Seattle School Board Meeting (Part Two)
The first item on the Action item portion of the agenda was the conditional certification authorization for TFA hires.
As it turns out, only two names were put forth. You may recall, that there were 3 names (plus 1 other person but already she has a teaching certificate but joined TFA anyway). One of the hires was withdrawn and I gather that the SEA raised some concerns about the hiring process on this particular person. So it was announced that there will be another round of interviews for this position in the next couple of weeks and I assume this person will apply again.
Holly Ferguson, the new (deep breath) Executive Director of Partnerships, Policy and Strategic Communications, got up to answer questions. She explained that the hiring process included a review of applications materials, references, hiring committee, etc. )I will have to defer to StopTFA about Ms. Ferguson's statement about whether the recruits are highly qualified under NCLB and OSPI. There is a nuance to it and I'm not sure if Ms. Ferguson explained it clearly.) She did not state if they were enrolled in the UW's U-ACT program which is part of the condition of hiring them.
Betty Patu asked if they had certificates (she was a little confused on the process). Ms. Ferguson said no, that the Board has to approve their hire and then OSPI will approve their certificates. Betty asked if they had taken a required test, the WEST-E and Ms. Ferguson said that TFA had told the district "that they either have taken it or will be."
What? The problem here is that the next testing is in mid-September after school starts. If parents have to accept a teacher with 5-weeks training, they do get to at least make sure they have done everything required of them to get conditional certification BEFORE school starts.
Betty asked about see the test scores which seemed to surprise Ms. Ferguson who said she could find out.
Kay Smith Blum said her comfort level was low because of the lack of a definitive answer on whether the candidates had fulfilled the requirements. She said it would be good to have a process in place to verify if candidates had met standards. Holly said it was a "great idea" and she would get that piece into the pipeline.
Really? This is new idea to have verified that all teachers in the district have met the requirements under their certification and it can be demonstrated that it is so? Isn't this what HR does?
Then Sherry Carr asked about the TFA fee and who was going to pay for non-math/science recruits (as Washington STEM is paying that fee). Holly said there was going to be no impact to SPS on that area. Susan Enfield, visibly unhappy, said that there was a source. Sherry said well, do they want to remain anonymous? Enfield said no but the donor would be revealed when hires are made.
Honestly, is this a state secret? A donor has committed to paying but doesn't want their name revealed until the hires are made? My money is now on the Bezos Foundation (with an outside chance of Seattle Foundation). Part of me wonders if it is a single person, though.
Kay stated that her initial yes vote for TFA was to give principals options but with no definitive answers on the requirements being met that she would abstain from the vote.
Betty said she was the only one who voted against TFA and said she felt that the district had laid off first and second year teachers and they should be the ones offered these jobs. She said she, too, would abstain.
Steve Sundquist said he "absolutely supported TFA in SPS" and that all the reasons stated for bringing them in were still "broadly true" (whatever that means). He went on to say that TFA has more people of color and that the PESB had approved their application.
Sherry thanked the SEA for bringing up their concerns over the last 24 hours (I'm assuming this is in reference to the one candidate who got pulled).
So the vote was for 4-0-2 (Carr, Sundquist, Maier and Martin-Morris - for; there were no "no" votes and two abstaining (Smith-Blum and Patu). Director DeBell was not present. I have to wonder what his vote would have been.
So in spite of the fact that there was no definitive answer about whether these candidates have met all the requirements, four Board members, all the incumbents running again, voted yes.
This is again a case of taking staff's word for something (which they did with Silas Potter and Fred Stephens and look where that got us).
As it turns out, only two names were put forth. You may recall, that there were 3 names (plus 1 other person but already she has a teaching certificate but joined TFA anyway). One of the hires was withdrawn and I gather that the SEA raised some concerns about the hiring process on this particular person. So it was announced that there will be another round of interviews for this position in the next couple of weeks and I assume this person will apply again.
