Friday Open Thread
Don't forget the district's Building Bridges for Summer Learning event on Saturday from 9:30am to 2:30 pm at Chief Sealth High School.
Also, Directors Carrand Smith-Blum have community meetings on Saturday so you might want to bend their ear on issues of importance to you like, say, transportation. UPDATE: Director Smith-Blum has canceled her community meeting.
Did you get a blue plastic bag in your mailbox? The US Post Office is doing one of their regular Saturday food drives. Don't forget to fill that bag and put it for your friendly mail-person.
Also,
The Orca K-8 annual plant sale is this Saturday! We'll have lots of veggie starts, raspberries, native plants, environmental education opportunities, a mobile art makery, baked goods, and a Full Tilt ice cream truck - something for everyone! 46th Ave. S. and S. Dawson in Columbia City, 10-3.
Over at Hale, the mighty C89.5 FM radio station is having their pledge drive to support the station. SPS is one of the few districts in the country to operate a radio station and have for at least 20+ years. Consider a small donation to keep this great (and fun) station going.
What's on your mind?
Also, Directors Carr
Did you get a blue plastic bag in your mailbox? The US Post Office is doing one of their regular Saturday food drives. Don't forget to fill that bag and put it for your friendly mail-person.
Also,
The Orca K-8 annual plant sale is this Saturday! We'll have lots of veggie starts, raspberries, native plants, environmental education opportunities, a mobile art makery, baked goods, and a Full Tilt ice cream truck - something for everyone! 46th Ave. S. and S. Dawson in Columbia City, 10-3.
Over at Hale, the mighty C89.5 FM radio station is having their pledge drive to support the station. SPS is one of the few districts in the country to operate a radio station and have for at least 20+ years. Consider a small donation to keep this great (and fun) station going.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Great cause, good bikes, guys.
South Side Biker
I know they recalibrated the scores for this fall, but my child's reading score dropped from 99% to 97%.
I have not heard back from the district. I'm wondering if anyone else sees a change.
Loving MAP less and less and less...
LMLALAL
Dora
Enjoy.
Dora
The thing that makes me most furious? Given the opportunity in both pieces for someone from the district to apologize for their abysmal customer service (no notification, no strong outreach to gather comments now, no promise to now take input under consideration) the district in both instances does....
Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. They are hunkered down and an acknowledgement that they f'd up, let alone an apology for it, isn't going to happen.
Reporters just now pointed out there isn't even a prominent place on the school district website for people to find information. It is buried.
I am staring at the sun trying to temper my hatred for this district. That's right: hatred.
Not for the teachers or principals or custodians or lunch ladies. For the technocrats downtown who are bottom of barrel in their skills and beyond incompentent in their customer service ethic. For senior board members who excuse it away time after time after time after time. (I'm looking at YOU DeBell. And YOU Martin-Morris.)
A crappier example of governance and administration of a public entity cannot be found. And that INCLUDES the Seattle police department under fed investigation. At least the chief and staff are out in front of the public with a plan now. SPS? Nothing.
DistrictWatcher
DistrictWatcher
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Meg said...
It's possible that other districts simply offer much more restrictive bus service. However, given the sloppiness of the plan presented, I strongly suspect transportation didn't make sure that the comparison of per-student transportation costs was actually comparing the same group of cost segments.
Not having been there when the "analysis" was done, I can only guess. So this is a guess. I think SPS administrators took what they knew to be SPS total transportation costs (taxi service, basic transportation, SpEd, APP, Title I opt-outs, etc - and possibly also administrative costs) but a) only did basic transportation costs for the other districts and b) didn't note exceptions like although APP routes are expensive, the district both piggybacks other students on those routes and gets additional revenue from the state, so that those routes are actually slightly profitable.
A little late, but just a thought.
Also, in 2008, SPS spent $1.1M on taxi service - and at the time, at least, taxi service was ineligible for reimbursement under the state transportation plan.
5/11/12 8:48 AM
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dw said...
Anyone still reading this thread? Perhaps I'll post in a fresher thread later, but this post by ostrich deserved a response.
ostrich said: The only consistent thing about SPS is how expensive and confusing it is for this district to do anything. And they want me to vote for the $1 Billion + Levies? Ha, ha, ha! Please, convince me some more.
This is both a problem and an opportunity.
The district only really pays attention to a couple things. Money and pride. And frankly, sometimes I wonder about the pride.
It's a problem because if enough people get sufficiently frustrated with the district to fail this levy, we're going to have some serious problems with capacity moving forward. (an aside, if it fails, I'd like to know what the opportunities are as far as repackaging for a revote in the near future)
But this also an opportunity. When a HUGE clusterf like this ridiculous set of transportation proposals comes up, it's an opportunity for the community (particularly if the media gets onboard) to attach the frustration to an action, i.e. voting No on the levy. Do I want this to happen? Not really. I'd much prefer that the district gets their head on straight and comes back to the table with a realistic proposal that doesn't infuriate huge portions of their constituents. Perhaps something along the lines of Eric B's proposal.
