Want Change in SPS? BE that Change
Someone requested a thread about talking about how middle school might now work in the NE region. (Frankly, this will actually have a reach over to the NW where the new Wilson-Pacific will affect Whitman enrollment. As well, a decision will have to be made on APP middle school and that will affect all regions.)
Key questions (but chime in):
- what is the district's plan/timeline for JA MS?
- should the new JA MS have a focus or be a solid middle school a la Eckstein?
- languages?
- electives?
- arts?
- what about APP? My thought is that the growth seems off to me and maybe APP needs to have a stricter incoming requirement (or the bar set higher).
- basically, ALL of Advanced Learning needs an overhaul because again, their programs affect every school in the region.
- what about Pinehurst?
- middle school is three (short) years (honestly, it flies by). What about high school? Do we have room even with Lincoln coming on-line?
- we now have IB in both the north, southwest and southeast plus a STEM school in the SE. Enough?
Lastly, look folks, I hear from you that you want to help figure out these issues. You want to be part of the solution. We have folks with good expertise out there and frankly, the more ideas the better.
I honestly believe that President Smith-Blum and Superintendent Banda are a good leadership team. Smith-Blum is being very positive in her remarks and always acknowledges the hard work of staff. For your purposes, as parents, they also listen.
BUT you have got to want to do more than stand around. You have to be willing to unite, find solutions, and present them and pressure the Board and the City to work together.
I have said this before - if parents in this district truly united, they would be almost unstoppable. No Alliance, no Stand, no LEV, could possible match their numbers and firepower. But, of course, people have lives and are busy.
But we are truly at a crossroads with a district with a history of making less-than-great/successful decisions. Help staff and the Board make better decisions because it could make all the difference to where we are in 5,10, 20 years.
Key questions (but chime in):
- what is the district's plan/timeline for JA MS?
- should the new JA MS have a focus or be a solid middle school a la Eckstein?
- languages?
- electives?
- arts?
- what about APP? My thought is that the growth seems off to me and maybe APP needs to have a stricter incoming requirement (or the bar set higher).
- basically, ALL of Advanced Learning needs an overhaul because again, their programs affect every school in the region.
- what about Pinehurst?
- middle school is three (short) years (honestly, it flies by). What about high school? Do we have room even with Lincoln coming on-line?
- we now have IB in both the north, southwest and southeast plus a STEM school in the SE. Enough?
Lastly, look folks, I hear from you that you want to help figure out these issues. You want to be part of the solution. We have folks with good expertise out there and frankly, the more ideas the better.
I honestly believe that President Smith-Blum and Superintendent Banda are a good leadership team. Smith-Blum is being very positive in her remarks and always acknowledges the hard work of staff. For your purposes, as parents, they also listen.
BUT you have got to want to do more than stand around. You have to be willing to unite, find solutions, and present them and pressure the Board and the City to work together.
I have said this before - if parents in this district truly united, they would be almost unstoppable. No Alliance, no Stand, no LEV, could possible match their numbers and firepower. But, of course, people have lives and are busy.
But we are truly at a crossroads with a district with a history of making less-than-great/successful decisions. Help staff and the Board make better decisions because it could make all the difference to where we are in 5,10, 20 years.
Comments
Keep the bar the same; just offer differentiated options at neighborhood schools. That would fix it in one year, I guarantee it. Not everybody wants to bus across town to an APP program. They just do because at so many places it's their only option.
I have been thinking that one thing the district could do to attract students to JA k-8 and support JAMS at the same time is start some sort of attractive music program- string, maybe?- which would stay with JAMS when it opens there, though maybe JA k-8 could start a smaller version/seed one of its own when it moves. Or science- a fieldwork program for middle school science students? Something to both attract families this year and give a THERE there to JAMS next year. Right now all JAMS is is not-Eckstein.
Fed up too
NE parent
I don't mean to harp on music. It could be lots of things. Just an example.
Fed up too
I appreciate your willingness to brainstorm. We love a music program, plus Madison is building on a STEM pathway in WS. There are LOTS of ways to distinguish a school, not all purely academic. I, for one, greatly value an inclusive culture free of bullying.
I was speaking with an APP parent who is hugely involved with the district and with volunteering on various capacity committees. She said the growth of APP proportionally lines up exactly with the growth of the district as a whole. The district is growing quickly, so it makes sense APP would also grow.
-fool me once
sidneyd
Jane Addams K-8 has more than just instrumental music, this year elementary music was added, and there is a middle school choir as well. We also do have a language, Spanish, for middle school, and there is certainly the desire to add a second language for next year to assist in attracting more middle school students and helping to alleviate capacity issues.