Holly Ferguson, the new (deep breath) Executive Director of Partnerships, Policy and Strategic Communications, got up to answer questions. She explained that the hiring process included a review of applications materials, references, hiring committee, etc. )I will have to defer to StopTFA about Ms. Ferguson's statement about whether the recruits are highly qualified under NCLB and OSPI. There is a nuance to it and I'm not sure if Ms. Ferguson explained it clearly.) She did not state if they were enrolled in the UW's U-ACT program which is part of the condition of hiring them.
Betty Patu asked if they had certificates (she was a little confused on the process). Ms. Ferguson said no, that the Board has to approve their hire and then OSPI will approve their certificates. Betty asked if they had taken a required test, the WEST-E and Ms. Ferguson said that TFA had told the district "that they either have taken it or will be."
What? The problem here is that the next testing is in mid-September after school starts. If parents have to accept a teacher with 5-weeks training, they do get to at least make sure they have done everything required of them to get conditional certification BEFORE school starts.
Betty asked about see the test scores which seemed to surprise Ms. Ferguson who said she could find out.
Kay Smith Blum said her comfort level was low because of the lack of a definitive answer on whether the candidates had fulfilled the requirements. She said it would be good to have a process in place to verify if candidates had met standards. Holly said it was a "great idea" and she would get that piece into the pipeline.
Really? This is new idea to have verified that all teachers in the district have met the requirements under their certification and it can be demonstrated that it is so? Isn't this what HR does?
Then Sherry Carr asked about the TFA fee and who was going to pay for non-math/science recruits (as Washington STEM is paying that fee). Holly said there was going to be no impact to SPS on that area. Susan Enfield, visibly unhappy, said that there was a source. Sherry said well, do they want to remain anonymous? Enfield said no but the donor would be revealed when hires are made.
Honestly, is this a state secret? A donor has committed to paying but doesn't want their name revealed until the hires are made? My money is now on the Bezos Foundation (with an outside chance of Seattle Foundation). Part of me wonders if it is a single person, though.
Kay stated that her initial yes vote for TFA was to give principals options but with no definitive answers on the requirements being met that she would abstain from the vote.
Betty said she was the only one who voted against TFA and said she felt that the district had laid off first and second year teachers and they should be the ones offered these jobs. She said she, too, would abstain.
Steve Sundquist said he "absolutely supported TFA in SPS" and that all the reasons stated for bringing them in were still "broadly true" (whatever that means). He went on to say that TFA has more people of color and that the PESB had approved their application.
Sherry thanked the SEA for bringing up their concerns over the last 24 hours (I'm assuming this is in reference to the one candidate who got pulled).
So the vote was for 4-0-2 (Carr, Sundquist, Maier and Martin-Morris - for; there were no "no" votes and two abstaining (Smith-Blum and Patu). Director DeBell was not present. I have to wonder what his vote would have been.
So in spite of the fact that there was no definitive answer about whether these candidates have met all the requirements, four Board members, all the incumbents running again, voted yes.
This is again a case of taking staff's word for something (which they did with Silas Potter and Fred Stephens and look where that got us).
Comments
They don't know if they met the requirements and they don't know how it is going to be paid for.
I can't help but wonder under what circumstances they would vote no.
I can only guess that it would be under no circumstances.
If these people have not taken and passed the tests, they are not enrolled (RCW 28A.660.040(4)(b). Plain and simple. So it doesn't matter if they have PhDs in the core subject matter, they should not be hired because they are not HQ.
How's that for a Great Idea! Hiring experienced highly qualified teachers for the students at Aki!
Of course, my next thread - on SPS and TFA - and the e-mail between them. Some of that may explain a lot.
-skeptical-
Very funny unconscious mispeak - "broadly" for Broad Foundation...?
-JC.
Of course they are. Their handlers, the foundations that paid for their campaigns and the administration, are for TFA.
Did anyone expect a different result?
Then we'll all go for a Koch down at Sam's place.
4 days a week, 8 hours a day, 900 hours of training, 2 state tests - that is what she told me.
THE criteria which determine how the Gang of Yes school board members vote are 'sophisticated' variations of the criteria of high school cliques - what are the cool kids doing to be cool?
