Coming Threads
So much to talk about and so little time to get to all of it. But coming up:
- School Board meeting - nothing like very small children singing "Help!" and saying, "when I was younger so much younger than today". You mean like when you were a baby? Adorable kids from West Woodland.
Then there were the Nova kids who gave moving testimony about their trans-gendered struggles and but yet again, they find compassion and a home at Nova.
After that, it got quite interesting with a new parent group announcing itself (with one single issue), TFA and assorted other issues.
- BEX - this is coming fast and there is a lot to cover
- future permanent homes for Nova, SBOC and Lowell at Lincoln; any thoughts?
- a big uh, oh from Transportation (hint, we didn't save any money on the neighborhood plan)
- one update - turns out, according to Publicola, that because of redistricting, that DeBell now lives in the 43rd and not the 36th. They seem to think that besides moving back to the 36th to run, he would have to resign his Board seat to run for the Legislature but I don't see why. Plenty of people run for another office while holding a different one. DeBell's own Board seat isn't up for re-election until Nov. 2013. But this is a wait-and-see thing - he may not be interested at all.
Anyone know the legal issues around running for office when you hold an office?
- School Board meeting - nothing like very small children singing "Help!" and saying, "when I was younger so much younger than today". You mean like when you were a baby? Adorable kids from West Woodland.
Then there were the Nova kids who gave moving testimony about their trans-gendered struggles and but yet again, they find compassion and a home at Nova.
After that, it got quite interesting with a new parent group announcing itself (with one single issue), TFA and assorted other issues.
- BEX - this is coming fast and there is a lot to cover
- future permanent homes for Nova, SBOC and Lowell at Lincoln; any thoughts?
- a big uh, oh from Transportation (hint, we didn't save any money on the neighborhood plan)
- one update - turns out, according to Publicola, that because of redistricting, that DeBell now lives in the 43rd and not the 36th. They seem to think that besides moving back to the 36th to run, he would have to resign his Board seat to run for the Legislature but I don't see why. Plenty of people run for another office while holding a different one. DeBell's own Board seat isn't up for re-election until Nov. 2013. But this is a wait-and-see thing - he may not be interested at all.
Anyone know the legal issues around running for office when you hold an office?
Comments
Re Transporation - those on the inside have been trying to point out the issues with the plan from the very very beginning - long before it ever went before the Board. However, like other depts at SPS, line staff voices carry very little weight ;(
Please explain if you will how it is that mamagement can blame nine preschools for obliteration and, in fact, an overage in transpo costs. I resent that, once again, SpEd is made to be the fall guy.
Preschools have 10% of the SpEd students. I seriously doubt mgmt's rationale that, somehow, changed preschool start times would have run the train off the tracks. It's not like we put Pre-K kids on the same bus as 5th graders anyway.
Veddy interestink!
-skeptical-
Anonymous said...
I got this response from Kay Smith-Blum to my email urging the end of the TFA contract.
"I continue to listen to our principals with regard to this issue. As many of them feel they would like TfA as an option in their hiring pool, I believe it is my duty to support them. As our HR department develops processes that strengthen our ability to "grab on" to our own student teachers, I believe that process, in the long run, represents our best option for bringing teachers of color and innovative instructors into our system. This transformation should take about 2 years, about the length of the existing contract with TfA. Until then, TfA is another tool in our tool box which many highly respected principals say they want."
I continue to be baffled by the inability of intelligent people to comprehend the facts.
-dismayed teacher
3/7/12 6:19 PM
Anonymous said...
And here is my response. I am not very hopeful but I had to say something.
Kay,
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to my email. I appreciate it, but I am not satisfied with your rationale.
I have to wonder how many principals feel strongly about this issue; so strongly, in fact, that they would be willing to further alienate their teaching staff. I also wonder whether you give equal weight to the vast majority of teachers in this district who are overwhelmingly opposed to the presence of TFA. It falls on us to provide the extensive mentoring and support they require and the negative impact they have on the teaching profession is carried squarely on our backs.
Your decision to support the continuation of the contract is based on three very flawed assumptions.
1. That there is a lack of talent in the teaching pool. I find this insulting both to the teachers currently working in SPS and the bright young certified new teachers entering the profession.
2 That TFA beings diversity to the hiring pool. It doesn't. The data is very clear. Have you looked at the statistics?
3. That TFA brings innovative teaching to the district. This is the most egregious of your misconceptions. Innovative teaching takes years to develop. Perhaps 1 in every 50 TFA corps members has a natural gift for teaching that over time will develop into truly innovative practice. The assumption that an Ivy League education and 5 weeks of "training" means innovation is based, at best, on wishful thinking. I have an Ivy League education and TFA training, but it took a year of study in a School of Education, student teaching, and 3 years of classroom experience before I became proficient. Innovative, as defined by the Danielson framework (which I assume you are familiar with) is difficult to accomplish even for master teachers with many years of professional development, hard work, and experience.
