Any Updates From Yesterday?
There were several meetings yesterday including the long-delayed PTA charter forum. If you attend that forum or the Work Session on the budget, let us know your thoughts.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
Thanks for the Report .....
Now what were the Supremes thinking with its lets wait until 2018 to see how that Constitutionally Correct full funding of education is coming along?
Mr Ed
One of the better statements of the evening came from Robin Lake of the Center for Reinventing Public Education when she said that she isn't very interested in labels. She doesn't care if the school is a charter school, a private school, or a public school. For her it only matters if it is a good school. And she had a lot of hallmarks of a good school.
Ms Lake also said that charter schools have been around for twenty years and there have been some lessons learned. She described some of them, but, for me, the critical point was that none of the lessons learned were reflected in the charter school bill that failed in Olympia. It was an extraordinarily bad bill and we're lucky it failed.
The ideologues are busy painting anti-charter folks as anti-change. I want to peel all the people who want change (and just aren't aware of the perils of charters as they have been co-opted by big business) away from the Hanauers, Gateses, etc -- and get them in the "expand opportunities for public school choice and innovation" camp. But that is just me. I am still mourning the NSAP's further erosion of school choice and the damage done to the alts.
I'll do a thread on it but it was interesting (and somewhat surprising) in a number of way.
The Preuss School UCSD is designed to be a rigorous college preparatory educational program. Through tutor-assisted teaching, a single-track macro curriculum required for all students, small classes and an extensive use of technology and teamwork, the overarching goal of the school is to create a highly enriched secondary school.
Preuss will prepare its graduates to distinguish themselves academically so that they will be competitively eligible for admission to the University of California and other similarly selective four year colleges and institutions of higher learning.
Above all, The Preuss School UCSD must provide an environment of high expectations where students are continually encouraged and empowered to develop a greater sense of confidence through self-sufficiency and pride in their academic accomplishments.
The school fosters a culture of intellectual risk-taking. The students are taught the art of questioning and logical and critical thinking, with the hopes that they will sustain a lifelong intellectual curiosity and dedication to continual learning.
The Preuss School’s mission includes the development of strong character, healthy lifestyles, good judgment, ethical behavior and instilling a sense of service to one’s home community. We believe that the family, neighborhood institutions and school all share responsibility for encouraging young people to develop as both scholars and citizens.
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I am looking forward to Melissa's report.
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Note: tutor assisted small classes .... Is the legislature in WA planning on providing that for WA students? .. no but how about charters? (Duh!!)
Also noted nothing of substance under academics. What math classes are offered, language, English, social studies. Electives? All missing. They do post info about all the testing though.
Will be very interested to see the write up.
Nice plug for Robin Lake, a colleague of your bud at the Center for Sitting in An Armchair and Criticizing the Work Being Done in the Trenches.
Anyone with Google can name the characteristics of good schools.
I'm not impressed.
--enough already
I agree... I would bet Gates' $$$ that there were far more profound, sincere statements made....
Look at any country without a strong public school system -- parents with any money at all in those countries desperately pay whatever private fees they can afford and in doing so stratify and divide their societies in ways that shut down opportunities for all children except the richest.
Look at how the high private school enrollment in Seattle (highest per capita in the nation) already affects the civic engagement in our schools. It's why the complexion of Seattle Public Schools is so different from our city as a whole. For example, the founding leadership of the Alliance for Education all sent their kids to private schools -- do you think they are really engaged in educating other people's children? Then don't get me started on parents, including many outspoken critics of public schools, who send their special needs children to public schools while sending their other children to private schools. We need to share education as a human right and a common good, period. You're right, Robin, I better avoid labeling you!
Emile
Each of these items rules out families. That's not public school. That's not acceptible as a charter school, no matter how worthy the objective.
Run it as a private school that is grant funded, but don't run it as part of the PUBLIC school system. It is wrong.
-skeptical-
I see this claim cited quite often, but would really like to know the source and whether or not it's true. Anyone?
It's also been said that of the nation's 100 largest cities, the children per capita in Seattle is comparatively low and second only to San Francisco.
curious
"School enrollment declines slightly", D. Bach, 10/24/2005
Seattle has long had one of the highest rates of private school attendance in the country, hovering at 25 to 30 percent for the past two decades. Contrary to popular belief, Cassidy said, the district's declining enrollment is not caused by increased numbers of children attending private schools, but by fewer children living in the city than in the past.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/School-enrollment-declines-slightly-1185824.php#ixzz1nyzcUUvo
According to the US Census Bureau, Seattle has 15.4% of persons under the age of 18, compared with 23.5% in WA state and 24% nationwide. For comparison, Bellevue has 21.2%.
FYI
FYI
http://www2.uwkc.org/kcca/data/Education/default.asp
FYI
I may be wrong, but I thought home schoolers had to register with the school district. Perhaps they are counted or tracked that way? I fully admit to knowing very little about the subject.
You also have homeschoolers attending the district Homeschool Resource Center, in which case they are enrolled with the district, but with Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) designation.
parent
I can tell you from touring the bigger Seattle Private schools (Bush, SASS, U Prep, Lakeside) they draw from all over with very large numbers from Mercer Island, Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah, Woodinville, etc. The paraochials tend to draw more local neighborhood kids especially at the ES and MS level. Don't forget there are Seattle kids who go to other public school districts too.
looking around
This was at the end of the forum when the panel was asked a number of audience questions, including mine, which was: "Would you send your kids to a KIPP charter school? Why? Why not?"
Rosalund Jenkins of LEV first took the question, then admitted she has no children but two miniature schnauzers, mentioned Mercer Middle School as if it were a KIPP school and said she would send them -- kids, not schnauzers I am assuming -- if she had any, to Mercer.
Robin Lake was also asked to respond. She paused, said "It's complicated," mentioned she has a child with special needs, stipulated that she supports charters simply because she supports more options for all kids, and then said that KIPP is not for everyone... and her answer trailed off from there.
I actually thought it was a poignant moment of honesty from her -- if hypocritical.