Tuesday Open Thread
A happy and safe 4th of July to you all.
What's on your mind?
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
Performance Audit Division publishes K-12 spending report
Ben
-Parent of waitlisted kid
Check it out here.
Sigh. I suspect the commenter "liliehammer" is a rep from Stand or LEV....
Executive summary states:
"We also found that the way OSPI reports the percent of education spending on “teaching” in its annual Report Card overstates that percentage by about 9 percent."
SPI Randy Dorn is running for reelection.
I wonder if Dorn has an explanation?
Reader
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2010-11
Spending on Teaching was reported as 70% by OSPI.
SAO says the number is 61% .... 9% off is a really LARGE DISCREPANCY.
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SO I WONDER WHAT KIND OF ACCOUNTING .... OSPI will be doing on Common Core State Standards costs? .... Considering Dorn was in violation of a law written for him to provide a CCSS implementation report by 1-1-11 and he was 30 days late with the report and no one cared, it is likely none of this SAO report will amount to much.
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As Charlie points out there is little enforcement of any policy or law when it comes to education.
"my take is that the rich like charter schools for 2 reasons: 1) there is the profit potential (the rich just love love love re-directing public money into their bank accounts. See: Contractors, Defense), and 2. (and this one is the bigger reason by far) they can use it as a way to 'privatize' education and in the process, destroy teachers' unions. By destroying teachers' union they can further weaken one of the few remaining (somewhat) powerful political institutions (unions) that actually support keeping/making our state and country a fairer and less stratified society. In a lot of ways the charter school movement is just one component in the never ending campaign by right wingers to take over and control our economy, our political process and ultimately, our values. IMHO, everything else you hear about charter schools from the right is just noise - with these guys, as with everything they do, it all comes down to power and money. What is best for the community, our children, and for our future is the last thing they care about."
Wow, can't say it better than that! And, yeah, lillehammer is working the talking point. Like s/he knows the answer.
I have no problem stating that, as far as I'm concerned, putting in the profit incentive will not work in the education "market".
http://www.snoed.org/programs/pathway-partnership/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015985713_aviation23m.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_School_(Bellevue,_Washington)
http://www.k12.wa.us/InnovativeSchools/DesignatedSchools.aspx
http://www.examiner.com/article/seattle-area-alternative-schools-virtual-schools-and-parent-partnership-programs
Public School Parent
looks like saving the world & going 170 blocks south to the school board meeting ain't gonna happen.
oh well, there is always
HouseWork.
Hide your 5 year olds ! $$$$
Public School Parent
It has become fashionable for American educators to fly off to Helsinki to investigate how schools there produce such high-achieving Finns. But for just $69.95 a night, they can stay at the Days Inn in Jacksonville, N.C., and investigate how the schools here on the Camp Lejeune Marine base produce such high-achieving Americans — both black and white.
They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush’s signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Obama’s Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/education/military-children-outdo-public-school-students-on-naep-tests.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Teacher hoping for change...
IMHO
http://news.opb.org/article/oregons-education-chief-shares-goals-state/
ITK
While it seems there's strong focus on the charter initiative, I've been wondering why there has been next to ZERO focus on what's been mentioned throughout the threads the past two years regarding principals getting rid of quality veteran teachers. Also, though the Broadview issue also keeps getting brought up it also gets ignored.
I understand that Charter Schools, APP at Lowell and STEM at Boren are also important to you, it seems a little sad that other issues that are just as important continually get ignored. Especially as you mentioned Melissa, during the summer there's not much happening in the district.
It's an excellent question and it speaks directly to the limitations - and the possibilities - of this blog.
The answer is that Melissa and I have no first-hand knowledge of those things. We are not, ourselves, veteran teachers who are getting pushed out and we don't have any direct connection with the community at Broadview-Thomson. Instead, we have to rely on those who do have first-hand knowledge of those matters to bring them forward.
I suppose that Melissa could try to get an interview with the district HR director and ask about veteran teachers getting pushed out, but I don't think it would be very fruitful. I could be wrong about that. Likewise, I suppose she could try to interview the principal at Broadview-Thomson.