AllTheKoolKidsDoIt
And it's worth posting again and again:
http://kochbrothersexposed.com/education/
-JC.
Can anyone possibly want this woman to become permanent superintendent? We need a person who has ethics, not some politico who is hiding public information from her bosses and the public during a school board meeting. I hope people are mobilizing to insist that the new school board hire someone who is not on a power trip. This behavior is scary.
She’s the one who vowed transparency with Steve Sundquist, when they did the media circuit after the MGJ firing. The only thing transparent about Susan Enfield is her desire to do whatever it takes to get ahead.
--the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior
Bezos is a good guess. Here's another candidate: Amgen. Probably only for STEM candidates though.
How many open positions are there? Some here are betting that September will see lots of TfA last minute hires. I am not placing bets though as I just don't have any intuition about it.
Or will a private donor support UW in providing all that resources to a handful of CM?
UW really needs 50 to be financially viable. Willing to be in the red for a couple years to build up to that 50. How long will they be able to run in the red with a handful???
Too bad that you or some of the others with two or three degrees of separation from the nexus couldn't be at the board meeting.
Then you could have given Holly Ferguson and the HIGHLY PAID SSD
employees the basic informaion they neglected to have ready during a public presentation.
--the bar keeps getting lower and lower
And according to the wide world of the internet, Ms Abernathy has been teaching for almost two years already and is halfway through a masters in education.
However, why was Holly so coy and unforthcoming? The board had a clear task to approve conditional certificates. It's simple really. The board simply needed assurance that all proper conditions were met. They were going to trust and not verify. They were more than ready to take Holly at her word. However, she couldn't even say that she knew for sure that they had met the conditions. Isn't that bizarre?
It is odd that Stop TFA got an answer of yes, they passed the tests and the Board got a vague answer. Makes you wonder.
Losing faith in Enfield on this issue? Wait for my thread on SPS and TFA. It's pretty depressing.
She is on a clear mission to promote Susan, first and foremost.
The TfA info (whatever it reveals in detail) will only substantiate her pattern of ingratiating herself with the biggest players she can find.
The students and staff, as well as the families and community, deserve a public servant, not a blatant self-promoter.
--8 jobs in 10 years (Susan's personal Race to the Top)
What do you mean -- gee, it would be a good idea to have a process -- and thanks for the good idea, we'll do that? What does this administration DO!!! Boy, I hope Kay pulled Dr. E aside after that meeting and read her the complete and total riot act!
And Kay -- VOTE NO! Abstention is just a little "tsk, tsk -- maybe I don't want my hands sullied with this tripe after all, since you haven't bothered to jump through even the most minor of hoops!" This was the TfA meeting. These folks knew, or certainly should have, if not brain dead, that all this stuff mattered a LOT -- because a LOT OF PEOPLE really don't think they cotton much to TfA. And, despite all that, staff couldn't answer the most basic questions about qualifications, and couldn't identify any source for funding of the $4,000 "big ed reform" shakedown payment that TfA demands?
We are way beyond "tsk tsk" here. We needed a NO vote -- from BOTH Betty and Kay. As I see it, everybody else just played their predictable, dismal parts (SSD Administration -- shifty, maybe lying, at best trying to divert attention from the man behind the curtain; staff -- unprepared, clueless, maybe lying by omission, trying their damnedest to avoid telling anyone anything; Board Group of Four -- usual bobblehead nodding response. There was the predictable "Lucy and the football" moment by Sherry -- where she pretends to be all "governy" by asking good questions, and maybe even pressing for an answer that is not a weaselly copout -- but then yanks that football back and subsides into a sheep vote like the rest. Frankly, the biggest surprise was Steve's impassioned rallying cry for TfA. I suspect that he has figured out that he can't possibly divorce himself from his years of ed reform kowtowing, and has decided that his best hope for reelection is to now be really loud and enthusiastic about it all -- in hopes that people will mistake fervent enthusiasm for good sense and prudent decisionmaking.
