Tuesday Open Thread
What's on your mind?
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
Mr Ed
I thought I read somewhere that Singapore Math was "approved" alongside EDM as additional curriculum, with materials purchased, etc.
If this was indeed the case, can all schools use this curriculum without a waiver needed, or some other process given it has been "kind-of" approved?
Mom in Mathmagic Land
McGlone's LinkIn profile
You bring up a good point, though. Maybe a waiver isn't therefore required for Sing. Math. What schools need, though, is money to buy the materials.
Dear Seattle Public School families,
Providing excellent customer service and support to families is our priority at Seattle Public Schools. We recognize that the size of our school district can make navigating internal processes challenging – especially when problems arise. To help streamline our problem-solving and family support process, today I am appointing Ronald McGlone to the newly created position of District Ombudsman.
With more than 30 years of professional experience working with and serving children and families in Seattle, Ron has served as our enrollment and customer service outreach coordinator for the past two years. As District Ombudsman, Ron will work with families to resolve disputes that have not been settled during our existing conflict resolution process, which involves first talking with a child’s teacher, then the principal, then the executive director of schools. As an independent ombudsman reporting directly to the Superintendent, Ron is committed to customer service, accountability and transparency.
Ron came to Seattle Public Schools in 1990 and prior to his work as the outreach coordinator he served as an enrollment facilitator and a family support worker, providing social services to underserved families and training school staff around intervention issues. His work with the Seattle Council PTSA to develop and facilitate parent involvement workshops earned him a PTSA Golden Acorn Award.
Ron is passionate about empowering families to participate in and navigate through our public school system and he understands the importance of embracing the organization goals and vision. He holds a graduate degree in Human Development with specialization in Leadership in Education, Parent and Community Work from Pacific Oaks College Northwest, and his undergraduate degree is in Business Administration from Cheyney University in Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the United States Ombudsman Association (USOA).
Starting March 19, families can contact Ron at 206.252.0529 or email ombudsman@seattleschools.org. For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/SPSombudsman or view the attached brochure.
Sincerely,
Susan
Susan Enfield, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools
http://westseattleblog.com/2012/03/design-team-chosen-for-k-5-stem-at-boren-1st-meeting-wed
The half-baked plan was to use document cameras and have students copy the problems rather than purchase books (or make copies, which would be a copyright infringement).
math mom
- Wtg on pins and needles
wondering
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/45000-caught-cheating-at-britains-universities-7555109.html
“Increasingly, universities are taking a defensive stance – insisting it is complicated by a growing number of students who enter university unfamiliar with the correct procedures of citation or who do not have a good command of English.”
-JC.
Advanced Learning Taskforce Family Survey Findings
There may not have been enough materials for all students but some materials were definitely purchased.
We were never trained, and the books collected dust. We were told that the materials were meant to supplement the weak areas of EDM and that training would be forthcoming.
I know this as a fact because I used them. I guess I found some weak areas.
--enough already
The Board cannot unilaterally act to put materials into an adoption. Singapore Math was never included in a way that met the requirements of an adoption under state law. ((Of course the Board had little idea about what was going on in this adoption process)).
Carla Santorno put EDM into the process without following the correct legal procedures for doing so, but Singapore Math was miles outside of the correct process.
As Brita Butler-Wall said :: we chose to trust our hired professionals.
So NO Singapore materials were NOT adopted .. (no matter what DeBell might have originally thought) because SM materials never went through the adoption process as required by law. Of course Carla and the Central Admin never pointed any of this out during the time that EDM was being horse traded about with promises of Singapore math materials included in the adoption.
The Board members were completely unaware that Singapore Math requires a text book and a work book for each semester..... Carla bought one extra practice book. .. Typical SPS nonsense decision-making.
The big boys, Kirschner-Sweller-Clark, that foretold why "Discovering" math series from Key Curriculum Press would not work, have a new article in the Spring 2012 issue of American Educator.
Putting Students on the Path to Learning ::
The Case for Fully Guided Instruction
... On one side of this argument are those who believe that all people—novices and experts alike—learn best when provided with instruction that contains unguided or partly guided segments. This is generally defined as instruction in which learners, rather than being presented with all essential information and asked to practice using it, must discover or construct some or all of the essential information for themselves. On the other side are those who believe that ideal learning environments for experts and novices differ: while experts often thrive without much guidance, nearly everyone else thrives when provided with full, explicit instructional guidance (and should not be asked to discover any essential content or skills).
Singapore Math was offered as "supplemental" adoption to make the approval of EDM more palatable.
