Open Thread Friday
So it's just the third day of school so not even a full week yet. Thoughts?
I just noted this Arts & Grants page at Target. They announce the grants in September so the cycle doesn't start until March 1 next year. But if your PTA is interested in something like this, you could work on it now and apply in March. They also have Field Trip grants and there's just 20 days left for non-profit groups to apply. Local recipients last year were Beacon Hill, McDonald, Salmon Bay, Thorton Creek and West Seattle.
I just noted this Arts & Grants page at Target. They announce the grants in September so the cycle doesn't start until March 1 next year. But if your PTA is interested in something like this, you could work on it now and apply in March. They also have Field Trip grants and there's just 20 days left for non-profit groups to apply. Local recipients last year were Beacon Hill, McDonald, Salmon Bay, Thorton Creek and West Seattle.
Comments
http://www.scribd.com/SPSLeaks
Julian
State Superintendent Randy Dorn, Senator Scott White, and Dr. Enfield will all be there.
Public welcome.
http://www.sdc.wa.gov/senators
/white/Education%20townhall.pdf
Under questioning from the board
I am not sure what the current teacher contract states- in past years class size for K-3rd grade has been capped at 26 students.
It's morning in america
From the 2010-2013 teacher contract:
However, the SPS will maintain the following SPS-wide averages and building ranges:
a. Maintain an average SPS ratio of students to full-time equivalent teachers at no more
than 26:1 for grades K-3, 28:1 for grades 4-5, and 150:1 for grades 6-12 (when grade 6 is conducted using a secondary model), exclusive of Special Education and Bilingual.
b. Elementary Class Size Building Ranges: The SPS will take actions to limit class size to a
building range of 28 or less for grades K-3 and of 32 or less for grades 4-5; the same
building ranges shall apply to self-contained programs except Special Education and
Bilingual.
Elementary Class Size Individual Classrooms:
Take actions to limit individual regular academic class size for grades K-3 to twenty-six (26) and for grades 4-5 (and grade 6
when operated in an elementary model) to twenty-eight (28)...For 2011-2012, in situations in which the limit is exceeded in a regular class in grades K-5 by two (2)
students, following the October 1st enrollment count, SPS will address the overload...The
individual teacher will be compensated for any days after October 1 during which he/she
has an overload.
"Seattle police officers are looking for a missing kindergartner from Beacon Hill International Elementary.
The boy was last seen in 2000 block of 14th Avenue South at 10 a.m.
The 5-year-old boy was wearing a school uniform and is said to have a learning disability"
Elementary Class Size Building Ranges: The SPS will take actions to limit class size to a building range of 28 or less for grades K-3 and of 32 or less for grades 4-5; the same building ranges shall apply to self-contained programs except Special Education and Bilingual
Amazingly large number of kids for one teacher. I bet you could find 32 employees doing nothing productive for each one working at Central Administration.
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=24501, the funders of the TFA fee ($4000 per teacher) are Gates Foundation, Bezos, Raikes, and the Seattle Foundation. Who are these guys and what is their agenda in hiring TFA?
Raikes - Microsoft
Why all the secrecy?
WTH does TFA need $6.2M in Seattle for? To hire one "Executive Director" and possibly one or two "Team Leaders" (given the few TFA hires to date). These folks are typically TFA alums with all of two years teaching who now are providing that valuable PD to the TFA-ers in your kid's classroom.
My 3rd grader's class has already "lost" 3 students who were on the roster. Depending on what happens in other classes, they may or may not move children within the grade to balance the numbers.
Hopefully, there are enough "no-shows" in your second grade cohort to get to a reasonable number for each class.
I still think, based solely on body language at the last board meeting, that Steve Sundquist actually knows who the donors are - I think that's why he was trying to move things along in such an obvious manner, so that the topic would get dropped.
It is becoming a little silly with Enfield saying she's "busy with other things" when she had loads of time with her TFA friend, Janis Ortega. If nothing else, those e-mails show a LOT of focus on TFA (and the funding). I have no idea why Enfield is stonewalling but it's not really doing her much good and undermines all the other good stuff she is doing.
