Tuesday Open Thread
Interesting SPS news from the Times - the new Student Assignment Plan is slowly showing the changing demographics in SPS. Alki, Arbor Heights, McClure, Sacajawea and Gatewood are more white and McGilvra, Leschi and North Beach have become more diverse. Interesting but not surprising.
Heads up - the Seattle Public Libraries are shut down next week to cut costs. That's Monday, August 27th to Sunday, Sep. 2nd.
SPS staff take an unpaid furlough day on Wednesday, August 29th.
From SPS:
- Christopher King, a media literacy/TV production teacher at Whitman Middle School, has won a screenwriting award for the third year in a row in the 2012 Pacific Northwest Writers Association's Literary Contest. Congrats, Mr. King!
- Cathi Rodgveller, a career counselor at Seattle Public Schools and founder of IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution) won the Anita Borg Social Impact Award in August for her accomplishments and contributions to women in technology.
The
award honors someone who has an impact on the lives of women – and has
made a significant impact on the design and use of technology. She will
receive the award in a ceremony Oct. 4 in Baltimore, Maryland.
IGNITE is a Seattle based non-profit organization with more than 10 years of history showing young girls the possibilities represented by careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
- Planned to coincide with Teacher Appreciation Month, in May, Ivar’s ninth annual Teacher of the Year contest had many nominations submitted by kindergartners through eighth-graders. Everyone had a favorite teacher, but only one could be “the best!”
After sifting through hundreds of nominations, William Levin of Hamilton International Middle School, nominated by sixth-grade student Henry Meyerson, was the winner.
What's on your mind?
Heads up - the Seattle Public Libraries are shut down next week to cut costs. That's Monday, August 27th to Sunday, Sep. 2nd.
SPS staff take an unpaid furlough day on Wednesday, August 29th.
From SPS:
- Christopher King, a media literacy/TV production teacher at Whitman Middle School, has won a screenwriting award for the third year in a row in the 2012 Pacific Northwest Writers Association's Literary Contest. Congrats, Mr. King!
- Cathi Rodgveller, a career counselor at Seattle Public Schools and founder of IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now in Technology Evolution) won the Anita Borg Social Impact Award in August for her accomplishments and contributions to women in technology.
The
award honors someone who has an impact on the lives of women – and has
made a significant impact on the design and use of technology. She will
receive the award in a ceremony Oct. 4 in Baltimore, Maryland. IGNITE is a Seattle based non-profit organization with more than 10 years of history showing young girls the possibilities represented by careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
- Planned to coincide with Teacher Appreciation Month, in May, Ivar’s ninth annual Teacher of the Year contest had many nominations submitted by kindergartners through eighth-graders. Everyone had a favorite teacher, but only one could be “the best!”
After sifting through hundreds of nominations, William Levin of Hamilton International Middle School, nominated by sixth-grade student Henry Meyerson, was the winner.
What's on your mind?
Comments
I'll remind Superintendent Banda that he should be making more time to engage with families, than attending these clubby, extracurricular affairs. He works for the Board and, by extension, the voters and families in the district.
Our unelected Education Leaders
I am tutoring a rising 6th grader and a focus is on fractions. I've been doing the basics, explaining concept with pies but then leaving concept and focussing on converting fractions to decimals, using GCF and LCM to simplify and to make equiv. fractions, adding, subtracting , multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers. Using algorithms.
When I look at what is available on-line for CMP sample problems I see a lot of focus on concept that appears confusing to me, and little focus on practicing the algorithms I use. But what I can get on line is just a sample.
So, can people with experience tell me about how CMP works in practice with kids? Do they learn what they need to know? What should a tutor do....focus on the CMP way so they won't be confused in class? Teach the algorithms?
Is fractions the major shortcoming of this curriculum? Or am I just seeing it that way? I've read on-line criticism of the program but would like to know what happens in the real world too.
My student will go to McClure. How do they do there with this curriculum?
Mathy Mom
On another note, but related to the achievement gap (and the new district policy), is this report on the acceleration of students into 8th grade Algebra and the resulting lower performance for some groups:
http://www.aei.org/files/2012/08/20/-solving-americas-mathematics-education-problem_085301336532.pdf
In policy implications, they suggest focusing on improving the absolute, rather than relative, perfomance of low-performing students. How to do this? By "sorting students, even at a
young age, into relatively homogenous groups to better enable curricular specialization."
a reader
Delay in secondary GradeBook implementation
Special needs kids staying in traditional schools
Aaagh! My eyes! Why are people so hateful?