I am National Board certified and have earned the Innovative rating. I know what it takes to meet the high standards set out in the framework. I can assure you unequivocally, that there is no way to achieve them as a 1st year or 2nd year teacher, no matter how smart, well educated, ambitious, or dedicated you may be. Please don't further insult the teachers in this district and our profession by claiming that TFA corps members will bring innovation.
I have always respected your reasonable and intelligent approach to the complex issues facing our schools. Right now, I am just perplexed. Please reconsider your position. What harm would there be if the contract is rescinded? If there is any, it is surely far less than the damage to teacher morale and confidence in our elected School Board.
-dismayed teacher
3/7/12 6:47 PM
@brianmrosenthal
DeBell, prez of Seattle School Board, indicated he wouldn't move back into 36th to run. Interesting he's been thinking about #waleg, though
Mr. Ed
Was there a presentation we can see @ transportation? Did Tom Bishop present? If the plan is not saving $$ this needs HUGE analysis. The 3-tier bus system has caused a dramatic loss of service, shifted start times of many schools in an unfortunate direction, and has kids walking way the heck all over the district to catch rides.
EdVoter
It is interesting that Smith-Blum has so little regard for state laws.
She has yet to come out for the need to conduct a careful review of all options to close achievement gaps .. clearly big money trumps the law once again.
She apparently believes that lowering teacher morale even further is of no consequence. SEE NY TIMES on Teacher morale.
-- Dan
I hope the board tells TFA to take a hike and we go back to local solutions for our local kids. We don't need a "tool in the toolbox" that causes more harm than good.
EdVoter
In other words - don't believe everything you hear - there is always a temptation on the part of some people to find a "scapegoat" for poor planning - I doubt SpEd is not the actual source of the problem, or at least that's the way I understand things - but I can't go into more detail as it might jeopardize friends - sorry.
DeBell-orderly governance and a continued role in Seattle civic life
McLaren-teachers and trust
Patu-downtrodden community
Carr-good management as defined by Boeing
Martin-Morris-policy and positioning himself for an ed policy job
Peaslee-anti-corporate reform
Smith-Blum-?????????
-EdVoter-
Teacher morale and devising intelligent solutions to problems are of apparently no concern to these four.
Consider this about teachers and math ....
Imagine the negative impact on your morale if you were given fad driven curriculum materials using a discovery pedagogy and told to produce great results. After failing you would naturally start blaming yourself, your students, the administration, maybe the curriculum. What a terrible trap to fall into when a teacher is given an unproven curriculum devised by people more intent on selling an idea than producing results.
Imagine the terrible impact on a new young teacher who is just starting out, who has a weak math background and is completely ill equipped to assess the weaknesses and classroom inefficiencies of teaching math to low-income elementary students using group work and discovery pedagogy.
It's just madness. Reminiscent of the 1930's-50's when psychosurgery was in vogue. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosurgery
Sad for the teachers, sadder still for the students who learn little in their all important early years.
---- But thats life in parts of the SPS ... and for another tool for low income schools ... these four board members voted for TFA. This is again all about money and working conditions ... the 1% rules and don't you forget it.
Be clear what one means when one says SpEd is being blamed. No one is blaming the kids. Get that?
One issue that was blamed was that Preschool decided to change their start times, so that no longer could the same buses be employed to transport preschool in between times that they transported other age groups. Therefore loss of efficiency. Accurate? I don't know. Plausible? Seems plausible to me, but I don't have enough data. Obviously to others it doesn't sound plausible. Let's see some data first.
But that is not blaming SpEd, that is blaming Transportation for approving the new routes and not calculating out the increased cost from the start. Why was the board and senior management only apprised of this in February?
Is it no surprise that SpEd is being blamed for sucking up "more than its fair share" of the overall budget. Despite mgmt's admission that enrollment is stable. Despite significant deterioration in levels of services and IA support. Let me see. Could it be that SpEd money is being used to prop up other things? Like GenEd?
We are a convenient scapegoat.
Someone, call the ethics hotline PLEASE! Supposedly the atmosphere of fear and intimidation is no more (sure thing), there's a new era of glasnost and respect for staff (and I got some swampland to sell you).
Now that the sales of land will no longer be available for starting up new pet programs like STEM and STEAM, they've got to come up with the money somewhere, a different slush fund.
