Open Thread Friday
The end of the first full week of school so how goes it?
News from the 34th Dems Endorsement meeting:
Position#1 - Sharon Peaslee
Position#2 - no endorsement
Position#3 - Michelle Buetow
[updated] They had previously endorsed Marty McLaren for Position #6 in West Seattle. [end update] I also am assuming they could not get consensus on a vote for Sherry Carr/Kate Martin so they have no endorsement.
Also, congratulations to Loyal Heights Elementary which was named one of the 304 Blue Ribbon Schools by the US Department of Education. This honor is given for public/private elementary, middle and high schools where students are either all doing well or where the achievement gap is closing. I note that Loyal Heights had requested a waiver to use Singapore Math and it was denied.
News from the 34th Dems Endorsement meeting:
Position#1 - Sharon Peaslee
Position#2 - no endorsement
Position#3 - Michelle Buetow
[updated] They had previously endorsed Marty McLaren for Position #6 in West Seattle. [end update] I also am assuming they could not get consensus on a vote for Sherry Carr/Kate Martin so they have no endorsement.
Also, congratulations to Loyal Heights Elementary which was named one of the 304 Blue Ribbon Schools by the US Department of Education. This honor is given for public/private elementary, middle and high schools where students are either all doing well or where the achievement gap is closing. I note that Loyal Heights had requested a waiver to use Singapore Math and it was denied.
Comments
Marty McLaren had received previous endorsement from the 34th district.
Kate Martin received 47% of votes (without speaking for herself) and Sherry Carr received 51%. There needed to be a vote of 60% for endorsement. The 34th LD voted no endorsement over dual endorsement.
I heard the vote was close between Carr and Martin.
----------------------------
Meanwhile, here are the 34th District’s endorsements:
No endorsement in the Green Lake area School Board District No. 2 (incumbent Sherry Carr vs. Kate Martin–Martin got 51 percent, with a 60 percent threshold. A second vote to dual-endorse failed by roughly the same margin.)
Sharon Peaslee in North Seattle’s School Board District No. 1 (61 percent)
Michelle Buetow in the Capitol Hill School Board District No. 3 (64 percent)
The District previously endorsed School Board candidate Marty McLaren in their own 6th School Board District over incumbent Steve Sundquist earlier this year.
Jane
Whoa! Where did that come from Washington State PTA!? Charter schools?!
There's a new Sept. 13th update in the Enrollment section which gives detailed explanations about how the waitlist works and specifics such as at Sealth:
"There are several schools with long waiting lists that are not likely to move. An example would be Chief Sealth, where the total number on the waiting list has remained steady and students have not moved up much if at all. As noted above, where both of those factors exist together, it is a strong indication that the school is full and additional students are not likely to be moved from the waiting list."
To find this (link is way too long to copy & paste here...) go to:
"Schools" tab, then
Enrollment,
then to the right (in bold/red)
Assignment & Waitlist info-updated
life on wait-list & holding...
"The Spectrum Advisory Panel is in the process of being reformed. If you are interested in participating, please email Advanced Learning consulting teacher Roger Daniels at drdaniels@seattleschools.org."
I emailed Mr. Daniels and he wrote back this week saying "I will let you know as soon as I have more information."
Spectrum doesn't have an advocacy group, and while it's not clear what form this will take, it's worth finding out about if you want to support Spectrum. (Also, this is the only notice about this panel I can find. Nothing on the Advanced Learning site, etc.).
L@L Dad
But yeah agreed the least robust of the most antiquated technology.
L@L Dad
The mayor paid us a visit, and on a couple of occasions acknowldedged Steve, innocently enough, but it had the effect of a plug IMO. Steve's introducer attacked Marty for being a one-issue candidate, and Steve compared his Muni League rating with Marty's. Most people in the room are, apparently, savvy enough to understand that the Muni League's understanding of the School District is on parr for cluelessness with the Seattle Times.
Since the 46th voted not to endorse any candidate for Position 2 in June, I thought it was open to reconsider after the primary, but apparently not. So as with the 34th, no candidate is endorsed for Positions 2. It voted to endorse Michelle Buetow and, alas, for Peter Maier in June.
34th said: " I believe Sherry got 51%, after an impassioned speech by Barbara Schaad-Lamphere, who spoke for all the incumbents but particularly strongly for Sherry."
try THIS LINK
WOW no wonder this speech may have helped Sherry. It reminded folks that no matter how bad the SAO found the Board of the last four years ... it was likely better than the school board of Barbara Schaad-Lamphere. --- remember this debacle from the Link
it caused the district to take a closer look at Manhas. OK. The former bank exec is considered an all-around good guy, but wasn't he chief operating officer to Joseph Olchefske, the super who resigned last spring after his failed oversight put the district $35 million in the red? And wasn't it the aim of the board's search to hire an educator, not another banker like Olchefske?
