Updates
Well, look who's the interim superintendent in Tacoma? None other than our former CAO, Carla Santorno. This news comes from the Tacoma News Tribune.
The board voted 4-1 – with board member Debbie Winskill dissenting – to name Santorno first as superintendent-elect (interim), beginning in January. After serving six months in that position, Santorno would become interim superintendent from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.
The plan would include a board evaluation and community forums to collect public feedback in January 2013, after Santorno serves in her new leadership roles for a year.
Then, the board will decide to either extend her contract or conduct a national search.
Sounds sorta familiar.
Also, recall Middle College HS teacher Beth Brunton being nominated for 2011 teacher of the year by the Simon Youth Foundation? Well, she won. This is a great story of a teacher going far above and beyond for her students, helping to create the program there and raising funds for a life coach and substance abuse counselor. Congratulations Ms. Brunton!
Saturday, October 15th
Nathan Hale All Community Celebration from 10 am to 1 pm. to celebrate their new building.
Community Meeting with Michael DeBell at Caffe Appassionato from 9-11 am.
The board voted 4-1 – with board member Debbie Winskill dissenting – to name Santorno first as superintendent-elect (interim), beginning in January. After serving six months in that position, Santorno would become interim superintendent from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.
The plan would include a board evaluation and community forums to collect public feedback in January 2013, after Santorno serves in her new leadership roles for a year.
Then, the board will decide to either extend her contract or conduct a national search.
Sounds sorta familiar.
Also, recall Middle College HS teacher Beth Brunton being nominated for 2011 teacher of the year by the Simon Youth Foundation? Well, she won. This is a great story of a teacher going far above and beyond for her students, helping to create the program there and raising funds for a life coach and substance abuse counselor. Congratulations Ms. Brunton!
Saturday, October 15th
Family and Community Engagement Symposium at Garfield from 9 am - 2:30 p.m.
The district will offer workshops for our families and community partners on research-based best practices and practical strategies to help them support student academic achievement at home and in the community. Free transportation, supervised child activities for ages 4 and up, light breakfast and lunch will be provided and there will be a Community Resource Fair.Nathan Hale All Community Celebration from 10 am to 1 pm. to celebrate their new building.
Community Meeting with Michael DeBell at Caffe Appassionato from 9-11 am.
Comments
What goes around ....
DWE
-parent
You sound kind of 1 issue - like that money and reality thing doesn't matter kind of issue. I suppose money doesn't matter to you, because, with your trust fund you can afford to have money irrelevant to you! Consequently, it is irrelevant that we're sending thousands of Washington's kids into the community without the skills to participate or the skills to compete.
They should just get a trust fund, or, have enough money to not have to worry about money... and jobs ... and skills!
Or maybe you own a wal-mart kind of place and the more numerically incompetent your employees, the better you can rip them off?
1IssueIsMe
Santorno was a bully and single handedly installed Everyday Math in May 2007.
She offered to meet with me to discuss evidence prior to the math adoption .... then I sent her a list of questions and that ended her offer. Carla refused to meet... saying I was persecuting her perhaps because she was a Black woman.
Eventually SEA president, Wendy Kimball, got Carla to agree to meet with me but she would only agree to meet after the adoption had already taken place, because she was too busy to meet before that time.
She never answered the questions and I had ZERO interest in meeting with her after the Board approved Everyday math.
Carla stated that fidelity of implementation to the Everyday math pacing plan would eliminate the achievement gaps in 5 - years. ... Complete nonsense.... you can check how its going with EDM... here are some OSPI testing grades 3.4.5 comparisons.
Seattle & Auburn
Seattle and Clover Park
I love my students, my colleagues, and my school. But I have long disliked my district. Carla Santorno is but one sad, distressing saga in a long line of sad, distressing sagas in SPS. I would greatly appreciate it if Santorno's successor, and now interim superintendent, could work toward improving the climate at SPS. It has to get better if I am to continue to work here.
My students and my colleagues appreciate me, but I see little or no evidence that anyone above the level of my principal cares whether I stay or leave. Indeed, I see little evidence that those policymakers who are driving education policy nationally care whether a teacher like me stays or goes.
I desperately want the climate in education to change. That is one reason why I am involved in this School Board race. This election is really, for me, about a lot more than a set of personalities. It's about whether we're going to preserve and foster a climate that is worthy of good teachers.
DWE
Interesting comment about the vindictiveness. I certainly never saw that. I would like to hear more about the details DWE reports.
