry, but this sounds like internet hysteria to me: an unnamed type of radiation that will "never go away" and to which there is no safe level of exposure? I would really need a lot more information to respond if I were the school official you contacted.
Japan's location has helped lessen the effect of radiation from the damaged plant reaching other countries. The prevailing winds are westerlies, so the radioactive plume has typically blown out over the sea and had to cover thousands of miles before it reaches landfall in the US.
Trace amounts of iodine-131 were discovered in drinking water in Idaho and Washington in the US last week, but were so low that the Environmental Protection Agency said an infant would have to drink around 7,000 litres to receive a radiation dose equivalent to one day's worth of natural background radiation.
Other measurements of the air, drinking water, rainfall and milk have all been far below the levels for concern, according to the EPA. The most contaminated drinking water clearly linked to Fukushima was found in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on 28 March, but even in that case, an infant would need to drink 900 litres of the water to receive a dose of radiation they would normally receive in a day from living in the area.
Definitely a situation that needs monitoring over time. Keeping kids out of the rain in WA seems bizarre at the present time... if the data is correct.
Does anyone have data that contradicts this?
www.newscientist.com/article/dn20285-fukushima-radioactive-fallout-nears-chernobyl-levels.html
"Data for the west coast of the United States, which received the Fukushima radioactive fallout 6-10 days before France, reveals that levels of radioactive iodine-131 concentration are 8-10 times higher there, the institute says." ...
CRIIRAD has warned Europeans
that eating leafy vegetables and milk is now considered "risky behavior" due to the
Iodine-131 that is in the food supply, because of Fukushima releasing radioactive materials
into the air.
No amount of radiation is safe... radioactive iodine causes thyroid cancer, especially in children... doses are cumulative... rain brings the radioactive isotopes down to ground level...
I dont know about you, but I'm not sure its appropriate to be nonchalent now, only to see our children suffer elevated cancer rates later in life...
The report she mentions was released by CRIIRAD, which is a French NGO, on April 9th. Read the report and you will find it far less alarmist in tone than Sahila's post, and see that explicitly calls out unprotected exposure to falling rainwater as not a threat.
Measured I-131 in rainwater peaked in Washington on April 25 and is now roughly 50 times lower than before. The state Department of Health does not now and did not before consider any precautions necessary for Washington state residents.
It is in no way surprising that I-131 levels would be significantly higher here than in Europe, both because of the long distance and the fact that the majority of I-131, which is very short lived, would have decayed before reaching Europe.
The radiation levels can be 10 times higher in Europe and still 5000 times lower than is necessary to take precautions here.
But feel free to have your kid sit in the library during recess; I'm sending my kid out.
Clementine
Thank you for the information about the threat of radiation fallout from Japan. A half life of 8 days is very good!
I very much appreciate the professional knowledge and research you have shared.
I have a relative receiving radiation treatment for cancer. She asked about the potential pile on of radiation from Japan. The response from the radioligist was that a person would receive more radiation by flying to Chicago than what is likely to reach us in total from Japan.
Overall, the sun and high altitudes (none which are of high presence in Seattle) pose a greater risk than Japan.
Thank you!!