Singapore books were bought in the first year of adoption. Unfortunately, Rosalyn Wise chose to buy the Extra Practice books as consummables and only one textbook and one set of corresponding workbooks per classroom. Those books did arrive to every school although most of them stayed in the boxes and were put away in bookrooms.
I was the math specialist at my school at that time and was responsible for organizing those books for our school.
Putting Students on the Path to Learning: The Case for Fully Guided Instruction (Clark, Kirschner, Sweller)
They also make the point that "minimally guided instruction can increase the achievement gap." Some experiments also showed a loss in learning (posttests were lower than pretests) for less-skilled students receiving less-guided instruction.
a reader
Whenever you hear Project Based Learning or Problem Based Learning that means minimally guided instruction.
Unfortunately the current thrust for STEM education has largely been a focus on Project Based Learning. While this may be working out well at Aviation HS with its very selective admissions process, PBL would hardly be advisable for Boren k-5 STEM..... Given past practices pushed by the UW's MEP -- Math Education Project -- which produced very low test scores at SPS involved with UW MEP guidance, I would be very cautious about enrolling a child at Boren k-5 STEM.
The new principal Dr. McKinney at Boren was principal at Hohokam MS in Arizona and the math results under her leadership were abysmal. Pass rates for the 6th grade cohort dropped to about half of the 6th grade rate by grade 8 testing and writing scores got worse as well.
Here is the letter that Dr. Kirschner wrote to Issaquah superintendent Rasmussen just before Rasmussen recommended "Discovering" to the school board for adoption.
Dr. Paul A. Kirschner is the chair of the Learning and Cognition Program at Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies in the Netherlands.
==========
As usual politics trumps reason in WA State education decision-making.
Check the data i gave at the last school board meeting for grades 3,4,5 in math and reading.
Over the last four years American Indian students scoring average has dropped a combined 41 points in Math at grades 3,4,5 and gone down by 33 points in reading.
Here is my spreadsheet for grades 3,4,5 in SPS for low income, Black, and American Indian students thru spring 2011 MSP testing.
Here is my SPS & Auburn comparison for elementary grades 3,4,5 ... not enough Indians in Auburn to report.
My daughter told us the 10th grade HSPE writing prompt was, "What is your favorite season and why?"
"THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011
Special Ed Student Allegedly Choked by Staff Member"
ken berry SpEdIA VA@AAA
Watch out! If you like your school community just the way it is, get proactive now!
There are going to be 550 elementary students next year at the Lincoln building in Wallingford, and, the District is looking to put them somewhere. Seems like with every building full (only BF Day and AS 1 have any space), the District, if determined to split APP again, will be disenfranchising someone else’s community. Somehow, I think they have learned they cannot put APP into an attendance area school, because to do so practically guarantees an enrollment disaster (guaranteeing a single building twice to both neighborhood kids and to advanced learners, is putting two trains on a single track heading towards each other). So, what’s left? “Option Schools”, that’s what! Why? Because the District can control enrollment into those buildings. But, is this good sense? NO! Why? Because the option schools for the Whittman, Eckstein and Hamilton middle school service areas are not only full, they are also beloved and critical to what is left of choice in Seattle. The K-8s might be targets, and yet, the District promised Jane Adams 3 years and it is a strong and growing community, and contrary to popular belief, Broadview Thompson is full. Besides, Kay Smith-Blum is fully behind K-8s, and it would be hard to believe she would allow the District to mess with them in this way.
Alternative education, which anchors both Salmon Bay and Thorton Creek, is deeply valued and valuable. It is also ‘choice’, which means in the capacity crunch, it could be vulnerable. Those schools have waitlists, which attest to their popularity. If APP was to be put into these building, the expeditionary learning component would be severely curtailed, plus, with APP siblings, it would be unlikely that in time, any true choice seats for alt ed would be available to anyone else.
And, it is not clear that our neighborhood schools are out of the running either for this APP population. But, as they are all full, two of them would essentially need to be cut in half in order to accept 250 incoming APP students. That kind of bisection is unimaginable, but then again, a lot of what the District does is unimaginable.
The BEX IV meeting is going to take place at Eckstein on April 3. If you like your learning community as is, get in front of this, talk with your PTA and your families, and then come to the meeting and let the District know that your building is already full, serving a community, and, would not be a fit for the homeless APP cohort. A much better solution, one which does not disfranchise anybody, is to use the Marshall building for those APP students. This would spare everyone else from partition.