A lot of time was spent analyzing supposed real world applications, and trying to figure out what was missing or poorly worded instead of actually practicing the math concepts.
I'd stick to working on getting your student to real mastery in the basic concepts - and then try to explain what the curriculum is trying to get at. If your student understands how fractions work, it won't be much of a stretch to explain what part of the basics they're trying to cover in CMP.
- another mathy mom
An Evaluation of CMP (Milgram)
CMP Review (Tsang)
See Tsang's discussion on Grade 6, Bits and Pieces II, specifically. "It was my daughter's experience with this unit that I started tutoring her at home. She was an A student and was in 7th grade [confused why in 7th grade doing 6th grade, but...]. She was completely confused by the way CMP introduced fractions, decimals and percentages...she was not taught about formulas to convert one to the other."
One caveat, the reviews seem to be from an earlier version of CMP, not CMP2, but I'm not sure that there have been significant improvements.
CMP touched on this but did not offer enough lessons for mastery, and mastery in prime factorization is KEY.
--Former math teacher, lifelong math fan.
This could be said for most topics in CMP.
When a person really understands primes and can fluently factor down to primes, the whole concept of GCF and LCM will have significant conceptual basis for understanding. Knowing those two concepts means one can do anything with fractions they want and it segues into algebra easily. That should be the goal of CMP, instead, I found a cursory bit on primes.
Maybe it's something the city hall crowd needs to read, too.
Arguably, the assignment plan may have driven some families away from SPS if they felt they were stuck with an undesirable local school.
Also, he left out a number of other schools where diversity and demographics have changed since the NSAP, such as Hamilton Middle School and TOPS, both of which have seen a decrease in racial diversity since the NSAP. I'd bet there are others too. Perhaps because these are pseudo-"option" schools, he didn't include them, but that skewed his data and conclusion.
Lastly, for those of us who wondered what would happen to Phil Brockman once he got promoted deeper into the JSCEE HQ monolith, this quote was telling in its disappointing vacuousness: "The student-assignment plan is the student-assignment plan," said Phil Brockman, the district's executive director of school operations. "We've had a dozen iterations over the past 20 years. But our focus has always been on quality instruction."
So how was this $1.4 million savings calculated?
Over what period of time?
I would like to see the District focus instead on better curriculum, especially in math. Then we can have fewer families tutoring their children and watching them place into remedial math in college.
S parent
Thanks
Ben
So which is it, I wonder?
Perhaps the two are not necessarily contradictory, but it seems the district uses transportation costs and alleged savings to justify various questionable program placement and access decisions, so I'm also skeptical of these numbers.
Btw, enrollment in SPS was trending up before the NSAP plan was even implemented, as many of us who opposed the school closures and splits pointed out way back in 2008-09.
Another plausible reason for enrollment increases: families that purchased homes during the height of the real estate market are less likely to sell at a loss in order to move to a better school district, whereas they might have previously.
Is this curriculum up for review soon? Is it likely to be replaced?
Mathy Mom
Parents who want change should write their Board reps and Banda about the math. They can also make speaking appearances at District meetings. New curricula are expensive and Seattle Schools will not make changes unless they have to.
S parent
-private and public parent
Not to mention Lowell@Lincoln which had not a single black student last year. Darn that assignement plan.
-parent
Mathy Mom (#1), you already got good advice. I had my daughter tutored and the best thing the tutor did was look ahead in the books so that she could pre-translate the upcoming lessons so my kid would be able to figure out what the teacher was talking about during class. Sometimes this resulted in my daughter having work marked wrong because she didn't use the right method to get to the right answer, but I don't care (and was kinda surprised because I thought Discovery math was about kids doing the work as they like best).
My McClure knowledge is a few years old, but at that time they taught the CMP curriculum straight from the books with little or no supplementation. So yeah, your student will need to understand the oddball way CMP does things.
Wow, good to see SPS is making headway with identification of minority gifted students. Perhaps, there is something to this gap thing.... But not how they mean it.
On the other hand -- it seems to me that the concept of a link between city government and the school district makes sense -- and is something we would want (if it weren't populated by ed reform trolls) if it weren't there. I want the city to know about, and support BEX IV. We should know the mayor's and city council's views on various capital plans and improvement initiatives devised by the District -- especially since the FFEL money is city money and needs to be used in a coordinated manner to support what the District needs and is doing (we have all seen in the viaduct project what "willful lack of collaboration" between the Mayor's office and others looks like -- and it isn't pretty.