They found the little boy lost on Beacon Hill according to the Times.
Billionaires want SPS skin in the game. How ludicrous is that!?
As time passes and the pooh on the shoes spreads, I think that what now bothers me most is just the total inartful cluelessness of the entire conversation around TfA.
Why wasn't this all started with a conversation, among all the stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, other taxpayers, employers, civic minded thinkers, city and state government -- whoever -- I am willing to go "big tent" here). We could have/should have discussed:
The stated purposes of TfA (and how those have changed over time from a "Peace Corps" type program to supply smart, willing "kids" to impoverished schools with teacher shortages to a well-bankrolled, highly connected "leadership training" program for "tomorrow's leaders" -- and what that means for participating schools.
We could have discussed the fee, how much it is, who would pay it -- and the bigger issue of why we are paying "finders" or "placement" or whatever fees to anyone in any case, given that there are plenty of good teachers applying for jobs here (and they didn't bill the District a special finders fee (because they are so special) to hire and/or mentor THEM).
We could have discussed the inherent strains of having the UW sponsor this program, given its cost and the effect on the regular teaching program participants.
We could have discussed the effect on teachers (both the time demands of mentoring kids who may have only had 5 weeks of training, AND the drain on teacher psyche that is inherent when TfA claims that its 5 week trainees are more valuable than teachers with years of classroom experience.)
We could have discussed the merits of "alternative" pathways to teacher training, what those maybe should look like, whether TfA's approach is one we wanted to participate in.
We could have discussed whether a better path for Seattle (since we have no teacher shortage -- but DO have larger than average class sizes and a budget crisis) might be a program to place several dozen "City Year" or similar kids in classrooms as aides/tutors.
But no, we got none of those conversations. What we got was an unimformed, rushed, secretive, divisive, "back door" approach. I don't know to what extent TfA and its supporters were purposefully deceitful and secretive, or just unbelievably clueless, or whether they are just utterly dismissive of any opinions other than their own -- but the result is the same. This COULD have been a really interesting discussion. Instead, it is a political mess.
So the SPS fee is $4k per teacher per year while Federal Way is $3k per teacher per year. Some districts pay $10k a year for the privilege.
What the market will bear, I guess.
Concerned
The best of all possible results (other than maybe not being confused about his whereabouts in the first place), in my opinion!
Not roaming the halls I hope...
As for TfA, remember, they claim it increases the hiring pool and adds diversity, but really, TfA chooses which of their thousands of recruits to send here. We do not get a much more diverse hiring pool, we got 35 recruits whom TfA believed we should hire. That's not increasing our hiring pool, that's filling 35 slots. We did NOT get an opportunity to select from the thousands which might have actually increased our hiring pool by some actual tangible amount, only from the 35.
Not only did Federal Way have to pay 3K instead of 4K per recruit, they originally had a Penalty if they did not accept enough recruits. In May 2011, that was eliminated from their MOU.
Well, you don't start a conversation when you only want one outcome.
TFA in Seattle makes no sense from an objective viewpoint.
What's fascinating is that the whole thing is driven off of just a handful individuals, who look to me like they are motivated by personal self-interest-- shmoozing, networking, getting that next big job.
I used to wonder why small sums of "donations" gave donors a bigger voice than the public has, since, let's face it, the public funds the works by paying much, much more than any foundation.
Now I see it is a matter of careerism. The echo chamber of institutions can offer district employees personal career advancement -- the public doesn't have those kinds of perks on offer, so why listen to them?
I think we all need to be looking for our own SPS superintendent candidates ourselves now. My personal preference -- someone who wants to stay 10 years and make this the last job of their career. Anyone else, will likely be more motivated by their next job hop than their desire to do what's right for kids in SPS.
I've had enough of that.
As always, thanks SPSLeaks!
Here's what I was thinking about last night - does anyone remember back when Enfield was appointed and the Sup at her last job put out what was essentially a gag order re: talking about her?
I have always wondered what that was about... just a random thought
ok and spiffy about the kid being found - got busy with work and didn't get a chance to check back.