You have not been listening to the years of laments re: SpEd spending. Former SpEd Ex Dir. Marni Campbell's favorite phrase was "rightsizing". Then watch board members frown and nod their heads. So we have every reason to be wary.
I was at the Transpo Oversight session. The issue is that they calculate they will be two million over budget this year. Will heads roll? Who knows, but I wouldn't be surprised.
============
But it was transportation savings from NSAP that was going to make every school a quality school?
Will this delay making every school a quality school?
Oh I forgot under KSB thinking ... in 2 years TFA will be in place and teacher salaries will be greatly reduced ... so every school will become a quality school ....
To prove her point, she then said -- no joke -- that "50 percent" of the TFAers who were hired by SPS this year are diverse.
Sounds potentially impressive, doesn't it?
--Until you realize that a total of only 6 TFAers were hired by SPS this year.
So "50 percent" means a grand total of 3 people!
That's right, TFA added 3 "diverse" people to SPS's corp of 3,000 teachers this year.
Is that really worth all the fuss, bother, expense, backroom politics and ill-will that bringing in TFA, Inc. has cost our district?
If a contingency is not included, will the move be delayed until a BEX V appropriates the required funds? That would push any move out well beyond the end of next year.
Signed,
Curious and confused
"Minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
•Teachers in high-minority schools were paid $2,251 less per year than their colleagues in teaching in low-minority schools in the same district."
Is THIS closing the achievement gap?! Seattle is actually going the other direction. Here are the numbers.
Teachers with less than 2 years experience:
District - 11.3%
Aki Kurose - 23.6%
RBHS - 20.6%
Southshore - 17.9%
Ballad HS - 7.2%
Roosevelt HS - 5.9%
It's been gone over and over and over. Stanford...DIED. Olchefske grabbed internaly to replace Stanford, then...HUGE ACCOUNTING SCANDAL. Manhas...grabbed internally to replace Olchefske, then...unable to lead community or board or anyone, really. Nice guy though. Goodloe-Johnson: Brought in to be the hatchet girl for school closures and to tamp down on perceived out-of-control school board meetings, only...FRAUD via Pottergate.
In summation, the current makeup of the board has ZILCH to do with superintendent turnover, unless you count Enfield, who was Interim anyhow. She didn't want to work with some of the new board members? So what. DeBell said at last night's meeting that there is a huge volume of incoming applications.
Really, what is the point of "Moderate Parents" and are they another fake grassroots group engineered by The Alliance for Education or somesuch to take down Sharon and Marty and Betty?
DistrictWatcher
1) a charter in South Seattle and make it an optional draw
2) staffed by all TFA teachers, TFA principal (aka one of the Danforth, less than 10 years teaching experience, but pay me at least $110K salary for wiling to work with the poor),
3) and teacher eval based on standardized tests, using EDM/CMP/Discovery math, NSF science kits andwriters and readers workshop materials.
Go get 'em tiger
Also, also - how long has it been since transportation has promised savings but none have been forthcoming. Remember Harium's infamous promise to demand a report on the last round of "savings" after which he did an about-face and explained that he didn't want it after all? Nice. Now this issue. Again.
DistrictWatcher
Harium has been too busy in D.C., as he reported in last night's meeting, to attend to little things like district transportation issues. I too remember his failure to follow up on his promised transportation report. And it hurt my school. I can't think of anything he has followed up on. Except his defense of TFA as seen last night. Another national issue we do not need here.
The guy is utterly useless at the district level.
Southie
-p***ed off tiger by the tail
It has some colorful moments.
a parent
No, I don't think DeBell would have to step down to run for the state legislature (not Congress). McKenna is running and not stepping down.
Yes, I am in the 43rd so welcome, Michael DeBell.
...which makes the delayed release of the Lowell report concerning. Are they waiting until after open enrollment?
-getting out the tin foil hat
*One with inside knowledge
This is done all the time. You just do not normally run for two offices at the same time.
Senators are famous for running for president when their term in office will not expire for another 2 or 4 years. ((Good safety net in case of a loss.))
John F Kennedy was reelected in 1958 to his second 6 year term in the Senate. He was elected president in 1960.
The Governor of Massachusetts selected Benjamin A. Smith II to become Senator..... I believe that appointment went a little cleaner than Rod Blagojevich's selection of Obama's senatorial replacement in early 2009.
Jurors convicted Blagojevich over two trials on 18 corruption counts, including charges he tried to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.
My take on Kay Smith Blum is that she is very naive and privileged.
Not a good combination, mind you.
When she catches onto suffering, she acts like she discovered it (see when she talks about the so-called opportunity gap and gets all emotional).