WOW Sherry's pathetic Board does look good in comparison.
To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data -- unfortunately Sherry is extremely weak on intelligently applying relevant data.
Sherry is a smart, very nice person. And she is very diligent about listening to people in the community, but when push comes to shove she votes with the downtown crowd. She'd be an ok director if the district was not at such a critical point regarding the direction it must take in the next decade. If past is prologue, you can count on Sherry to vote the Seattle Times, pro-"reform" agenda. If you're ok with that, then give her your vote.
Kate Martin IMO is misunderstood. She's someone who knows her own mind, is passonate about delivering quality education to our kids, and is one of the nicest, sincerest people I know. She's not an angry bomb thrower, but she's someone who gets appropriately outraged when outrage is the appropriate reaction. She's smart, reasonable, and well-informed, but will not tolerate conventional downtown b.s., and we need someone like her on the board to keep it honest. What you see is what you get with Kate, and I for one like what I see. I hope you will come to see her that way, too.
No, we can't always expect a fast reply to any query but no one should accept no answer at all.
2010 Contracts
Former Director Barbara Schaad-Lamphere's incoherent and patronizing speech-making (she called the challengers "upstarts") didn't help the incumbents much and quite possibly hurt them in the final vote.
--J.R.
Katherine Beals regularly posts comparisons of today's math books with those of years ago. Today's post shows a 1960's book vs Seattle's adopted geometry text, Discovering Geometry: An Investigative Approach.
http://oilf.blogspot.com/
from the Math Dept. head at Cal Tech.
So is any political figure in Seattle taking on TfA or Norm Rice? of course not ... follow the campaign donations for the answer to .. why not?
If the people refuse to vote out crony leaders, this and other sad similar situations will be with us seemingly forever.
Where is my republic?
It seems that in most national races the major party candidates are equally ill equipped to deal with "the donation factor.
Surely in the coming school board election the choices are much clearer.
It could have been Martin with 51%, I remembered Carr but wouldn't be surprised to be wrong. Either way it was close. I don't know if Schaad-Lamphere's speeches were effective but I think "impassioned" is certainly an accurate descriptive. And I definitely got the sense she laid it on a little harder for Sherry than the other two. 43rd and 36th are next week, interested to see how those go.
Thanks for the contract info.
In 2012 --
FREIMUND JACKSON & TARDIF ($264,896)
will be getting more business as the Board's failure to submit a certified correct transcript of evidence to the court (in the $800,000 NTN boondoggle) ,when board decision was appealed, heads to Division I Appeals Court.
Within twenty days of service of the notice of appeal, the school board, at its expense, or the school official, at such official's expense, shall file the complete transcript of the evidence and the papers and exhibits relating to the decision for which a complaint has been filed. Such filings shall be certified to be correct.
The Board does not make evidence based decisions
The Board does not have intelligable transcripts ready to submit to the court
and the Board never certifies that the transcripts submitted are correct.
Where is my republic?
DO NOT REELECT ANY SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER in 2011
Cap'n Billy Keg -- thanks! I do know how to find the main district website. The problem I'm having is log-in credentials and navigation for new, per-school websites for my two children who attend different schools.
The information I need to look after my older child's transition to middle school is spread out over three locations: "the source", the old (presumably parent-group-funded) school website, and what appear to be new district-overseen school website. Between that and now having to deal with six different middle school teachers, each with different organizational systems and requirements for communication, I feel like I'm missing a lot. Thank goodness my younger child is in the second year of a two-year teacher "loop"!
In more exciting district IT news: the Vax is gone
I remember wading through proofs in Geometry - which wasn't my forte as Algebra made much more sense to me.
However, I remember the feeling of accomplishment and understanding that came after completion of said proofs - so it saddens me to hear that those are not typically a part of high school geometry at this point.
Another example of SPS (and schools in general) setting lower academic expectations for students that doesn't seem fair to them and ultimately won't serve them well after graduation.
TFA and Apple on Daily Kos
1999:
"Barbara Schaad-Lamphere later described Olchefske's work as 'excellent, fabulous.'"
2002: With the exception of Mary Bass, the board votes 6-1 to stand behind Joe Olchefske, who lost/misspent $34 million over two budget years, on top of the $100-million-in-interest Stanford Center "consolidation move" that was going to save SPS so much money.
Another chestnut from the incoherent ex-board president, besides her opposition to the eventual Moss-Adams audit of 2003? During her last school board campaign (1999?) she boasted that admin accounted for 6 % of the district budget, "an all-time low."
What's scary about political endorsements is the way they fly in the face of history. What's worse is that voters will insist on using such low standards, ignoring history.
L@L dad, it frustrates me that you are poised to elect an incompetent. I wish you'd take a half hour and examine her record. Please do this and then tell me if returning the occasional email is all it takes to do this job and not be a tool.