But it always seems like there has to be some kind of negative consequence for the district before they'll pay attention to families. If this levy is perceived to be threatened over a measly potential $1 million bus savings plan that enrages thousands of families, I think the proposal will disappear faster than MGJ after she was fired.
Let me reiterate that the $1M savings is only a guess. The previous guess at transportation savings didn't exactly work out as planned.
This is not a compartmentalized problem affecting dozens or even hundreds of families. When you start messing with start times you're affecting thousands or even tens of thousands of families. A lot of people have signed the opinion poll already, stating their displeasure, the displeasure just needs to be attached to an action to be effective.
5/11/12 9:45 AM
Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I don't see dates or a price for your camp. It looks like something my 7th grader would enjoy. Can you confirm?
SD
-Sue in Zen Field
Argh
-Sue in Zen Field
thanks.
School district changes its mind about transportation plan that could have meant major bell-time changes
Okay, but with 45-min standard, you can't have three tiers without changing bell times. They will have to add more buses (some only two tier)
HOW are they saving money? Inquiring minds want to know.
A 2% difference is small enough that it's possibly "noise" in the measurement. No measurement can be PERFECTLY consistent when repeated. It just not possible. That's a difference of what, one correct answer on the test?
Unfortunately, if there's a hard cut-off for something (like APP or a scholarship) and you miss it by one point, it can have a real consequence even if it's not a "real" difference in the score.
My daughter's MAP math score dropped almost 30 points one fall when she had a crappy math teacher. That looked like a real difference!
P.S. Thanks for the C89.5 reminder - I may be the only 50-something who listens to that station but I couldn't keep going without it! - Tracy @ WSB
Glad they've gotten the message, but no celebrating just yet, please.
DistrictWatcher
On the May 2 Give Big drive I gave to Northwest Harvest and U-district food bank. I hope they're reasonably well-managed. Didn't really take time to investigate it...
In my zeal to post your late-breaking news I failed to credit the great reporting at WSB.
I guess the answer is in the news release. Perhaps "minimal impact to current bell times" means some times may still change 10-15 min.
3rd tier parent
So many Snohomish parents kept their kids out of MSP testing (too much money and time spent on tests w/ questionable benefit) that state legislators are now talking to them and waking up to the fact that Ed Reform's focus on testing hurts more often than it helps. Other districts, according to the article, may join the boycott next year.
I admit to timidity in keeping my kids out as a lone voice. But if there was a grassroots push on this next year, with an organized group, petition, specific talking points, etc. as to why the Alliance-4-Education-shoved-down-my-throat emphasis on the MAP and MSP is necessary to browbeat teachers and add-little-to-student assessment is COMPLETELY ridiculous and in fact is wasting weeks of my child's actual learning process...then, hell yes, I'd keep my kid out next year.
New Anti-Test Believer
What was just published was a 7 paragraph blahblah plea for the public to get off its back (and no apology, to 'District-watcher's' point above).
Don't be placated just yet. The announcement came with nary a detail. Wait for the real thing. What we just got was an attempt to have the public go away. I hope we're not going away!
-critical-
Oh, also, just who is on this Wonderful thrown Together Transporation Committee? The release says "experts". The release does not say "parents" or "taxpayers". They are moving so fast to cover their a*@#&&@ that they are still missing the basic point: Involve The Community.
In elementary, the entire day went unplanned. If a child finished the test before lunch, the rest of the afternoon was spent reading or doing other quiet activities. The day between the two tests is also an unscheduled day. They're told to bring books.
It really is maddening. I'm not against testing, per se, because there is value in having some uniform, objective measure of learning. It just seems that the testing takes much more time than it should. What is wrong with timed ITBS tests? It was just a blip in our school year when we took those tests, not weeks.
disillusioned
Anyone see any leadership this week, e.g. actual statement to the community, from our board president Michael DeBell or our head-of-staff Susan Enfield? Isn't she still drawing a $200K+ salary? Isn't Michael still running the board?
The new press release doesn't have their names either. In fact there is not a single board or staff member's name in it. So telling, isn't it?
The clown car ride continues, I reckon. And no Board or Staff member is driving or even willing to offer to do so. Hey SPS: Nameless faceless statements and edicts by committee went out with the USSR Politburo. (Which failed.)
Weird. As if I needed another reason to think the MAP test was a waste of time and resources.