-parent
There's an infamous exchange between her and Michael DeBell at a board meeting where she was pushing the discovery math adoption, wherein Michael asked her why, 3 years after they had adopted everyday math at the elementary level, they still had not incorporated traditional math curriculum supports they promised to implement three years earlier.
Santorno's response, essentially, was: It's not that we aren't doing what we promised; We just haven't done it yet. After three years...
Being obsessed with one issue is great, when that issue is the greatest challenge we have in the district right now. The one college professors are up in arms about. The one that American kids stink at, so lose high-paying jobs to foreign students who know traditional math. The one we spent a cool 25 mil on, just at the HS level. The one that has caused struggling students from years back to plummet into the ranges of catastrophic failure, blowing the achievement gap wide open, as Dan has demonstrated, with hard data, repeatedly for several years. Need I go on?
Dismissing "1 Issue" folks may feel good. But when that issue is the most controversial, expensive, and wrong-headed farce the district has engaged in during the last decade, it's sort of a "it's the math, stupid" situation, isn't it? And Carla was the CAO, and I don't recall a single matter she dealt with that was larger than the math adoption during her tenure here, so....let's be fair at least. WSDWG
After many years in Seattle, I threw in the towel. My new teaching job is not perfect but the respect afforded teachers by administration at my new district confirms my daily experience of being totally discounted in Seattle's (including by most principals). I think having a very weak union has a large role to play.
Like you, the parents and my colleagues were excellent. However, I have never looked back.
Susan Enfield is another leader who has shown disdain for teachers.
Look at how she manhandled TFA--and then lied to the board. She continues to support the MAP, even if it is used 2 times. Her treatment of Martin Floe, and reliance on her deputy (Bree), was disgraceful.
When I read the comments of support here (earlier this week) of this woman for superintendent--currently on her best behavior since she is interim--I felt very bad for my former colleagues.
--Good luck to you
Interesting that your support for Ms. Santorno seems based more on an intuition than fact.
"most people who actually had dealings with her, did respect her." and
"She listens well", and
"she gave-a-hoot".
The had Brad Bernetek playing the role of lap dog and cherry-picking data for her. ... so gave a HOOT about what?
She listened as well as Steve Sundquist.... and disregarded evidence in making decisions in a very similar manner to Steve's M.O.
Writing the following certainly does not make it so:
"most people who actually had dealings with her, did respect her."
Seattle is largely a dysfunctional district when it comes to making Centralized Decisions about Academics ... I think at least some of that could be attributed to CAOs.
Tacoma has been plagued with similar dysfunction for years ... Carla has been and will continue that Tacoma tradition.
I am sure that a few folks in Tacoma will find Ms. Santorno to be:
A good listener
Concerned and "giving a hoot"
and these few will respect her....
in spite of massive evidence to the contrary.
One meeting (Intro/Action) on the evaluation instrument for the Superintendent ... See "looking ahead" thread
But, what would be really good is something else. This blog has become a one-stop character assasination - from Sarah Pritchett as insane, to Carla Santorno as vindictive, to Kate Martin as xyz, to board members. If you've got a real beef, then great, let's see the "evidence". Now all we have is innuendos, character slams. That doesn't buy anybody any credibility, and it doesn't buy a seat at the table of ideas.
-parent
Parent: Apparently you've completely missed the massive pile of indisputable evidence put forth, including the nose-dive and huge expansion of the achievement gap that has occurred since the adoption of discovery math, compared to the "good ole math." Facts are stubborn things.
If single digit passing rates are okay with you, then I suppose this whole math thing is silly and annoying. For many, it's not that easy to ignore.
WSDWG
Carla was fairly personable, and I had quite a few conversations with her. But as soon as you said something she didn't like, good luck. You're on her shit list. She mocked me and other parents, and I will not forget, nor forgive.
Since it sounds like math isn't important to you (wtf?), how about another, non-math, Carla issue. When the district proposed the previous APP split, she was talking (off-mic) about how in Colorado she purposely put their APP-ish program in the crappiest, scariest part of the city. She laughed out loud and mocked those parents as well, proudly (yes, beaming with delight) exclaiming how the parents pulled up to the school with their kids and were afraid to get out of their cars.
This is not a person I would even remotely say "considers community", nor "gave a hoot".
- not signing my name
"Now all we have is innuendos, character slams."