We simply don’t need this kind of acrimony. Sometimes it seems like the District pits one group of parents against another, and, that should never ever be the case. Not saying they do this, just that it seems that way, sometimes. Putting APP into a building that neither has the space nor the desire for it, especially when doing so would kick out existing students, is a lose-lose proposition. But, the only way to make sure this does not happen is to let them know now, before they even suggest it.
-worried parent looking ahead
Thanks,
Beth
The irony is that the crowded schools are less crowded than they could be because they've chosen to be in APP, not in their neighborhood school.
What a sad state of affairs.
That's what a lot of people are going to read into that post, but I almost suspect that it is a well-disguised appeal by an APP advocate to get APP into a self-contained building. At any rate the points are valid and unless Northies unite to find a self-contained home for APP, the district will let them throw each other under the bus until they split Lowell@Lincoln and squeeze two guaranteed placement APPs into two guaranteed placement neighborhood schools. Maybe if the Northies unite to help APP arrive at a sensible solution they can all tell SPS to where to stuff it.
Take one story about learning to ride a bike, with your dad, learning to trust in his unconditional support, even as he let's go... put it in a season, and ta-da! You have yourself a HSPE essay.
Let's hope the persuasive prompt is less cliche. Wanna bet it involves "writing a letter" to someone important persuading them to support their position on a topic teens really care about?
Them's the prompts, folks. Look 'em up.
-test mystic
So APP - best decide if a K8 building is truly for you ahead of time. If so then good. If not, then get it out there now. Smith-Blum is bound and determined to put you there apparently.
Southie
Worried, you do make it sound like APP students (or their parents) would be barbarians at the gate and destroy/take over a school.
But, you make a good point about not co-housing. John Stanford himself said, after the early Madrona mistake, that they should NEVER be co-housed again. He was right.
It seems a big unseemly to want to protect one program (say an Option program at one school) and not another like APP.
I said it before, I'll say it again - Nova, SBOC and APP are not movable programs. To keep treating them as such is wrong and disrespectful. I don't blame their communities as they have no control over their futures.
But we have a responsibility to watch out for and support all programs because someday it might be your program or school.
Yet another question for the AL Taskforce.
Has anyone heard of this or know anything about the program?
My son's MSP scores are good, but I didn't think they were exceptional.
My children took it and we were glad they did.
We received such a letter also from the AL Office and it made me wonder: Is this another way to use (=abuse) my child's test scores?
The reason for this is simple: the letter states my child's latest MAP test scores.
And I feel that the time of the letter and the place for the test (Hamilton) gives another message also:
if you are not quite happy with the APP program at HIMS you could just sign up for an online course with CTY? But what is this have to do with SPS and its APP Office? Is this really an advertisement for the summer program they will just start in Seattle this summer (for 7th graders and up?)
Lot of questions, not so many answers.
- Concerned
The reason I ask is that we have seen a spate of child initiated gunshot injury/deaths, and it occurred to me that I couldn't think of any child-focused education on firearm safety. I know the NRA has some program, but should the schools?
I find it surprising how many families actually own guns ( rifles, pistols,etc) in Seattle. We try to make it a point of asking parents , when scheduling playdates, whether they have and how they secure their guns.
Thoughts?
--NE Dad
My son qualified for it in 5th grade also a few years ago - based on his WASL score.
Its a chance for your child to take a nationally normed test (another one) and then be able to take advantage of some great summer programs.
On a related note, I hear my kid's 8th grade class heard a presentation from LEEP at Lakeside, which sounds like a worthwhile program (aimed at underserved kids and, unlike CTY,FREE).
another parent
They are all very expensive and way out of my price range so we find other ways to supplement for our child, who is not in APP but who also got a letter from her school district. School districts around the country suggest these programs for advanced students because they are options for additional challenge. They have nothing to do with local summer school.
Former gifted kid
http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/programs/
-Summer learners
OK, I make it simple: Is this really the best way to use the AL's Office resources? Especially these days with so many problems with the AL Programs districtwide and so many cuts in the funding.
IMO parents can search the internet in a few seconds to find these kinds of Talent Searches and their gifted program if they need to find one. (We are in the program for 2 years. Without any previous notice from the SPS's AL Office).
And if this is not a plain and simple advertisement for the new summer residential program in Seattle then why didn't we received letters for younger students?
- Concerned
Thanks,
parent
'Hunger Games': Peer pressure? How about, like, fighting to death
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2017740825_hungergames13.html
FYI
Solvay
If you're a kid who'd be economically eligible for LEEP, you'd also likely be eligible for a full scholarship to a CTY program. I say it's good to know about both possibilities.