LMLALAL
The MAP score changes had to do with the NWEA 3 year cycle of norming the test. New norms came out that would change the percentile rankings for Fall 2012 tests onward. The reported percentiles were changed for past tests to make them comparable to future tests. Even though your child's score was 99 percentile under the previous norms, it is being reported as 97 percentile in order to compare it to this years scores. Otherwise, it would look like your child's performance dropped, when in reality it could be just the ranking that changed.
MAP skeptic
MAP skeptic
-I was there
Whoever was on the list to testify at the meeting, don't let this 'soothe the beasts' transportation announcement today dissuade you from still doing so. The full story of the depth of the district's hideous operations and parent relationships needs to demonstrated.
And personally, I don't want to see the board, esp. Pres DeBell, to get any sort of a 'pass' in hiding the public's anger right now. They kept the public out of the superintendent interview process. They set this transportation disaster into motion and did not insist on a reasonable timeline for parent input. Let Banda see how unhappy we are. He needs to understand.
DistrictWatcher
ostrich
ostrich
Anonymous wrote:
The APP elementary school in the North end conducted a survey of parent opinions and wanted to know If "closed classrooms" were favorable. Many thought this meant their kids would stay with ttheir teacher all day with enrichment classes. It was later explained this meant that APP kids would not mix with other programs in the same room.
The survey with its deceptive results is now the basis for having kids in Fifth grade move to different rooms like middle school.
Developmentally some kids are not ready for this and the end of the "elementary school experience" seems a little forced and premature.
The school used a decptive survey to justify an outcome they already had in mind.
The power structure of the reformers has decided they do not have to have discussions only falsified documentation.
This is a very dangerous road.
-out of the loop
--TC
District-approved version of Walk to Math.
Seattle Public Schools' central administration is convinced that the poor student achievement outcomes in mathematics is due, to a great extent, to poor quality instruction. They have, however, identified some teachers in each school who must be providing high quality math instruction. The evidence of this high quality instruction can be found in their students' test scores. So, to solve the problem of widespread poor quality math instruction the District is allowing schools to implement "Walk to Math". With this innovation, each elementary classroom - the whole classroom with a wide range of skill levels - walks to the designated math classroom each day to get their math instruction from a teacher who has a demonstrated ability to deliver high quality math instruction. This is what the District means by Walk to Math.
District-rejected version of Walk to Math
Some schools have decided to differentiate math instruction by dividing students into groups based on skill-level. All classrooms have math instruction scheduled for the same time each day. At that time students from each classroom are divided by skill-level among the teachers for math instruction. When the math instruction period is over, the classes re-form in their home classrooms. This is NOT what the District means by Walk to Math.
Why would the Washington State Democrats invite Cory Booker? If you’re going to invite Booker, why not also include Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal—both of whom Booker spoke with, just last week, at an ALEC sponsored event in New Jersey? At least they don’t use the label “Democrat” in describing themselves.
It’s one thing for ersatz groups like ” ‘Democrats’ for Educational Reform” to hoodwink and bamboozle your average citizen, or even your average, educated voter. But for their con job to succeed with the people who run our state’s Democratic Party is astonishing.
Was someone asleep at the wheel? Or, even worse, was Booker invited to speak BECAUSE of his stance on “Education Reform”? Did our state dems actually WANT to seduce party members into thinking Booker’s pro-corporate, anti-union, anti-public schools stance is a “good” thing?
Whatever the explanation, it’s an awful thing to think he’s coming. If Booker does speak, all of us who are opposed to the selling off of our schools needs to show up and make our voices heard in dissent.
People can also contact the Washington State Democrats directly at http://www.wa-democrats.org/ or on their Twitter or Facebook accounts. Or by calling them at 206-583-0664.
--Alarm clock
Don't forget that stdents will be expected to take MSP and EOCs after MSP. Ridiclous.
I don't want to reignite the Spectrum self-contained firestorm, but the district needs to do a better job of serving the various abilities that exist in the real world. APP takes the pressure off to some extent, but at a cost to those kids and their families who really only need more challenging material, not the segregation that some brainiacs truly need. Spectrum was supposed to fill that need but it just doesn't work having segregated classroomsr within an elementary school, usually.
We try so hard to accept those with behavioral, mental , and physical deficiencies, why not show our kids that being born with a brain that works faster at what our society values, I.e. math and language, is likewise a abnormality that deserves special consideration? Isn't it true that all the horrors of our times, from H-bombs to plastics to the global distribution system of food that lets millions continue to starve; didn't "geniuses" do all that?
Don't smart men run these corporations that poison our planet?
" Smart" people are in fact in need of much help from all of us to control themselves and should not be left to their own devices.
Migratory bird on my way North
Local 609's rebuttal to KIRO news.
KIRO "reporting" is below journalistic standards.
I don't agree with Cory's stance on charters but recognize that Newark has a very different set of problems than Seattle education-wise. But I don't think he was chosen on the basis of education policy.
It's Not Always an Education Conspiracy