Of course, so could anyone else. This is the future of journalism. You don't need someone to anoint you and appoint you. You can declare yourself a journalist and do the work. And it is work, don't kid yourself. There is research that has to be done in advance and there is work that has to be done before writing, and, because this is a blog, there is work that has to be done even after you've published - responding to comments.
This is pretty open forum. If you - or anyone else - wants to do this work we will welcome it. We haven't done it (or done a lot of other stuff) because we don't have the information that we would have with a first-hand connection to the stories and there isn't much in the way of documented evidence that we can review. Lacking that foundational information, it would be difficult for us to pursue it.
Seattle Public Schools' Confucius Riddle: Why Did District Buy Car for Non-Staffer?
Unfortunately since it is the principal being investigated I doubt he will give an interview. Because we have seen colleagues lose their jobs at Broadview and fear retaliation, though it's against the law, we keep our heads down and mouths shut because we have mouths to feed.
Sorry if that sounds cowardly it truly is not meant to be.
Believe me, I want to help any way I can.
It galls me to read in the Seattle Times how J Knapp will bring a kinder gentler union.
Teaching is just ‘filling the pail’, right?
Saw the times article. While we pay union dues they don't help teachers much when principals purely target effective staff.
Bambam
It will be unfortunate if the principal gets promoted considering Broadviews downward spiral academically. They're coming up on year four AYP.
See THIS.
http://tinyurl.com/78bkwuz
One of the schools which is now eligible for tax dollars has an interesting lesson on debunking evolution:
http://tinyurl.com/7rcjtr5
This (like the special ed catastrophe) is ripe for some sort of class action lawsuit, or a Justice Department investigation -- something that has the legal power to get documents that otherwise can't/won't get released AND the breadth to review what has happened and is happening across the entire district. The union COULD do this -- but evidently won't. I have never understood why not. It seems so blatant, and the reports of it are coming from so many schools. Why would the union not look at this issue?
But because it is so hard to get facts on a broad basis, it seems to me that Melissa (from a activist's/journalist's point of view) will have a hard time really tackling this issue (I hope they try -- but there are lots of barriers to getting data).
Jan
--another unemployed teacher
--another unemployed teacher
After two observations, fail in ANY domain, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
I wonder how those TFAers are doing? A bad evaluation for them is a bad evaluation for the principals who opted to conduct this "experiment" on our kids. The $64,000 question is: are principals or evaluators held to the same standard?
Wait a minute. I may have missed something because I do not recall any e-mail from anyone at Broadview-Thompson that clearly laid out what was happening.
As Charlie pointed out, we cannot take everything at face value. Write to me with full details and I will have something to go on but I don't have any specifics.
We are not ignoring anything; we simply can't say "bad things are happening at B-T" without something to back it up. It is much harder to get teachers on the record than parents and someone would have to be willing to do that. (And such was the case at Lowell.)
Signed - Willing to consider charters
While the school district seems incapable of getting out of their own way, the schools themselves are, by and large, pretty darn good. Charters would replace the schools, but not the district.
The initiative is hardly a "limited experiment".
Families unable to afford private schools already have the opportunity to educate their kids in a different system. There is school choice in Seattle. There are alternative schools, and there is always the option of enrolling your child in a school in another district. There is plenty of choice right now.
Let me suggest this education reform: the students should come to school with their socks on inside-out. I don't expect inside-out socks to close the academic achievement gap all by itself; it's just another tool in the toolbox. Let's at least try it as part of a limited experiment. I'm confident that we will see that about half of the students who wear their socks inside out will out-perform the median. We're not getting great results with the socks worn right-side-out, so why wouldn't we try this?
Let's face it. If the arguments for your proposal can also be used to support the inside-out socks idea, then your proposal is no better than the inside-out socks idea.
"..limited experiments with charter schools...?"
Once you open the door, you've opened it. The initiative itself even would allow more than 40 (my analysis coming up shows this).
Second, wait a minute. Charters do not replace private schools. Most of them are nothing like private schools in what they can provide. Why do you think it's a private school option?