For all of the talk about expanding the candidate pool for teachers, Teach for America only added 35 names to the thousands of certified teacher applicants for SPS teaching jobs, and they only added those names to Level 1 and Level 2 schools. Let's say that there were about 2,000 different applicants for teaching jobs in Seattle. Teach for America expanded that candidate pool by about 1.75%.
Big whoop.
Yep, my understanding is there's 32or 33 little butts in seats in there. My daughter says the teacher is spending a lot of time keeping order.
Earlier this year, the principal said that there are 2 ways to go with the initial class assignments: Go for 3 classes and hope you don't get cut back to 2 big ones, or go the other way around, which she prefers. Start with 2 and presumably add one after the final head count if needed. So we're pretty confident they'll add a 3rd class, in fact I don't see how they can avoid it. It's a bit unnerving at this point, though.
I posted some of the comments on TFA & District secrecy from this thread onto Publicola. I doubt taxpayers understand the extent to which the public is once again being played by our district leadership.
If any blog readers here are as disappointed and downright disgusted by the interim superintendent's apparent willingness to bow to Big Name Funders instead of being forthright with the Board, go post your thoughts on the Publicola thread and educate the city's powerbrokers. They or their staff all read it.
I have lost a lot of respect for Enfield because of this. I am sad to say it.
I always thought people freaking out about Big Ed Reform private money shaping the public system were paranoid. No more.
But that's not true, is it, that "they only added those names to Level 1 and Level 2 schools"? Surely it couldn't be, because when Director Patu asked the superintendent why TFA was only going to "poor" schools, the superintendent replied that, oh, no, any ol' school could hire TFA! School hiring is site-based, dontcha know! The district admin has NOTHING to do with it!
But of course, the superintendent, in an email to Ortega or some other TFA minion, provides a list of the targeted Level 1 and Level 2 schools....Including Aki Kurose as the sole MS...
Bah.
Word Verifier is MITTED, and ready for a long, cold winter of our discontent.
In Susan Enfield's world, speaking out of both sides of her mouth seems to had led to few consequences--which may explain why she lost her composure at DeBell's targeted comment about the donor issue being an "either-or."
Think about how Michelle Bachman recovers from her multiple gaffes and half-truths with an equivalent of "It's my story and I'm sticking to it." We've got one of those currently in charge of SPS.
--It was John Wayne Gacy's hometown
Word Verifier SWEARS...about this whole bizarreness? That such a juxtoposition would be an eye-popper? Or is WV merely potty-mouthed? Only WV knows.
Placements
There must be a way to find out who's resume was submitted for particular open positions.
No. This is a longterm investment. They are likely laying the groundwork to have TFA, Inc. in place here in the hopes or expectation that their other big agenda item -- charters -- gets pushed through in WA State (which their accomplices at LEV and the PTA are already pushing). Then, these privately run charter enterprises can be staffed with a non-union (and cheaper), young, impressionable, short-term workforce -- ie. TFAers.
'Boots on the ground,' as they say.
The charter franchise of choice of Gates et al is KIPP, Inc. KIPP likes to staff its charter sites with TFA-ers.
KIPP CEO Richard Barth is married to TFA, Inc. CEO Wendy Kopp.
Sweet deal for the Barth-Kopp household (which already got $100 mil. in taxpayer funding compliments of the Obama admin. last year).
But is it a good deal for Seattle's kids?
83 percent of charter schools perform NO BETTER, or PERFORM WORSE than genuine public schools.
(See Stanford University CREDO Report "NEW STANFORD REPORT FINDS SERIOUS
QUALITY CHALLENGE IN NATIONAL
CHARTER SCHOOL SECTOR")
Seattle does not need charters.
Seattle does not need TFA, Inc.
But the big boys with money in this town want them. And minions like Enfield are apparently willing to do their bidding to help make their agenda happen, whether parents and the public want it or not.
The 'lucky 13' TFA, Inc. placement list, btw, consists of: Aki, Dearborn, Dunlap, Emerson, Gatzert, Hawthorne, Highland, Leschi, Madrona, MLK, Northgate, Roxhill, W. Seattle Elem. (thanks, SPSLeaks).