I'm assuming this was a heads up that we shouldn't be expecting to wind up at Hamilton.
The district roll out of the new web sites is behind schedule. Our school was supposed to be one of the early schools up and running, and I still can't use my account for anything useful. When will they work I can't say. I do know that the head of district tech work has been working non-stop for months and beyond burned out. Our own building had a catastrophic tech meltdown this week due to a hvac problem, and much of our shared data storage is inoperable and possibly destroyed. So unfortunately you will have to still use multiple sites to get school info.
Apparently at Sealth only siblings and some but not all Denny graduates got in under the tiebreaker (temporary one year rule for Denny) but the waitlist hasn't moved at all. That means NO ONE else from out of the Sealth assignment area got into Sealth!
So much for district & board promises of open seats and underenrollment in SW Seattle. I can't wait until the overcrowded elementary school classes start hitting high school in four more years and all six elementary assignment area schools funnel into Denny & Sealth.
Remember SPS attorney Shannon McMinimee ...
well check out the picture HERE
Remember, we're ousting Steve Sundquist, Peter Meier, Sherry Carr and Harium Martin Morris...
The challengers are Marty McLaren, Sharon Peaslee, Kate Martin and Michelle Buetow...
Please spread the word and contact the four candidates if you want to help directly... phonebanking, leafletting, donations, houseparties, social media (twittering/FBing)
Below are the websites for the four challengers ...
If you are feeling flush, it would be good to divide whatever you can give amongst the four of them... the incumbents are backed by big business/ed deformers directly linked to GATES, APPLE etc and have huge war-chests... Sending huge thanks and promises of GOOD KARMA! :-)
(I'm helping out on Marty's campaign)
http://www.marty4ssd.com/
http://katemartinforschoolboard.com/
http://buetowforschoolboard.com/
http://sharonpeasleeforschoolboard.com/
Call on Monday after 8:00 AM ..
206-252-0040 to signup to speak your piece.
HERE IS THE AGENDA FOR 9-21
Here is my TfA piece.... see below:
{{For years }} the District failed to provide adequate services to many low income and minority students. Required interventions for struggling students were not provided and that policy requirement was eventually changed.
Tonight’s TfA action report adds insult to injury.
It refers to a TfA agreement approved Nov. 17, 2010.
“Bringing forward a request for conditional certificates is specifically contemplated in the Teach for America agreement,{{ Section I (C), which states }} “Seattle Public Schools agrees to request conditional certificates for all Teach for America corps members on the grounds that circumstances warrant the issuance of such certificates, as permitted by WAC 181-79A-231.”
That law states:
The professional educator standards board encourages in all cases the hiring of fully certificated individuals and understands that districts will employ individuals with conditional certificates only after careful review of all other options. {{The professional educator standards board asks districts when reviewing such individuals for employment to consider, in particular, previous experience the individual has had working with children.}}
A review of emails between the parties involved in hatching this illegally designed TfA agreement reveals:
The administrative leadership of the District and TfA conspired to violate the Law with the Nov. 17, 2010 agreement.
The circumstances that supposedly warrant the issuance of conditional certificates are the achievement gaps.
(cont.)
A careful review of all other options to close the achievement gaps has NOT been performed.
The District on numerous occasions continued with materials and practices that have been particularly harmful to educationally disadvantaged learners. The district has made a regular practice of this in mathematics.
The District continually ignored the practices that proved so successful in Project Follow Through and practices proven to work as reported in Visible Learning by John Hattie. The district takes direction from the UW’s Math Education Project despite worsening results.
The Superintendent stated that the situation in regard to mathematics is improving as the teachers have become more agile in using the materials. Test scores show otherwise.
The District has not conducted a careful review of other options for closing the achievement gaps. The Superintendent and the Board are apparently in complete denial of reality. The belief that TfA can close achievement gaps in this situation is completely without merit.
To approve tonight’s TfA action report will require the Board claim a careful review has been performed, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Vote “NO”. Low Income students deserve teachers with full certification. The Superintendent has failed to tell the truth … the Board should not join her in this TfA deception.
=================== end of testimony
I am furious that this Board says its TfA actions are aimed at narrowing or eliminating the achievement gaps.... when nothing could be further from the truth....
Norm Rice is either ignorant or a TfA shill.... take your pick.
Autistic and Seeking a Place in an Adult World
Chicago’s Mayor Challenges Teachers Union
For your persusal are such action-inducing (I hope) articles as:
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? (which is the centerpiece of the magazine cover);
My Family's Experiment in Extreme Schooling;
Lives: The Re-Education of an Amnesiac;
Can Antioch College Return From the Dead Again?;
Why We Need For-Profit Colleges;
For those parent/guardians and educators interested in the form we call the novel (and as they are published today, so will they be taught to tomorrow as "classics"; your grandchildren will be learning how to read literature from today's novels, so watch the trends!), we have a suggestion to writers: Dear Important Novelists: Be Less Like Moses and More Like Howard Cosell
Lastly, there's a recipe for a perennial favorite of school cafeterias: Bulgogi Sloppy Joes With Scallion Salsa
Happy Sunday, everyon! I hope you have some time to sit by the stove and read the Sunday paper. The New York Times, of course (but don't forget to read the funnies in your local paper!)