However it's not the case that all students who need math 2 years ahead receive it though I'm hopeful that will soon be true. All students who need math one year ahead (whether they test into Spectrum/APP or not) do receive it, which is great.
~ne mom
My observation was based on knowing several 2nd graders who do walk to 4th grade math. Plenty of schools don't even do any walk to math. Glad to hear about Spanish.
Mostly I was responding to the suggestions of "fed up", some of which are already happening. And tangentially, to people who dismiss JAK-8 as a viable MS choice without visiting and getting to know all it has to offer.
sidneyd
Don't expect the district to be all things for all people. Parents have the ability to change schools. I"m aware of a particular school (not Roosevelt) that is offering a latin program during lunch. This was set-up by a parent volunteer.
Do you think there isn't as much differentiated instruction? Get involved. It really helps.
I've asked a number of parents this question over the last few months and I hear music, electives, advanced math - what sort of music program? Which electives? JA K-8 is a spectrum program and does already do advanced math.
When I've tried to get more information about what a comprehensive middle school looks like, I haven't found that parents are able to articulate it - essentially I've heard that they'll know it when they see it. We have to get down to what these JAMS families want for their kids 6 months from now.
This is the conversation I want to start having.
~shifting into planning mode
-brainstorming
Instrumental music is often limited to students whose parents were interested in elementary school, and could afford to not only rent the instruments, but pay for lessons when the elementary school could not offer them.
For that reason I prefer classes that offer equal access to students, as the steel drum program at Summit K-12 did.
Ben
-reader
Fed up too
What do you mean make "APP and Spectrum really mean something?" I'm curious. How would you fix Spectrum? Why do you think it doesn't mean something now. There are still several self-contained classrooms across the district.
~shifting
You quoted: "APP and Spectrum really mean something?" I actually said: "make ALO and Spectrum actually mean something"
The district has allowed each individual school to decide what ALO and Spectrum can look like at their school. The district will also allow schools to change the programs at any time with (at least so far) the full backing of the AL department. Parents can't be expected to trust in these programs if they mean absolutely nothing. As parent after parent has posted, stability is huge and the school district is not providing that for any of the AL programs right now.
The district absolutely should make concrete definitions and rules for how to run ALO and Spectrum and should hold schools to those rules. Until that happens, many won't choose those programs and will opt for APP. As I mentioned before, I know from running tours in elementary APP that many parents would actually prefer to stay near home. I think APP wouldn't be nearly so large if the district improved ALO and Spectrum.
-fool me once
“since the World School and Nova are being evicted from Meany and it is being turned back into a middle school, I think Meany should become the permanent home of the entire APP middle school cohort, both north and south end.”
It seems like this could solve overcrowding problems at Hamilton and keep APP together as a cohort. APP Alum also noted it would free up seats at Washington, but there hasn’t been discussion of overcrowding in south Seattle middle schools. Would such a move also help south Seattle middle schools?
Anticipated Central Seattle Middle Schooler Boom
a reader
That said, I am glad there will be time for community input into the design process, and a JAMS planning principal in place for next year.
There are plans to have a JAMS PTSA in place before students are assigned to the building, which I feel is a great thing, in terms of community support, and as an advocacy group for the new middle school.
I think JAMS has the potential to become a lot more than just "not Eckstein," but it will take support from the community to pull it off.
-JR Mom
1) appropriate language arts instruction- right now in many/most schools kids only read up to 1 grade ahead on guided reading levels for in class work. Say up to O in second grade. For 4 or 5 kids in each class I've been involved with this has been wildly inappropriate(not just APP kids, of course, just strong readers), and the have not been able to progress in reading during class time, but nobody's going to do anything because they are "on grade level." If an ALO meant something, grade level could be moved up for them.
2) more appropriate math instruction- 1 to 2 grades ahead all the way up should not be hard for any school anywhere to manage. Walk to math should be standard, ALO or not.
Seeing no(and I mean- no- backwards) classroom progress in either reading or math makes people feel they have no choice but to go to APP even though the kid is ahead but not so out of whack with their peers that they couldn't easily be served in their neighborhood school, they just...aren't. I don't know what proportion exactly that is of the APP population, but it's some. Spectrum used to be more widespread, rigorous, and possible to get into, which was plenty for many kids.
3) this one is optional, highly politically unpopular, but I know would keep a lot of kids at their neighborhood school- try some clustering instead of spreading higher performing kids exactly equally among classes. I think this is the one benefit of Spectrum, that it happens in the classes, but everybody needs some academic peers for group work. This way when they are doing writing projects in the older grades they have a partner editor who is working at a similar level so it's mutually beneficial.