Unlike some of the astroturfy/lobbying/grant-making groups who have undue influence (they should have NONE -- beyond what they get as voters, taxpayers, and parents), this is an instance where I think the existence of the group is fine. If the city didn't give a rip, never reached out, I would be alarmed. I just dislike the members, don't trust the Mayor to take anyone's views into account except his own (whether anyone agrees with them or not), and loathe the "clubby, condescending" tone -- the "let's all decide when it works for our calendars to sit down and tell Mr. Banda what to do." (They really think he won't bother thinking about student achievement unless they meet with him? Hope he brings a barf bag to THAT one!) Starkly missing from the emails is any "let's sit down and hear from Mr. Banda what a smart "outsider" thinks our biggest strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities weaknesses are" (an opportunity that comes along very rarely -- as soon he will be politically invested in decisions he has made, people he has hired, etc.) -- but it would never occur to them to ask for INPUT. It would never occur to them that they don't already know everything they need to know. Gaah! I don't even hear "let's sit down with Mr. Banda and see how we can best collaborate with him so that city time and money spent on educational support gets the biggest return we can get, for the voters who, once again, rallied and passed the FFEL levy." (There is a teeny whiff of collaboration in the BEX IV emails -- but not much).
So, to me, the challenge is (1) to get the Mayor to expand his educational leadership group beyond its current ed reform/inner circle clubbiness, and (2) to get the group to take a dose of humility, listen more than they talk, actually brainstorm with an eye to helping Mr. Banda (whom the board chose) to develop and advance his goals (not theirs), and collaborate with, rather than lecture, the man.
We'll see what the rest of the emails I receive say...
Second, on math curriculum -- I thought either ED or CMP was up for review/replacement LAST year --but the review and replacement was shelved for a year to help with budget issues. If so, I think we need to push really hard this year to make replacement happen -- and to make it happen with better materials. From the few schools that have been allowed to use other materials (North Beach a few years ago, Schmitz Park, and Mercer, it is obvious that better, clearer, more mathematically sound materials increase student learning. We just need to get it done.
Interesting that Gates is very interested in poor people (and children) in other countries but the MAIN factor that influences outcomes in our schools is poverty and yet it's all about the teacher to him. Hmmm.
North End Mom
Why are people who enroll their kids in APP, one of the least diverse programs (schools) in the city, usually by private testing, soooo worried about "diversity"? It seems diversity is ohhh so important - for everyone else to embrace. But for themselves..... it's really not a priority or a value.
-observer
So easy to cast ignorant aspersions on others while hiding behind a pseudonym.
The earlier comment about Lowell@Lincoln is also incorrect.
What is true is the Lincoln APP contingent lost diversity with the move from Capitol Hill in multiple ways -- by being split from the gen ed population and from the longtime Special Ed population with whom they had shared the building for many years. So yes, the remains of Lowell @ Lincoln is less diverse than it used to be too, which is another negative result of poor planning by the district, and yes, an assignment plan which caused the Lowell building to be overcrowded.
Can anyone say, "disingeneous attempt to sway voters regarding charters when appearing not to address public schools in one's op-ed"?
Here's part of the the Mission Statement of the free-marketing Lexington Institute, of which the author of the op-ed, Sean Kennedy, is a "visiting fellow":
"...By promoting America's ability to project power around the globe we not only defend the homeland of democracy, but also sustain the international stability in which other free-market democracies can thrive.
The Lexington Institute believes in limiting the role of the federal government to those functions explicitly stated or implicitly defined by the Constitution. The Institute therefore actively opposes the unnecessary intrusion of the federal government into the commerce and culture of the nation, and strives to find nongovernmental, market-based solutions to public-policy challenges. We believe a dynamic private sector is the greatest engine for social progress and economic prosperity."
The process of past years was flexibly altered to incorporate knowledge gleaned from the first few years of the NSAP.
Thank you.
-StepJ
SolvayGirl
We are crowded in the NE, but also recognize that if boundaries change there will be tough choices ahead for families on the wrong side of a boundary change.
Do you move into the new boundary, rent in the new boundary, or just suffer through a few anxious years if you don't want your elementary age kids to attend separate schools?
Is this the same in other regions of the city?
-StepJ
The net benefit is the nebulous transportation savings that no one can really quantify or believe in.