That's not true and you know it but I'm pretty sure you don't like most of the info disseminated here. That's okay but don't say the whole blog is non-factual. Most of the comments might but but Charlie and I operate on facts. That many don't like the reality or truth is troubling. The Times certainly doesn't and someone, somewhere has to daylight these issues.
I heard plenty more, but that was my only direct interaction with her and it was enough - I thought the district was fortunate when she left.
--- good luck Tacoma
I cannot share the details of the vendetta that Carla Santorno carried out against a teacher. I cannot tell anyone the details. When you are a union rep, you cannot betray confidences. Ever.
"Good luck to you"--I miss you, but I'm happy to hear that things are better for teachers where you are.
says a parent.
Clearly "a parent" never looked at Clover Park data since CPSD changed books and Seattle did not.
-parent
-Curious Kate
FWIW, my older child got a 3 on his Algebra EOC exam, and a 4 on the math MSP last year. That without any tutoring, and only the occasional and very basic help at home.
If you are concerned about Discovering I'd urge you to talk to your kids teachers - the real experts.
dreamer
I personally like the crop of new people at the the top - Bob Boesche, Doug Nichols, Paul Apostle and Pegi McEvoy.
Problem is Pegi and Paul are permanent but not Bob and Doug.
I think what is troubling is that what I want to see is different ways of doing things. When I see the capacity meetings with little notice and scrunched into one week, I see no change from what came before.
Different people don't mean a different district. Actions are what signal the difference.
People like WSDWG seem to hate the math. But isn't she an APP parent? Your kid should be plenty smart enough for it, right? Are you really going to be suffering from low achievement, or any sort of opportunity gap? Is this really the #1 thing for your kid? I sure hope not. So, she must be complaining on behalf of somebody else. Same with Dan Dempsey. Why not let the "injured parties" speak for themselves? Do they really feel damaged by this? Are new math books something they really want? Seems more like the judgements of others.
In any case, there we go. Math books have taken over the thread, when really it was about a few teachers.
-parent
"But isn't she an APP parent? Your kid should be plenty smart enough for it, right?"
If you disagree with APP as a program, fine. Please do not denigrate anyone's child. If I see this again, I will not hesitate to delete it.
Hamilton mom
-parent
APP Parent
If you're going to characterize other people's statements please try to do it accurately.
If the presumption that certain racial groups fail to achieve due to the instructional use of inquiry doesn't have a racial sub-message, I don't know what does.
No WenD, I do not work for SPS, or know you, nor have any intent to "bully" you. Not sure how I would be able to.
-parent
Show me. The entire archive of this blog is here. Show me where anyone writes that minorities or ELL students lack the mental capacity to achieve with inquiry-based math.
Not only don't I recall anyone writing that, I don't recall anyone suggesting it. The flaw lies in the instructional strategy's dependence on English skills, not in the students.
math lover
At any rate do a quick search. There is way to much to copy and paste, and reference here, but you will quickly see what Parent is talking about.
level headed
If you have a different opinion on the district's math data, I'm all ears and would be happy to read your analysis.
-blog reader
It is not a subtle difference. One suggests that the problem is in the instructional strategy, the other suggests that the problem is in the student. No one has suggested, as parent accused, that the problem is in the students.
I am curious, parent. You slam Dan and others for being one issue folks (though Dan, to his credit, has MANY issues -- math adoption being only one big one). But I have seen no evidence at all to back up what you are saying above.
Of course, if you are asking for a return to some really old, creaky, no concepts/nothing but drill math, then this is the same sort of red herring argument where you blame people for something they never championed. Because what most people here have asked for is (a) something more along the lines of Singapore, or one of the other sets of materials that has been evaluated as providing better coverage of materials, more ability for kids to "practice," some ability for teachers to provide the kinds of direct instruction (examples, explanations, and problem sets) that permit parents to work with kids at home, and for kids to work independently and use their books as references for questions), and (b) materials that have NOT been ranked as mathematically unsound (which Discovery was).
So -- if "sound" mathematical materials, that permit kids (and their families) to use the materials without reference to a teacher, that allow both some degree of inquiry learning, but also some amount of more direct-type instruction, that are flexible enough so that they permit ELL kids to progress through them without regard to their developing English skills constitutes "good-ole-time" math -- then I guess I am wondering where YOUR data (similar to Dan's) is that would suggest that those materials also don't work for "loads of kids." Because I have NEVER seen any research that suggests that.