Friday Open Thread
A gentle reminder; please do not post information/links to stories not related to the thread topic unless it is breaking news. We do have two Open Threads per week and there is the opportunity to request a thread on a specific topic. Thanks.
Public Square website article from Ed Week about parent engagement.
Earlier this month, Palm Beach County School District lost its coveted "A" mark on its annual report card for the first time in eight years.
The district's drop to a 'B' rating was mainly blamed on the state making the scoring system much tougher.
Still, we wonder: What could parents have done to prevent this drop in the rating?
To advance discussion of parental involvement, an "Issue Panel" was created, involving 11 people interested in the subject, including a representative of the Florida House of Representatives, a college associate dean of education, an educational consultant, a PTA president, a high school student, and the leader of a home-schooling group. In addition to being involved with chats and decision making, the panelists advance the site with their constituencies.
"That way, it's not all coming 'from a website,' but 'from people they respect,'" explains Passell.
A variety of subjects are covered in a number of articles:
"Issue Overview/Parent Involvement:"
How Can Schools Encourage More Parent-Teacher Interaction?
Why Do Parents Reduce Involvement When Their Kids Reach High School?
When Are Parents Too Involved in Education?
How Can Fathers Become More Engaged in Their Children's Schoolwork?
How Can Single Parents Be More Active in Their Children's Education?
Research Overview
In addition to the articles, the parental involvement focus includes surveys on the homepage, public comments and tweet chats at specific times to get the public to weigh in on the subject, with experts on the phone to respond to them. Google Analytics are used to ensure that survey responses are counted only when they come from Palm Beach County.
What's on your mind?
Public Square website article from Ed Week about parent engagement.
Earlier this month, Palm Beach County School District lost its coveted "A" mark on its annual report card for the first time in eight years.
The district's drop to a 'B' rating was mainly blamed on the state making the scoring system much tougher.
Still, we wonder: What could parents have done to prevent this drop in the rating?
To advance discussion of parental involvement, an "Issue Panel" was created, involving 11 people interested in the subject, including a representative of the Florida House of Representatives, a college associate dean of education, an educational consultant, a PTA president, a high school student, and the leader of a home-schooling group. In addition to being involved with chats and decision making, the panelists advance the site with their constituencies.
"That way, it's not all coming 'from a website,' but 'from people they respect,'" explains Passell.
A variety of subjects are covered in a number of articles:
"Issue Overview/Parent Involvement:"
How Can Schools Encourage More Parent-Teacher Interaction?
Why Do Parents Reduce Involvement When Their Kids Reach High School?
When Are Parents Too Involved in Education?
How Can Fathers Become More Engaged in Their Children's Schoolwork?
How Can Single Parents Be More Active in Their Children's Education?
Research Overview
In addition to the articles, the parental involvement focus includes surveys on the homepage, public comments and tweet chats at specific times to get the public to weigh in on the subject, with experts on the phone to respond to them. Google Analytics are used to ensure that survey responses are counted only when they come from Palm Beach County.
What's on your mind?
Comments
"Teacher retention, particularly in low-income schools such as those where TFA teachers are placed, is critically important. Attrition, already high among new teachers across the nation (Ingersoll, 2002), has its greatest impact in low-income, high-minority schools. In the most recent data available, 21% of teachers at high-poverty schools leave their schools annually, compared to 14% of their counterparts in low-poverty settings (Planty et al., 2008). As teachers transfer within districts, they typically leave schools that enroll lower-income students and enter schools with higher-income students (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2004).
This revolving-door effect (Ingersoll, 2004) leaves the very schools that most need stability and continuity perpetually searching for new teachers to replace those who leave. When teachers leave their schools after only a few years, those schools incur substantial costs. Most importantly, students are likely to suffer. Novices typically fill vacancies. As a result, students are taught by a stream of first-year teachers who are, on average, less effective than their more experienced counterparts (Murnane & Phillips, 1981; Rockoff, 2004). When effective teachers leave, schools also lose their investment in formal and informal professional development (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 2003). Moreover, routinely high levels of teacher turnover impede a school’s efforts to coordinate curriculum, to track and share important information about students as they move from grade to grade, and to maintain productive relationships with parents and the local community. Quite simply, they cannot build instructional capacity. Given such high stakes, knowing more about TFA teachers’ careers in low-income schools and in the profession more broadly is essential."
Phi Delta Kappa International:
MORGAEN L. DONALDSON is an assistant professor in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. SUSAN MOORE JOHNSON is the Jerome T. Murphy Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Has Teach for America betrayed its mission?
misdirection-and-self-interest-how-Heinemann-and-Lucy-Calkins-are-rewriting-the-Common-Core
As linked on:
http://www.joannejacobs.com/2012/08/new-reading-fight-on-just-right-books/
Whereas Lucy Caulkins supports "just right" books, Common Core supports "just right" teaching, through scaffolding, of grade appropriate texts. The comments on the Fordham Institute article include more criticisms of Caulkins and the "Pathway to the Common Core."
reader
Concerned Teacher Educator
http://educationnext.org/the-lucy-calkins-project/
-books all a flutter with post-its give me the hives
http://shankerblog.org/?p=6506
sigh
Concerned Teacher Educator
Three out of the six TFA teachers in SPS are out. 50% retention is significantly less than marketed by TFA Inc.