Helen Schinske
"Seattle School Board exec cmte considering shifting time of board mtgs from 6 to 4 pm, still on Wednesdays, w/ public testimony at the end"
They may as well say talk to the hand.
WTF?!
So far as I know, the recommended instruction for children finding a gun is to go, immediately and without touching the weapon, to an adult and report it.
Like you, I always asked about guns in the homes where my kids had playdates. It's a tough question but worse would be the phone call where something went wrong.
That this region seems to have a number of stupid (and yes, I mean stupid) parents who do not secure their weapons from children is appalling. I have every sympathy for the children involved and none for the parents.
Maybe we need guns laws that punish adults if they don't secure their weapons from children have access to them.
Hmmm, interesting, I know a family who has had three daughters go through LEEP and they don't have any particular financial need (are 'under represented minorities' though.) Does CTY provide financial aid to middle class families? (and by middle class, I mean poverty level to 100K)
I am curious why not. Since we deal with sex education and drug education. Why not guns? I consider it a public health concern.
--NE Dad
Unfortunately, educating kids is not enough, whether done at school or at home. In the most recent cases, the shooters were very young, one less than 7 years old and one just 3 years old. School-based education would not have changed either situation.
Education also not does not stop adolescents and teens from grabbing mom or dad's unlocked gun in a moment of anger or despair and committing suicide.
What works is limiting access; that's the best way to stop these kinds of senseless tragedies. States that have enacted child access prevention, or CAP, laws have seen declines in unintentional deaths among children when adults are held criminally liable for allowing easy access to the gun in question. Moreover, research suggests that the benefit is greatest when the penalty is a felony rather than a gross misdemeanor. CAP laws also reduce the number of suicides among teens, both committed with a firearm and overall. In nearly all cases of teenage suicide, the gun came from the child's home or a family member. If it were just slightly harder to get a gun, some kids would get thru those moments and still be alive.
It's sad that it takes fear of criminal conviction to change behavior and get adult gun owners to act responsibly, but that's what the data seem to say.
The problem here in our state is that we have no CAP law. So individual prosecutors in different counties are now trying to cobble together some sort of charges against the mom in the Bremerton case and the parents in this Tacoma tragedy today. One is going with 3rd degree assault, while the other is looking at manslaughter. Meanwhile, I've heard nothing about charges against the cop in Marysville.
It angers me that the penalty in each of these cases might differ, apparently based on how sympathetic society feels toward the adult in question. No talk of charging the cop yet, but he's just as guilty of a crime as the other adults in the other cases, in my opinion.
We have so much work here to do in Washington. As horrible as these recent events are, if there's any good that come from them, maybe it's finally having some honest discussion about gun safety and having our legislators find the nerve to stand up to the NRA.
sss.westbrook@gmail.com
I used to work in a children's bookstore so I have several good book recommendations.
Common Core State Standards & Fuzzy Math
Perhaps Dr. Enfield and the Board should be addressing the question. How is the SPS planning on better results for students in the learning of Math?
So far Boren k-5 STEM apparently has NO Plan to make it happen.
- Mr. Tucket series (historical fiction) by Gary Paulson
- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (historical fiction) by Avi
-Ella Enchanted by Levine
- Tuck Everlasting (don't watch the movie - read the book)
- Girls to the Rescue - Fairy tales where the girls create their own fate
- Jump-off Creek by Gloss
- Sammy Keyes mysteries by Van Draanen
Boys
- Honus and me
- Who Was that Masked Man Anyway by Avi (funniest book-on-tape ever)
- The Number Devil by Enzensberger
- Shiloh (also great book on tape)
-Moves Make the Man by Brooks
- Jack's Black Book by Gantos
- any Alex Rider book by Horowitz
Keep in mind; I had boys and most of these my guys enjoyed so the lists are interchangeable.
Also, if you need help, go to Third Place books in Lake Forest Park and ask for Rene. She KNOWS books for children (with a special emphasis on pre-teen and teen books) like NO one else in this city. She's amazing. She also has a page at the Third Place books website.
FYI parent, AG has an entire series, including dealing with feelings, friends, manners and standing up for yourself, etc. We have most of them and our daughter loves them. She's also "grown into" the "Middle School Confidential" series and found those helpful.
Not a bookstore employee, just a book lover
I'm hoping to talk to parents about this issue. If you are interested in talking with me, please contact me at brosenthal@seattletimes.com or (206) 464-3195.
Thanks a lot.
parent
Jane