Skeptic
I'm sure all his uber educated peeps are highly impressed with his 2 paragraph summary of the Gate$ lies blaming teachers - of course, by using their language to summarize their b.s., you make their b.s. credible, and now you're figthing by their rules. How did that work in 1988? 2004?
Given how many of the Dukakis-Kerry dweebs retreated back to K-School style sinecures after losing to Lee Atewater and Karl Rove, this kind of politics is good only for those with a sinecure.
Jan @2:42
thanks for summarizing the emails - now I don't have to spend my time proving to myself that, once again, Sauron's Ringwraiths are mo$t focu$ed on getting their ma$ter'$ preciou$ from Frodo. Tolkien was educated in age when translating Plutarch and Tacitus wasn't uncommon.
Plus ca change, plus c'est
LaMemeChose
I find that kind of duplicity very repulsive and I know there are some principals who won't abide by it.
Goodloe-Johnson made a good salary. Why an increase for Banda?
Also, regarding the math curriculum: I heard that there are no plans to replace it in the near future. Another budget thing. Sounded like several years to me . . . but that's based on rumor. Teachers are being asked to supplement and pretty much develop their own.
n...
A courageous story.
SWWS
The process of past years was flexibly altered to incorporate knowledge gleaned from the first few years of the NSAP.
Thank you.
-StepJ
Really? I still see 40 on the waitlist for Nathan Hale. Roosevelts has gone down to 50 from 60 so that is some movement. If this is faster than before, I am glad I didn't experience the before!
FHP
1. Unless you've done a representative survey of "people who enroll their kids in APP," you don't seem to be in any position to comment on the values or priorities of this group--a group which, I'm willing to bet, represents a wide range of values and beliefs in the first place.
2. You question the legitimacy of APP family interest in diversity when the program itself is not diverse. Did it ever occur to that that may be exactly why some people do care? That they want a diverse experience for their kids, but their kids need APP and so parents feel stuck and that they've had to give up something they value?
3. Why stop with APP? There are also non-APP kids at most of these APP schools, so those parents must also not value diversity. Same with families at non-diverse neighborhood schools, too! Sure, these may be their neighborhood schools, but if they truly valued and prioritized diversity they would apply to go elsewhere--regardless of transportation issues, test scores, facilities, programs, etc.--right?
4. What's up with your comment that most get in via private testing? Have any figures to support that? I doubt it. Even if it were true, not relevant to your point.
ELB
If it isn't really as high as rumored we could put this gossipy speculation to rest. If it really is high maybe it says something about the admittance process -- is the process not identifying kids very well?
Rainier Scholars
You could ask Bob Vaughn, via public disclosure, for this information.
I am pretty appalled by those who would think that professional counselors would put their licenses and reputations on the line by changing scores so kids could get into Advanced Learning programs.
@arneduncan
Some people are motivated by money or power or vanity. But teachers are uniquely driven by the desire to help others succeed.
@arneduncan
Teachers are the heart & soul of our education system.
Huh?! Then what's the deal about merit pay? He's a phony.
Of course the answer is that True Reformers believe wholeheartedly with the free market, and the free market puts a price on everything and values nothing - The hearts and souls of teachers, in this view, should be quantified then monetized: Those with hearts and souls that are more in line with the program, as demonstrated by the bits and bytes of "data," should, in the free market model, by paid more.
Teachers' hearts and souls, in other words, should be guided by gold, and as it is "merit" based, some teachers' hearts and souls are worth more than others.
Of course the answer is that True Reformers believe wholeheartedly with the free market, and the free market puts a price on everything and values nothing - The hearts and souls of teachers, in this view, should be quantified then monetized: Those with hearts and souls that are more in line with the program, as demonstrated by the bits and bytes of "data," should, in the free market model, by paid more.
Teachers' hearts and souls, in other words, should be guided by gold, and as it is "merit" based, some teachers' hearts and souls are worth more than others.
-frustrated.
-S'ender
Ben
But I do agree that for those who lived far enough that they never had any clue what school they might get -- a system that guarantees any specific school might be seen as an improvement. The fact that this was done before improving south end schools, and that the "option" feature in high schools was broken right from the start and has been largely abandoned, and the fact that lack of transportation renders "choice" still more illusory for those without cars, or an available driver at both ends of the day -- well, those are just some of the reasons I dislike the NSAP and the way it was implemented.
Sarah.