When she she's not the belle of the ball, she thinks she's being dissed (see her response to MGJ, who seemed to view her as another privileged white women in expensive clothes and not worthy of attention--KSB interpreted it as an affront).
When she sees expensive clothes and make-up on a career "gal" who doesn't ignore her, she sees an opportunity to bond and be all sisterly (see Susan Enfield and, on occasion, Sharon Peaslee).
When she hears a principal say he/she want the opportunity to hire TFAers, she believes they are saying this because they want "another tool in their toolbox" (when, in fact, they do not want to get on the bad side of their boss, who proved she is vindictive--see Martin Floe)--and are simply in self-preservation mode).
What principal in her/his right mind would want to hire a TFA person other than for kissing up?
Their job depends on results, and these untrained teachers cannot possibly deliver.
In other words, Kay Smith Blum doesn't have much world experience, takes people at surface value (which probably helps one be successful in the clothing business) and thinks she is on the brink of saving the poor children in Seattle.
Teachers in the trenches, you are invisible. Struggling families, you are a pitiful abstraction that Kay will help rescue. Public, you are lucky to have Kay responding to your emails and feeling like a pro.
Now for the real question: Who is going to run against this clueless bobblehead?
--enough already
I would say you are correct just about 100%. Unfortunately some of us must grasp at straws and take some things at face value. I have not heard egregious, sucking up from KSB re: TFA. But then again I have heard her loft softball questions to staff, giving the appearance that she's doing her "due diligence".
We must work to disabuse Ms Smith-Blum that: a) we're stupid as a dyed blonde Dallas Cowboys cheerleader; and b) those arguments are sound and fury signifying nothing.
Some of us wear expensive clothes and makeup AND are street smart, too.
But not everyone is as fortunate as you and me.
--enough already
"But the most troubling incident came when the activists posted personal information about TFA teachers on a blog. Soon after, there was a burglary at one of the posted addresses. It's impossible to know if there was a connection, but officials reacted angrily."
Yeah, one of us who cares about effective, experienced teachers for our kids committed burglary.
What he didn't note is the information that has been found in those record searches. That Lesley Rogers crafted Sundquist's umbrage. Pure theater.
Let me see, did Rosenthal ever mention Jon Bridge's involvement with the secret TFA donor cover up?
Did Rosenthal ever write about the contortions Jennifer Wallace at the PESB went through to find a loophole in her own regulation to allow condition certs for applicants were not extraordinarily talented?
Rosenthal never wrote about Enfield's improper communications with a potential contractor.
He never wrote about Stritikus cramming TFA down his grad students throats.
I'm starting to think he is Report for America corps member.
Besides, the more push, the more scrutiny they are now under especially as they have been around for a while to have a track record. It's not a consistent or pretty track record. Remember as the teacher eval thing become more prevalent, charters and TFAs will come under the same scrutiny. They'll try to wiggle out of it of course and teach to the tests as pragmatist do. It will be another lost 5-10 years and we'll have a new round of reformers (don't be surprised if it comes with some familiar faces) with "new" innovations to sell. They'll call it something like "Ameri-CAN".
de ja vu
I get the police/neighborhood crime stop alerts and they ALWAYS, ALWAYS tell us to NEVER make it obvious you're not home. Do thieves read this blog? Not likely. But word gets around about vulnerable homes. That's another thing in the updates I get.
But hey, none of this bothers you, so I'm not sure why I'm trying.
Call me: break-in victim
We need to open up RB community center and its pool. We need more policing S. of the city. We need more intervention for our young people so they have a safe place to go and safe things to do. If people who want to make all the changes to help kids learn, they need to create the safe environment kids live and learn in! And no, I don't think 5 week trained PFA (Police for America) is the answer.
de ja vu
Unless there was actual evidence that the break-in was due to an address publication on a blog (smaller readership than the paper), it is only base speculation on Brian Rosenthal's part to tie these two together. I would expect better of him.
They NEVER came to me, not once.
And, clearly there are states out that that do not redact information in a careful way before they release it.
The argument is absurd and Rosenthal's inclusion of it specious. If anyone was blabbing about the brief time TFA addresses were up it was the gripers themselves. All any burglar need do is sit at a residential bus stop and see who leaves for work every morning. I mean I just found Susan Enfield's, my child's principal, and Tom Stritikus' addresses on Dex. OMG! How dare I say that! Now if they burgled it's those defenders of the status quo!
It seems TFA inc's modus operandi is either be in awe or pity us.
Break-in victim who's sorry to have hijacked the thread, but the safety info is really good
I still think it was improper to post the document without blacking out the info, but the link to the break-in seems tenuous.
-also a break-in victim, as are several of my neighbors, and their friends, and their friends, and so on...