Education Leadership Team meets tomorrow

We saw some emails or meeting notes about an Education Leadership Team formed by the mayor. It looked like some kind of dark cabal. I wrote to Jerry DeGrieck about it and asked him what the deal was.

Jerry is a great guy who has been working for the city on early education for at least ten years and probably longer. I see him from time to time at education events and I know that he's a straight shooter. He wrote back to me answering all of my questions about the group.

"Education Leadership Team (ELT) is an informal leadership group convened by Mayor Mike McGinn. It has no official functions or duties and was not established by City ordinance or resolution. The broad goal of the ELT is to improve education and student outcomes; the team is focused on early learning, K-12, and higher education, which includes universities, community and technical colleges, and apprenticeship programs.

The idea for the ELT came out of a Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Leadership retreat in October 2010. Mayor McGinn, along with then Chamber President Phil Bussey, and Seattle Community College District Chancellor Dr. Jill Wakefield invited other leaders to form an Education Leadership Team. Current ELT members:
  • Mayor McGinn
  • Superintendent José Banda – Seattle Public Schools
  • Maud Daudon – Chamber of Commerce
  • David Bley – Gates Foundation
  • Brad Smith, represented by Jane Broom – Microsoft
  • Norm Rice – The Seattle Foundation
  • David Frieboth, M.L. King Labor Council, AFL-CIO
  • Jon Fine – United Way of King County
  • David Rolf – SEIU 775
  • UW President Michael Young represented byTom Stritikus – UW College of Education
  • Jill Wakefield – Seattle Community College District
  • City Councilmember Tim Burgess
People were asked to be on the ELT because they either fund education or have influence on education. No specific criteria were used in their selection. Membership is based on invitation by the Mayor. The ELT meets quarterly. The next two meetings are scheduled for Friday, September 14 and the main agenda item will be the Reading by Grade Level Campaign. The following meeting is scheduled for December 14."

The group next meets tomorrow, Friday, September 14, 2:30 – 4:00 p.m., City Hall, 7th Floor, in the Norman B. Rice Conference Room. So far as I know, anyone who wants to sit in on the meeting will not be excluded.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Strange that the ELT is about education yet they have no current educators. Lots of big business. Makes you think....

Signed
- Ask the educators to participate
9/13/12, 10:43 PM
Eric M said…
Here's perhaps a window on what they'll be chatting about: lean production.

http://jacobinmag.com/2012/09/lean-production-whats-really-hurting-public-education/
9/14/12, 6:20 AM
Eric M said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
9/14/12, 6:20 AM
Anonymous said…
A couple of observations:

"...the team is focused on early learning, K-12, and higher education, which includes universities, community and technical colleges, and apprenticeship programs."

Good grief, if that's "focused" I'd hate to see what a broad, general exploration about education would look like. I would not call that "focused".

"People were asked to be on the ELT because they either fund education or have influence on education."

Note that selections were not based on expertise or experience in education. I hope that the potential for hubris in those who "have influence on education" is at least tempered to some extent by a desire to ask questions and work from a position of admitted ignorance rather than knowing all the answers.

Call me skeptical.

Oompah
9/14/12, 8:01 AM
Anonymous said…
What kills me is the tax money that is used to fund these ongoing, never ending meetings and task force. It will never end and we will never solve anything substantial because that will mean and END to all meetings and task force and then what will these people do? Where can they get their name recognized and look so busy with what is now called "the civil rights issue of our time." (and how much is that little catchy phrase (kinda like the "yellow cake" stuff that got us distracted, mired, and bankrupt) is going to cost us and our kids?) ARRRGH!

Stuck in potholes




9/14/12, 8:33 AM
Unknown said…
I am surprised there seems to be no educators (and I don't count Stritikus) either teachers or principals. Way too business-heavy.

I'll have to do a post-election wrap-up of my adventures running No on 1240 but I did speak to the the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce yesterday and I can say that business people have a very different take on public education.
9/14/12, 8:53 AM
mirmac1 said…
This Education Leadership Team wants its fingers in the pie. Seems to me they have nothing to add and like to sit around in meetings.

Sorry, meeting cancelled due to lack of interest/not knowing what we're talking about
9/14/12, 9:01 AM
Eric B said…
Melissa- Do you think business is persuadable on charters? If so, do you have suggestions on what angles worked?
9/14/12, 10:39 AM
Anonymous said…
Gee last I checked, Banda, Young, Stritikus were all committed educators.

QuitComplaining
9/15/12, 12:19 AM
Anonymous said…
funny? how Knapp isn't there -

1. they don't care what real teachers think, and, by the way, since Knapp is just a toady, why bother with him?

2. when they need Knapp to think something and to say something, they'll tell him what it is.

Knappless
9/15/12, 8:15 AM
Anonymous said…
Which one of them has stepped into a classroom lately?

Mr White
9/16/12, 9:15 PM
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