See: http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2011/04/tfa-news-and-facts.html
--Ending the MGJ/Enfield dynasty
(trainwreck) is very hopeful with this election
Unless something has changed, I believe this is still the case: An interested applicant delivers their SPS standard form application, a resume, cover letter and whatever other materials directly to the school, not to HR.
I believe the hiring pressure, then, comes through principals, whoi would have en enormous impact on who gets in for an interview and then who gets selected (hiring committees are supposed to have a sort of decision-making ability, but officially (and realistically) the principal is the ultimate gatekeeper.
"To apply for positions, go to www.seattleschools.org using the NeoGov/online
application system. Once an application is completed, it will be saved in the electronic
system and can be utilized to apply for additional positions. For assistance with online the
application system, contact Harvey Deutsch in Human Resources at:
hdeutsch@seattleschools.org.
The Human Resources Department will screen applications and determine which
candidates will be referred to the schools/programs for interview."
Sounds a bit too matrixy for my liking...or Orwellian: Isn't gov just gov, or is now "new"...
shudder
You'll note that no other schools have hired them.
BTW - the discussion's heating up on Publicola
Felt the earthquake on Friday during 5th period when the room lights started to sway. It didn't seem like an earthquake so no one was scared but that was my guess and I was right. My students are awesome, and I'm excited about the year. Just hoping there will be less district bull this year to suck up my off time with activism.
For those of you following the twin open enrollment debacle:
**Filed a transfer appeal on Sept1;
**After 3 days at their respective schools, Thing 1's APP wait list moved, and I received an email last night there's a spot open at Thing2's school. This is great news and a huge relief. I did several happy dances, and my family laughed heartily when one of those happy dances was a poor attempt to Dougie.
StepJ - In the previous thread, I failed to thank you for the information you provided there. Your clarifications and specific points were incredibly helpful to our family. it helped me wrap my head around the situation and prevented me for searching for something that doesn't exist in policy. Thank you for your support and assistance.
Further - The email from Dr Libros came at 9:30pm last night, and we have corresponded by email today. I can only assume that enrollment HQ is working hard on compiling accurate headcount numbers. I appreciate these efforts tremendously.
Last - From what I can tell, there are still gaps in enrollment policies regarding multiples and open enrollment. Our situation was compounded by thier separate APP/Spectrum designation, but the issues don't go away without this complication. I would encourage parents of multiples or same-grade siblings who are even considering applying at schools outside of their neighborhood assignment to look into the policies and ask questions now. I doubt we are the only family in the district who's been or will be bitten square in the rump.
She is an amateur scuba diver who dives off West Seattle. One day she happened upon an octopus's garden which turned out, shortly, to be nest; she watched it being built. Keeping the location a secret (so as not to bother the expectant mother) she visited weekly and built a rapport of sorts. She was allowed to film as eggs were laid and then hatched. After it all, she edited together footage to make a film: 50,000 Happy Birthdays and posted it up on Youtube.
I heard her story on NPR just now, which made me think she was a thoughtful and attentive person, ergo a great principal! Seeing the video is equally affirming. There is, evidently, an epilogue of sorts covering the time after the birth of the "50,000," during which time the mother, having carefully prepared her children's welcome into the world, does what octopus mothers do: Having expended all her stored energy guarding her children, she dies and her body is consumed by sun stars and other deep denizen, thus helping guard THOSE creature'f futures.
"A new project will be making its debut on September 25th at NBC’s Education Nation Teacher Town Hall. A shared venture by Scholastic, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and DonorsChoose.org dubbed “Teacher Wall” will be a new spin on social networking focused on educators. The new site, which is currently on a mission to collect video clips from 1,000 teachers, will enable users to connect with one another through stories, successes, and everything education.
If you are an educator, and would like to submit to a video and be a part of this new project, you can find more information at the Teacher Wall website."
Word Verifier is worried that most things Gates are DETRO, but who knows...
Great!
By my last count, we currently have 10 teachers with at least one class over 40 at Ingraham.
We have one teacher with 163 students, one with 168, one with 171, one with 178, and one with 182.
I'm sorry to say that we're overcrowded at Ingraham, and it was all entirely predictable.