This skips the question of depth/allowing ALO students to move on more quickly if they have mastered something early, or maybe small pull outs- ~2 hours a week for in depth projects- but those are obviously pie in the sky wishes in our pretty anti- advanced learning district (though de rigeur in most other districts with any size/population for it). But the first 2 alone would make a big difference. I know the schools with walk to math retain a larger portion of their APP qualified kids, and that's just half of it.
Also I have not heard of any actually organized anti levy movement, and I am pretty sure I would be on at least the long e-mail list if it was that organized. I think it's got to be venting. Maybe there are some secretly super organized and powerful Eckstein service area parents I am not aware of, but then I also agree with the "laughable" notion that Eckstein parents are not very powerful, especially compared to the JA k-8 ones. They're middle school parents, generally less organized and vocal than elementary, over a huge area, and only bound by geography, not philosophy. How on earth would Eckstein still look like it is and be so crowded 10 years later if they were so powerful?
Fed up too
The e-mail that was forwarded to me was started by an APP parent, not an Eckstein parent. That parent lives in NE Seattle, so it is going to many Eckstein parents.
I respect this person and her passion, but I am not voting no as I strongly believe it will cause more harm than good to our kids. I have e-mailed the district and board members about my concerns though.
NE Parent of 3
You can make your own community.
I absolutely believe if Spectrum/ALOs were stronger, we would not have the APP mes that we have. Banda needs to do something about this and soon.
NE Parent, yes, I know this person as well and I feel the same. I do worry that if this becomes a reality (a public fight over BEX), well, it will backlash against APP and Eckstein. Not good.
Emile
I've been wondering if it might help things at Hamilton for next year if the district suspended the APP matriculation requirement for entrance to Garfield for a few years? So APP eligible students who hadn't entered the program before 8th grade could still have access to Garfield. Would that help keep APP middle schoolers in their neighborhood schools to make things more manageable at Hamilton next year? Would that create too much of a problem at Garfield down the line?
- IB fan feeding to JAMS and Ingraham
One thing that makes a great instrumental music program is having string teachers teach strings & choir teachers teach choir, etc. Taking a band teacher & putting them with stringed instruments that they cannot play themselves limits the quality of the program. So asking Eckstein's string teacher to teach a couple of periods at JAMS would support a better program. Sharing between schools a choir teacher who is trained in voice development would help.
Also Eckstein offers beginning instrumental music so that kids who didn't start in elementary school have the same opportunity in the program.
-middle school music parent
With respect to Meany, yes, the district's plan that I have read says that Meany will be used as a Capitol Hill middle school, which frees up space at Washington for APP South and the central district neighborhood students at the middle school level. Currently, all of Capital Hill students and Central District students plus south end APP are at Washington. I am suggesting that we do something different than the district's plan: assign APP in its entirety to Meany. This means Washington no longer needs room for APP to grow there, because APP will no longer be at Washington. Washington would then have the capacity for Capitol Hill and central district students. I believe in putting APP in its own building, so it no longer must compete for space and resources in its building with whatever program it is colocated with. Having attended IPP/APP when it was colocated with neighborhood programs, I saw how it was hard for the school to figure out how to make one school community out of what is basically two self-contained programs. It is hard and in my opinion it is not worth the effort when APP is so enormous now that it can fill its own buildings. The other upsides to a single APP location are that it moves 400+ kids out of overcrowded Hamilton, and that a large APP cohort allows for even more differentiation for kids who need to work way above grade level. The downside is, now APP families have to go through the process of building a new school, with things like a music program. But APP parents tend to be a pretty engaged group and I think they can pull it off as well as Capitol Hill families could.
The data also looks to me like Mercer is about to face some serious overcrowding, on the same order of magnitude that Eckstein is currently experiencing. I am not hearing any discussion of Mercer and I am worried about what the plan will be to put out that fire when it happens, which it will before BEX V can happen. Perhaps boundary changes coupled with the new capacity coming online by 2018 will make this problem not so dire, but we need to talk about what feeder pattern or boundary changes will need to happen.
APP Alum
I think IB at JAMS would just mess up enrollment at Hale and Ingraham. I think many of the JAMS kids wouldn't bother going to IHS for IB and that kids who will end up being routed to IHS wouldn't be able to access IB at JAMS.
I'm in total agreement with you on the IB program possibility at JAMS. JAMS will obviously feed into Hale, and I think building on that potential partnership should be explored, rather than trying to set up a feeder pathway to Ingraham.
One idea that has been put out there by some future JAMS parents is a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math)approach/focus.
-JR Mom
That's a possibility
HP
Another Hale Parent