Thank You, Fred Rogers (for his 1968 testimony before congress on making sure we allow room for feelings)
Kate, what precisely is your vision for the future of the Seattle North APP program now temporarily housed at the old Lincoln high school?
"The problem [of racial disparity] continues after APP into AP (Advanced Placement) high-school classes, another club for white, affluent families. At least 55 percent of Roosevelt students need a level playing field that children in AP with stay-at- home/"hovercraft"-parents/Laurelhurst-privilege don't think a freaking minute about. And that's one of the Seattle Public Schools' poster-child schools, Roosevelt. I'm at a boiling point.
I am not anti-APP or anti-AP. I am for opportunities for all and if we have only enough dough to fund one program, I want it to be for the kids falling through the cracks, as I believe the others will do fine in general with their notably larger variety of options.
signed, STTA
I would like to see better support of advanced learning programs by SPS. It's in my child's best interest, since she's in APP. But I want the district to support advanced learning because I want every kid in the district to have an opportunity to learn at school.
I'll add that the seemingly widespread assumption that placement in APP guarantees that a kid will be okay is utter nonsense. "Bright" and "motivated" are different adjectives because they describe two different things. They do not always go together.
We are in dire economic times, and Kate Martin, via that letter, is "on the record" that she'd de-fund advanced learning if needed to support better opportunities for all.
Until she says, convincingly, that she understands the value of gifted education and supports finding a solution to APP capacity problems, it's hard for me to imagine voting for her. The way I see it, I have a choice between someone who may not have a track record of effecting positive change for advanced learning and someone who has been derisive and condescending on the matter in the past. In that case, better to go with the devil you know.
And now that Northend APP is in District 2, I think a lot of families will need to learn more about both candidates, even the incumbent, because we were not previously in her district.
Parents Right to Know
I urge you to request information on your child's teacher's qualification. At Aki and South Shore, ask them why they do not see fit to hire HQ teachers? There is no shortage.
Kids from some neighborhoods who don't get a decent education are on the fast track to jail. That doesn't seem to be the track for most failing or underperforming APP students.
I sense urgency in the voice of a person who is writing from the trenches. Unless you've been there, you probably don't get it.
By the way, the term "helicopter parent" is used frequently for certain socio-economics groups of parents by members of their own group. It is not mockery but has become an unfortunate sub-group of parents. Even colleges have had to hire specialists to work with this coterie.
--Who is the army recruiting at Garfield?
-moniker reader
You know, I value Advanced Learning, but I would vote for a candidate who advocated this. APP (as part of the whole) would benefit from the redirection of funds that were 'needed' as well. I would not vote for a candidate who defunded (any sub group including) APP to redirect funds to another subgroup for something that was not 'needed.'
...better to go with the devil you know, How well do you know Director Carr, and how well have you tried to get to know Ms. Martin?
In my opinion Kate has very specific ideas of how things should be, and does not seem open to seeing or hearing other points of view. At all. That is a troubling trait for a board director to have since their job is not to fulfill their own agenda but to represent their constituents.
It is possible that Kate is not addressing APPparent because she does not advocate for advanced learning? Her words in her letter to the editor were pretty harsh, and not so easy to retract, and say oops.
Just sayin'
-economist reader
PS: for those that think college is the way to go, think again. In Utne:
http://www.utne.com/Politics/Price-Of-Postsecondary-Education-Most-Indebted-Generation.aspx
(1) Looking at jobs open and advertised over several years on the State of WA's jobs board in Olympia, WA ... it is hard to miss the number of jobs that require a College Degree .... and the fact (from reading the descriptions) that a competent HS Junior could carry out a large number of them quite well. Is this "college required", for many jobs that would not require this, a mechanism to keep state colleges full?
(2) In the last forty years the increase in Tuition has certainly surpassed the cost of living inflation.
(3) In 1960 and before one needed to take out a loan to go in debt. Now many folks incur debt almost like breathing with a large credit card unpaid balance.
(4) The US Gov. seems to have been trying to repeal the business cycle usually for short term political gain.... Massive consumer spending is a big driver of our economy and games with consumer financing have contributed to this..... the huge house price inflation ... made increases in second mortgages possible to help consumers buy more "Stuff".
(5) So why is the State of WA not requiring an adequate course on Consumer finance for graduation?
(6) A lot of college majors make little sense from a predicted Return on Investment. Yet it seems there are few if any advisors pointing this out.