DWE
DWE
All the better to hire a lot of TfAers at Ingraham.
Entirely predictable.
Stack 'em deep and teach 'em cheap.
Class size does not matter. -- MGJ
Story on Central District News
So happy for your Things and your family. Hooray!!
Thank you to the folks in Enrollment working on the waiting lists this year.
The siblings are moving off the wait lists much earlier this year than last (at least in the NE.) It was a long summer of waiting for many families - but very appreciate that it will not be a long September as well.
Thank you.
I do have to point out that the Billionaires are pretty big supporters of DonorsChoose.
I love Donors Choose, but I do think that we have to legitimately worry that it's replacing a basic support of education with a requirement that teachers beg for their classrooms.
Honestly, I just read through the Leschi list at DonorsChoose and it made me cry. Teachers are asking for writing journals, markers, bookshelves and desks.
I can't stand it. I've felt comfortable using Donors Choose to buy trumpets for a school, but a desk? What next? Is a teacher going to have to beg for an electric heater for her classroom because the kids are freezing?
I feel a bit despairing.
(zb)
Lately, everytime I read a headline about some sports star getting millions of dollars to toss/kick/hit a ball around, I could weep - why can't we see we are valuing the wrong skills - well at the very least, overvaluing.
--courage to change the things you can
What counts as diversity? Income disparities, the blending of poor, middle class, and rich? Homosexual or heterosexual parents at home? First generation immigrants (even if white immigrants from Europe or Russia) and non-English languages spoken at home? If race only, does Asian or Indian count as diversity? East African or north African immigrants? Or are we talking specifically and only about African Americans and whites when we say diversity?
We do not have substitutes to break up large class sizes at Ingraham.
I expect that we'll hear in a few days whether we're getting any more teachers.
DWE
Thanks,
PS parent
40 students in an LA class is gi-normous.
40 in ANY class is too many. Langauge Arts is used here to illustrate the impact - if a teacher with five classes of 30 assigned one five page paper, that teacher will be looking at 750 pages of material when the assignment is handed in by all students. At, say, one minute per page, that is 750 minutes of review of that one assigment, or 12.5 hours. If there are 40 students, the time spent reviewing that assignment would be almost 17 hours. So what naturally happens? More students = fewer essays and/or less time in review of those essays. You get what you pay for, and few teachers will be willing to just work themselves to death grading papers, so the amount of work and the quality of review will suffer.
I'm sorry to say it, because I suspect you ask because you are thinking "private?" but it is what it is unless citizens demand more from their public schools and demand funding to provide the level of attention parents and guardians might expect.
I find your posts to be very insightful and though-provoking...but how, exactly, do we demand these things? I write my legislators, I write the school board. I voted to create a state income tax on upper-end earners. I did not vote to repeal the bottle tax. I have dealt with the District to try and remove an ineffective principal. I invested hundreds of volunteer hours to help improve my child's public school.
I finally gave up and we went "private" for middle and now high school. The small class sizes and more individualized attention are the major draw—along with a more broad curriculum and in-depth teaching.
I still support public education, and still "demand" that my legislators do something to improve public schools. But I, like most people in America, have little power compared to big money. When the powers that be demonize teachers for wanting smaller class sizes, etc., many people start to believe that schools have more than enough money. I honestly don't know what we can do to make the real changes needed.
SolvayGirl
But here is the thing. In the end, in a democracy, it is ballots that count. Gates, et al have only succeeded with this Board because they bought (not through corruption, mind you, but by financing their campaigns -- and spin) four board members long before people in Seattle had ed reform in their sights. It doesn't HAVE to be that way -- espeically not in an internet/facebook/twitter age. Yes, there is lots of falsehood and fiction in cyberspace, but it is also possible to contact a LOT of people, for far less money than it used to cost. Money wins if and when it can buy the ballots. (THAT was the real travesty of last year's Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate money into politics). If we can't control money, then we need to turn to information -- who controls it.
In the end, if we can get people in Seattle to change the Board, we can start to change the schools.