So who is out and how?
5 of 6 were on conditional certs. For TFA CMs there was going to be no district analysis of results until two years had elapsed.
Someone ....Please explain what is happening
-- Dan Dempsey
Bottom line is we just invested in undertrained teachers who have now let and we have to rehire those positions again. And when you are talking about high-need schools, the last thing they need is a revolving door of undertrained teachers.
This is a concern: ALL "reform" elements (standardization; "competition" in the form of charters and merit pay; TFA short-timers) point to a new model of education where teachers are rotated in and out: It's a cost-saving device which a) is appealing to the public because it lowers labor costs, and b) allows free-marketers to grab some profit off of the lowered labot costs (like Bain did/does: buy a company, cut pensions and salaries, use the savings to pay enormous CEO bonuses, etc, so that Bain CEOs can make 20 million in a year.)
If I were conspiracy minded, which of course I'm not, I would think that using a simplified, standards-based curricular and assessment system, combined with ineffective protections for teachers in the face of test-based evaluations and a ready pool of short-termers in the form of TFA and other such programs (diminishing the idea of teaching as a profession and making it a mere waypoint on the way to other things), leads to this sort of new model where salary costs are halved as cheap newbies rotate in and out.
In this model, teacher retention is antithetical.
One more way to screw poor children. (We saw an early example of this in California, where the districts were sued for using TFA short-termers - the 9th Court said it was an abrogation of the poor students' rights, then people back in Washington "fixed" the problem by calling TFA and other conditional certs "highly qualified."
There are billions and billions to be made by restructuring the teaching profession into a short-term endeavor.
Then, 50% of TFA folks left. Resources need to be spent on teachers committed to teaching. This argument was made, but the majority of the board didn't listen.
"Then, 50% of TFA folks left. Resources need to be spent on teachers committed to teaching. This argument was made, but the majority of the board didn't listen."
This ridiculous TFA plan came from the Superintendent and her staff to the Board. The Big Wigs in Olympia bent rules to make this happen.
Another "all politics, no common sense no data disaster"
I estimate there are approx 40,000 SPS students enrolled in Grades 1-8, the grades that the APP program is offered.
I estimate there are approx 1150-1200 APP students enrolled in APP across four sites.
This is roughly 3%. Somebody may have better figures, these are back of the napkin.
APP Parent
A common misconception is that APP only admits the top 2% of the student population. Qualification is based on placing in the 98% on a nationally normed test (CogAT), which is not the same as just admitting the top 2%. More than 2% of the student population might place in the 98% on a nationally normed test.
A better question may be whether MAP is the best test to use for qualification (APP qualification is based on 95% on MAP and 98% on CogAT).
another parent
OR you can pay to have a psychologist "norm" you into the club on some other test. Pay to play. And, that gets you a lot more than 2% nationally or locally.
At John Hay elementary, it's up to about 10% "qualified" for APP. (a real lake Woebegon) and another 20% in "qualified" for spectrum. Qualification for spectrum is the bar for admission into the ALO program at Hay. Many parents are fine with Hay for elementary, but not with their middle school options. So, they need to somehow get into APP for middle school.
-parent
Let's compare John Hay demographics to Seattle Public Schools on the whole:
FRL: 12% (vs 43% SPS)
white: 70% (vs 42% SPS)
And you're surprised that John Hay has a high number of APP/Spectrum qualified students? John Hay, which is located in Queen Anne?
From the School website:
Partners raises funds for programs that support the Continuous School Improvement Plan. These supplemental programs are offered as a permanent part of the curriculum. This is a bold and unusual position, because it commits us to raising about $300,000 a year to cover standing expenses. Fortunately, our community has always expected more and has shown its support through generous volunteer efforts and financial contributions. Thanks to them (and YOU!), John Hay students continue to shine!
parent2
...let's at least let him unpack his boxes...
white: 70% (vs 42% SPS)
And you're surprised that John Hay has a high number of APP/Spectrum qualified students? John Hay, which is located in Queen Anne?
I'm not surprised at all. That's exactly what our "advanced learning" programs are for. Entitlements for the groups you mention, so they can have the segregated programs they're entitled to.
Why would a psychologist "risk" overidentification of "giftedness"? Uh. Money? Client satisfaction? And there's no risk either. Parents can also game the system on their own by taking the "admissions test" more than once in 6 months. And yes, parents absolutely do this all the time, without hiding it.
-parent
- also a parent
A
You are absolutely right. I am just tired of seeing the same issues raised over and over again. I am tired of hearing about the unscrupulous psychologists running rampant. I am tired of the assertion that the parents who test their kids are pushy and ruining local schools. I am tired of parents without kids in APP saying that the program is not needed. I should have ignored the bait.