Melissa, I am trying hard to find it in my heart to be as charitable towards Kay's vote as you were (and I like Kay) -- but I can't get there. At least not yet.
Aaah, Braessae, you put your finger on it there. I really want to believe in Sherry (I do believe incumbancy can be valuable in a School Board race). But this is why I voted against her in the primary and probably will again in the general election.
I feel like Harium did something similar in his early votes: he acted all independent and principled, but only when his vote would not change the actual outcome. And he never seemed to make an effort to put together a coalition to defeat the majority. That is why my vote will be with Buetow in the general.
(I'd better start collecting signs!)
Why do we continue to suffer the continued presence of Holly Ferguson on the public payroll?
-- Ivan Weiss
Makes you wonder why you can't get someone like StopTFA on the board...
--reader
*6. Certificated MQ Required Question 1: Will you have a Washington State Teaching Credential or an Educational Staff Associate Credential (ESA) by your hire date?
Yes
No
*7. Certificated MQ Required Question 2: Does your Washington State Teaching Credential or Educational Staff Associate Certificate (ESA) qualify you to perform the duties in the area (s) for which you are applying?
Yes
No
*8. Certificated MQ Required Question 3: Are you "highly qualified" according to the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) federal regulations in the subject area (s) for which you are applying? If you are applying for a position that does not fit under the NCLB regulations, please check "yes".
Yes
No
*9. A Required Question 1:Are you a current Seattle Public School employee?
Yes
No
10. A Required Question 2:If you are a Seattle Public School employee, please check the appropriate box below indicating your current status:
Continuing Certificated Contract
Substitute
Long Term Substitute
Displaced Employee
Classified Employee
*11. Certificated MQ Required Question 2A: Please list the endorsement(s) that appear on your Washington State Teaching Certificate/Permit.
If answered correctly (and of course truthfully), I would presume no TFA applicants would get past HR (for example, conditional certificates do not carry endorsements). Someone of Ms. Ferguson's rank should be able to get this information lickety split, if she bothered to inquire. She was asked by the Board to answer a constituent's question (for what that's worth!)
It is apparent some people are NOT doing their job. And who pays the price for this?
Talk about low expectations. Yes, you would hope HR did do their jobs but as we have learned, oversight is not the district's strong suit.
No one is in the way of anyone's job. It's making sure that the least qualified people put in classrooms at least did what they were supposed to in order to be there.
StopTFA, you're definitely not making sense since the candidates wound up being highly qualified by definition in the first place (though uncertified).
--reader
I really appreciate your comments! I'm so tired of reading StopTFA and Melissa Westbrook continue to talk about the TFA candidates not being highly qualified. By alluding that the two candidates are not highly qualified over and over again, despite information that they both have passed the West-Es, makes me question the memory of these two bloggers. Can we move on to a new conversation already?
funny, I thought you spelled it with a "y"...
Were you talking about Westeee who heard from a friend of a friend that they both passed and therefore are hunky-dory? That's funny because nobody slated to go to the UW's TFA program has taken the MS Math West-E and passed.
Maybe they're one of those TFA says are going to take it someday. It'll have to be before UW's fall quarter starts, which'll be tough because the next test isn't until 9/17 with results announced 10/11. They cannot enroll until then.
Oh, and a new conversation is on another thread.
And you know this how? Based on what information?
Also, this thread is about TFA. I have started several other threads on other topics.
People on this blog are supporting vulnerable students who are about to be experimented upon by teachers who would have been deemed unqualified were it not for an eleventh hour political move by Congress that allowed politics to trump over the courts (which voted protect to the best interests of the most vulnerable (primarily students of color living in poverty)by making sure they had the most qualified teacher.
The fact the citizens on this blog expect the highly paid hired staff at SPS to do their job in the most minimal manner has nothing to do with the individuals who were hired.
There are many people who will continue to advocate for the students at Aki and the other students in this district.
Although we wish these new hires well, they are in no way the focus of this thread. Please do not continue to confuse advocacy for the students with your advocacy for these two individuals. You have missed the point entirely.