Here is where folks like Charlie, Melissa, Sahila, suep, and many many others begin to matter -- we need to reach LOTS of people with the news (now dawning on a national basis, not just here) that ed reform is NOT all about the kids; that it represents a massive transfer of wealth from kids and classrooms to the pockets and boardrooms of Big Ed; and a massive degradation of classical liberal education -- in a manner that is NOT being followed by our "competition" in India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Finland, etc.
We can do this -- but the time to pour on the effort is now -- this fall -- this election.
I fought this concept to some extent for a long time (resisting the 'tin foil hat' implications.) But I have never seen a clear rebuttal of this view. I know there are "Reformers" lurking out there -- Can you make an argument that makes me dial down my paranoia?
I agree that we citizens can vote in board directors who work towards the goal of positive classrooms and schools.
But Solvay is, unfortunately, speaking perhaps of the higher levels of financing and policy - fed and state governments, Dept of Ed etc. I, too, wonder how we craft and enact a national support of, say smaller class sizes in the current environment of constriction, free markets, and a general disdain for educators and public schools.
The disdain we might be able to change, but in some ways it's dependent on money, and lots of it. Contrary to popular opinion, we really haven't been "throwing money at schools to solve problems" all these years - We've been improving delivery in many ways, not the least of which are the many attempts (some actually successful, how 'bout that?) to be more inclusive in our schools, and to offer more to more students. Special Ed, technology, ELL, AP (or other higher level offerings)...The "diversity" mentioned elsewhere on the blog is a real goal of many educators, and has been a goal of policy and funding for decades. These things cost money.
Now, it seems, the spigot is running dry, for a variety of reasons. My feeling is that class sizes WILL increase, offerings WILL be constricted, because labor is expensive.
I don't know how we change this. It would take a lot of money, and do it equitably presents its own problems. Can we create a will in the nation to divert more money to education? Can we create more support for the job that public schools do?
I'm not optimistic in the short term. I don't know how it could be done as the dollars we are talking about are big, and the nation is pulling the plug left and right on its public services.
WV sees it as fulityr than futility.
February 6, 1998 : Los Angeles Times
A Plea in Defense of Euclidean Geometry
--- ... But I am concerned about the country as a whole. The dumbing down of high school education in the United States, especially in mathematics and science, is a crime that must be laid at the doorstep of the educational establishment. We must demand that the level of high school science and mathematics being taught be improved, starting, of course, with Euclidean geometry.
=====
Meanwhile we pay folks like Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Carla Santorno and Susan Enfield to do this to our kids.
As I currently see it (and I think I see very dimly here -- so I won't be offended if you all tell me I have this all wrong), I would like to see the Federal government involved ONLY as it pertains to really big, over arching things - the civil rights stuff -- like no, you can't just kick all the SPED kids out, or put them in the closet with construction paper and dull scissors; and no, separate but equal won't work. I think NCLB has been an expensive disaster that should be killed, as are the national common standards. I think that funding of education should be left to local/state governments -- and that all this federal grant money sloshing around -- with huge tiebacks into for-profit charter companies, big ed publishing companies, ed reform testing companies -- well, it should all stop. We can't afford it even if it were working. And not only is it NOT working -- it is actually making the "product" -- the learning -- worse.
This permits states and local communities to continue to experiment and evolve educational practice -- so you can have states like Massachusetts who seem to be getting a great deal more for their dollars than some other states -- and states like Washington. Yes, big foundations and businesses who want to buy education can still interfere at the state and local level, but I think they do their worst (to them best) work at the national level, where lobbying dollars go the farthest.
THEN, within THIS state, I think we need to get all of the stakeholders (teachers, kids, parents, employers, universities) together and start drilling down on how we can get the best possible outcomes in really lean times. The COE should be part of this, and so should the science/math/applied math/engineering departments of colleges. What can we put online? What already IS online? How can we cost effectively deliver targeted interventions? What about kids who want to be machinists? What about kids who want alternative education?
This isn't an answer for everything. But Obama and Arne Duncan just shouldn't be involved in this. This is building by building, kid by kid, school by school work. Even at the state level it is unwieldy (though state standards, levy equalization, funding, etc. -- to say nothing of the Washington constitution -- indicate that the state should have a role).