-Feeling Snarky Too!
- also a parent
I'm not sure I see your point. Are you outraged that a program you mistakenly believe to be for the top 2% of SPS students is actually serving more like 3%, which thereby supports your conspiracy theory that parents are buying their children's way in? If that's your big beef, learning more about how nationally normed tests play out at the local level should allay your concerns. Can 3% of SPS children score in the top 2% of kids in the nation? Sure, why not?
Or is your big beef that some people use private testing to appeal eligibility, when you seem to think the be-all, end-all of good testing is done by SPS? Yes, there may be some parents who push for the result they want, just as with any eligibility based system there are parents who push for what they think is best for their children. To the extent that that occurs, you are correct, it's not fair. I suspect, however, that it's not a big problem, and that the numbers are very small. I'm sure most kids test in via the district's standard route.
And why not, I'll take the bait-- If by "entitlement program" you mean that we APP parents think our children are entitled to education at their level, I say yes, I think ALL children are. However, since traditional classrooms can't meet the needs of these highly gifted learners, they need something like APP.
Finally, giftedness is not something that changes year to year, so annual retesting to verify that kids still qualify would be a waste of resources. I'm not a special ed expert, but based on experience with my nephew I've seen that needs can, and often do, change from year to year.
APP parent of one who truly needs it
It doesn't take a special ed expert to figure that a child is rarekt miraculously cured of a disability. Yet, every year parents face having their kids "exited" from services they need. Meanwhile APP just grows and grows and grows...
Sped parent
It appears to me that your complaints are with the special ed programs and the lack of consistency and adherence to those goals and principles rather than APP. I think you should work to hold the district accountable to their special ed students.
I would say that the Spec Ed experience was by far the best, although these services were provided almost eight years ago and I know a lot has changed.
APP has not been a walk in the park - can't say that I feel like my student has been given any "entitlement services."
APP Parent
The part of this that is weak is the group testing, not the appeal process. But SSD doesn't want to move to individual testing, because it is expensive and time consuming. What I wish is that they would do a better job of testing kids on the front end, because I agree that the expense of the appeal process makes it so that families with limited means may drop an appeal, and their child may never be appropriately placed.
As for annual testing --again, what is the point? Unless you have kids jumping off garages head first, or eating lead paint, or enduring various other forms of trauma that can affect intellect -- I am not aware of any data that indicates that advanced learning capacity "fades" with age. Are you? Nor do I think that a child should have to earn straight As (or, for that matter take or pass the ridiculous, expensive high stakes tests that we impose on kids) to retain a spot in APP. If a kid has a bad year (is disorganized, or distracted, or is dealing with issues at home) and doesn't do well, that does not make that child less gifted -- nor does it make "regular" class work more appropriate for his/her intelligence and learning style. If my "regular" ed kid wobbles in 5th grade and drops from As and Bs to Cs and Ds, I don't take him out of his regular ed class and put him in a special ed class working two years behind, with a different pedagological approach and at a slower pace. Why would I punish an APP kid with similar issues by removing them from the level and kind of instruction that meets their needs?
The tired old canard that Seattle is rife with professional child psychologists who are willing to administer corrupt tests, and then lie in reporting those test results in order to get kids into APP has never been validated.
I am also not aware that the claim that there are significant numbers of kids in APP classes that shouldn't be there has any merit. My understanding is that there is occasionally a child who doesn't handle the pace or the approach well and should (in the opinion of the teachers) be placed in a Spectrum or regular ed class instead, and those are generally handled with far less fuss than making every child in the program reprove, each year, that he or she is still gifted.
continued
And yet -- it's like corporate ed reform. Instead of trying to address the real shortcomings of the system (which would cost -- gasp -- money and take time), the suggestions being tossed out (make everyone retest every year; prohibit any private testing -- so that there is no recourse if the District screws up the testing protocol with your 6 year old, or he has a molar coming in that day, etc.) all have nothing to do with solving the REAL issues and improving the access and delivery of education to highly gifted kids. No, they merely cost a ton of money (annual testing), deny/restrict access, and generally make things more rigid, less inclusive, and less fair. Yep. Sounds JUST like corporate ed reform!
The time of Raider Day for the 9th graders is,approximently 9 am to 10:30 maybe 11 am.
Letters from the school with all the information about Raider Day by the end of this week.
We had to call the office to get this info.
FHP
No on 1240 - Don't be CharterFooled
Our unelected Education Leaders
-snooped
-snooped
Who needs emails. The last exec comm meeting had an HR newbie asking to intro/action for 3 TFAers, two at Emerson under their new principal/TFA alum Kristina Bellamy McClain (wonder where her allegiances lie); and, yes, Mia W. at Aki must feel compelled to meet her TFA quota - and in SpEd at that. Too bad OSPI guidelines note that IDEA has a higher bar to be considered highly qualified in special education (a no-brainer)
At this time, TFA is running at 50% attrition at SPS. Grrrreat!
Or is are there some who are through more than a year?