In the meantime, you have started a type of namecalling that is now banned even on the playground.
--missing the forest for the trees
I will now make a blanket apology. I am the contributor who can be assured to have at least one typo per entry (like above--@missing the forest). I love computers but am the worst typist since Sam Spade. Please continue to accept my apologies for these assured typos.
--two fingered Tina
-trying to stay hopeful
You wrote, "I hope people don't take it out on these young TFAs. They came here wanting to do the right thing..."
Hmm, what IS "the right thing"? And how do we know they came here wanting to do it? If we are talking about education, isn't the "right thing" to commit to learning the art of teaching: spend a year or so learning all the various pedagogies, laws, content, etc; apprenticing as a student teacher to get practiced with an old hand; get a certificate from the state the honors and recognizes the commitment thus demonstrated; compete with others who have made the same commitment for a job; stick with it for years and years, continuing to grow more experienced in the classroom and out, while sticking with a system that often closes programs and schools at whim, changes curriculum, changes routines, adds (never subtracts) test upon test...
THAT is the right thing if one is committed to teaching. We do NOT knopw if the new TFAers are commited, in fact, given TFA's record, we might well assume that they came here looking to make money, pay off debt, gain a notch in the resume belt, and climb on outta the classroom to higher pay in some other venture or as an education manager up there with the other great thinkers, Michelle Rhee and Tom Stritikus, who likewise bailed on the classroom, which WASN'T the right thing to do.
I HOPE the new TFAers came to Seattle to teach, and to stick with it. That would be the right thing (tho' they bypassed the rigorous preparations others have undergone). But maybe they're here just to say they've done it.
-anyway still staying hopeful
You are so ight: At twenty or twenty five we are often soooo sure of what we want to do (and often driven by our ideals). I hope that those that join TFA are driven by ideals and have good hearts, and aren't merely sold on TFA by the massive recruitment drives on campuses (with promises of loan repayment assistance and other bennies)
One can hope that TFAers are truly desirous of doing "the right thing," but be aware that TFA itself purports only to train future leaders (and there attrition rate supports that claim.)
Yet, as the actress Ruth Gordon once said, paraphrasing Thornton Wilder I think, "the dreaming soul of the human race hopes that everything works out right!"
By the time they are in the classroom TFA teachers will have taken their WEST-E's and will be considered highly qualified. Please check out www.letitrainclosethegap@blogspot.com to read more about some of these highly qualified candidates.
Amazing this, and amazing that. Relentless push. No excuses. Whatever it takes. Get the job done. Every moment is strategic.
Awesome sound bites. And yet, utterly meaningless with no specifics, no meat, nothing real whatsoever.
These kids can have an A for attitude, and some may actually have experience prior to coming to SPS - good for them. But hey, get a degree and get in line. Cause there's nothing to say you're any better than the next eager up-and-comer that actually took the time and effort to get a real teaching degree, and will statistically stay in teaching much longer. There's nothing, I repeat NOTHING that makes anyone a better teacher just because they're a TfA member. And yet that's what's implied in the writings on your blog.
To be devil's advocate, and knowing how large awkward institutions operate, - Holly (and Ron E) also protects the district from hundreds of thousands of dollars of resource-sucking lawsuits. Part of that protection is provided by offering non-answers (in regards to policy especially) and playing bad cop. She also has the unenviable position of being the mouthpiece for higher-ups that want to deseminate bad news, without actually being the person to have crafted that bad news. Note also her lawyer background -she knows that giving info before it's ripe can be just as damaging if not worse than misinformation. Lastly, she's one of the few (6? 5?) with the supe/directors' ears that actually has some institutional memory and hometown roots.
Holly Ferguson may have annoying soundbites, non-answers and deflects policy questions until firm decisions have been approved, but that's her job. I hate how the super (the last 3 actually) uses her as a human shield, but I appreciate how she's kept us from spiraling into worse policy debates than we COULD have. I see her as being at work fighting some of the stupider decisions made by MGJ and Raj and enfield...
for example - helping keep them on track and in-line with what district parents might actually want.