Oh, and we had our kid privately tested since he missed the entrance by one point on the reading achievement test AKA MAP, but qualified everywhere else through the District testing. I'm pretty sure no one faked the numbers so my precious could get into APP.
First, that a school without one african-american student is still considered "more diverse" than a NE school. 'nuff said.
Second, this blog is a kick in the pants. Gotta shake those hands!
http://teachbad.com/2012/08/22/its-official-were-out-of-ideas/
depressed and laughing at the same time.
TraceyS
-kitty
How much did you pay to get your kids tested into APP? ??? Come on. You can tell us! But it's worth it, right? It got your kids their segregated environments they so deserve. And that was important.
If you really valued diversity - you wouldn't have paid a dime. You'd have chosen to go to a myriad of different schools available to you with lots of diversity. Instead, you assert "diversity" is something for OTHER people's kids. And isn't it a darn shame that under the evil new system, some other kids get the same segregated environment your kids enjoy? Oh, the injustice of it all!
And yes. Those great sped kids over at Lowell! Aren't they just so sweet and special? Everytime we need an issue talking point - well, we can trot them out to the podium. Never mind that they NEVER got an inclusive academic moment at Lowell. No worry though, they added "diversity" to your experience.
-observer
And this:
You'd have chosen to go to a myriad of different schools available to you with lots of diversity
There is no choice of neighborhood schools. It's the neighborhood school, unless a student needs special services (which APP is considered). There's no transportation elsewhere. If you'd ask families what they're seeking most in a school, it's probably an appropriate education.
I was not really for it either. I knew the choice system allowed 90% of parents their first choice (which is huge for a choice system). I knew it would only make some happy and some unhappy. Of course, the inability for many parents, north and south, to know, with some degree of certainty, where they would end up loomed large for many parents throughout the city.
Observer, the district will pay for private testing for free and reduced lunch kids who appeal their testing. That option is not just for people who can afford it. From what I understand, it usually costs between $300-400.
ELB
That sounds alot like Charlie's post on "Why do you hate kids?"
There are problems with gaming the system. It incenses some more than others. Observer can voice his/her opinion as much as anyone else.
not incensed, but perturbed
Two are at K-8's and get accommodations there. One is at a SPS middle school where AA kids seem to score well, two went private, two stayed in Spectrum until they got to high school and could take AP classes, and one goes out of district.
They have a range of reasons not to have gone with APP, but ALL of the parents were concerned with the lack of AA kids in APP and the persistant stories of prejudice in the program. When they found other options which also happened to be more diverse than APP, the choice was simple for them.
The district needs to do much more than outreach. It MUST combat the image APP has among AA families. Maybe that can never improve, but to stop this Catch-22, they've got to try.
Sometime reader
As it stands, APP has become mostly an acceleration of the same stuff every other student gets - EDM, CMP, Readers and Writers Workshop, and the same old science kits. It's like grade skipping without skipping a grade.
I agree that it is inappropriate to dismiss an opponent's arguments with some sweeping generalization that is badly misrepresents their nuanced positions on things -- but I have yet to see any nuance from observer, anything really other than that APP exists solely as an elitist way for self-absorbed, narcissistic upper class majority culture families to wall off their little darlings from the hoi polloi in all the other classes.
I have no problem with being concerned and perturbed over problems in APP. I think it is too narrow. I agree that it needs to address minority inclusion issues. I think it needs to look at what happens to kids for whom 2 years of acceleration are STILL insufficient, and kids with strong abilities in just some areas. But instead, we have spent the last few years splitting programs, squeezing APP out of Lowell, denying them access to accelerated math beyond an arbitrarily set level, etc. etc. etc. Just like with other problems in the District, it is hard to find the time and resources to address the real, long-standing issues when we consistently have to divert time and effort to putting out the NEW fires that the District itself sets.
Sigh. Trotting out the same ol' tired, baseless arguments again?
Valuing gifted education does not preclude valuing diversity.
Valuing diversity does not preclude valuing gifted education.
Enrolling in APP might indicate that a family values meeting their child's need for academic challenge more than they value meeting their child's need for "diversity" - or it might indicate that a family feels that they can meet their child's need for "diversity" outside of public schools better than they can meet their child's need for a gifted education outside of public schools.
/Nah, it probably just indicates they're elitist, racists seeking to hothouse their precious darlings away from undesirables. Sigh.
That was a presentation by Dr. Enfield's management team to update the uber-leaders at City Hall. So, yes, I presume it was intended to present the stats on SPS.