An SPS Parent Weighs in on her Unhappiness
Update: where's this story at Crosscut? My link still works but somehow - after just one day - the story has disappeared from Crosscut's main page. There are many older stories still there. Hmmm.
End of update.
Over at Crosscut, the director of the (mostly)charter think tank that is the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Robin Lake, weighs in on customer service at SPS.
She doesn't directly reference the program she is writing about (why, I don't know) but she's talking about Advanced Learning.
Her funniest line?
These are minor inconveniences, though, compared to the flippant way the system responds — or doesn’t — to students’ special needs. No matter how evident it is that your child’s situation merits individual consideration, your inquiries are met by maddening emails that repeat the policy and assert that there are no exceptions.
"Your child's situation merits individual consideration.." My answer to that was:
"You can tell that to Special Ed parents who have experienced far worse." (She does acknowledge this later in her piece.)
Due to her work in charters, she makes these statements:
When charter schools come to town, SPS faces even more attrition.
These kind of frustrations underscore why people sometimes turn to charter schools or pay to attend private schools at great cost.
What she fails to state - and that she knows very well from her own work - is that charters do NOT serve students with special needs in any great numbers. They don't want to and make every effort not to. Parents with children with special needs - be they ELL, Special Ed or Advanced Learning - do NOT turn to charters to fill that need.
Second funniest line?
There are many school districts around the country that have figured out how to be more flexible and responsive, hiring parent advocates and secret shoppers and embracing choice and innovation.
Hiring parent advocates? She must be new to our district.
And "secret shoppers"? Never heard of one district doing this and she must think the district is rolling in dough to be able to do this (but she could ask the Alliance about funding this effort).
Lastly, our district - and I know this from talking to parents around the country - DOES embrace as much choice as they can and are far more down the innovation road than most districts. It may not always feel that way because of the Byzantine nature of our district so I understand her unhappiness.
I did suggest that she read this blog to keep up with advocacy within our district.
End of update.
Over at Crosscut, the director of the (mostly)charter think tank that is the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Robin Lake, weighs in on customer service at SPS.
She doesn't directly reference the program she is writing about (why, I don't know) but she's talking about Advanced Learning.
Her funniest line?
These are minor inconveniences, though, compared to the flippant way the system responds — or doesn’t — to students’ special needs. No matter how evident it is that your child’s situation merits individual consideration, your inquiries are met by maddening emails that repeat the policy and assert that there are no exceptions.
"Your child's situation merits individual consideration.." My answer to that was:
"You can tell that to Special Ed parents who have experienced far worse." (She does acknowledge this later in her piece.)
Due to her work in charters, she makes these statements:
When charter schools come to town, SPS faces even more attrition.
These kind of frustrations underscore why people sometimes turn to charter schools or pay to attend private schools at great cost.
What she fails to state - and that she knows very well from her own work - is that charters do NOT serve students with special needs in any great numbers. They don't want to and make every effort not to. Parents with children with special needs - be they ELL, Special Ed or Advanced Learning - do NOT turn to charters to fill that need.
Second funniest line?
There are many school districts around the country that have figured out how to be more flexible and responsive, hiring parent advocates and secret shoppers and embracing choice and innovation.
Hiring parent advocates? She must be new to our district.
And "secret shoppers"? Never heard of one district doing this and she must think the district is rolling in dough to be able to do this (but she could ask the Alliance about funding this effort).
Lastly, our district - and I know this from talking to parents around the country - DOES embrace as much choice as they can and are far more down the innovation road than most districts. It may not always feel that way because of the Byzantine nature of our district so I understand her unhappiness.
I did suggest that she read this blog to keep up with advocacy within our district.
Comments
One point that the article misses is that the district central administration does not care about bringing new people into the district. They do not care if people go to private school instead of public schools. They do not see that as a failure. If anything, when parents leave, they see at as a good thing, reducing their work. They do not try to figure out why people leave Seattle Public Schools for private or by moving out of Seattle. They do not see their goal as serving all the children of Seattle.
Until that changes from the top, nothing will change. Until the superintendent explicitly sets the goal of serving all of the children of Seattle and measures how well our public schools do that, nothing will change.
Worm Turns
For her, though, it's probably more of a long fall--seeing how it's the top of the ivory tower to the ground. I don't see or know that it is any different for charter schools, though, which is what she implies. I certainly see no reason to believe that charter schools are going to serve special education students any differently than public schools do.
Of course, we do get to see the Superintendent's so maybe.
Ivory tower meets reality.
I'll note that, after I actively lobbied for the hire of a "parent advocate" for SpEd, what we are ending up with is a "family engagement coordinator". What a load of horse dung.
NE mom
I used to volunteer in the school office and using a local school to handle hard copy with receipt confirmation is more work for our already overwhelmed front office person who functions as gate keeper, secretary, event planner, school nurse, lunchroom monitor, playground monitor, fix-it person, etc. I also don't know if it's all that efficient or timely. I'm just thinking all the processing time it takes and how many hands must handled it. Room for errors.
parent
What causes the sorts of frustrations Lake and other parents complain about? Incompetence? Ignorance? Refusal or inability to listen (if so, why)? Personalities? Obedience to donors? Not enough staff to handle things properly?
We’ve been p.o.ed for so long, under so many different administrations. Help me understand.
It stems from some central staff who sit in their downtown echo chamber, fear HIB (Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying) from superiors, and/or a lazy thinkers. Just by dint of the churn partially created by A4E, politics, and the education marketplace, most of the folks downtown have less experience with SPS than I do. But if a hundred parents and I say there is a problem with, say, IDEA-mandated transition services, that will all be overridden by the guy in the next cubicle who says we just a bunch of embittered old hag helicopter parents.
Yes I know I exaggerate but the truth is not that far off. I've witnessed this with the "nearly new" central SpEd department which doesn't act or react much different than the old SpEd department. And I'll be so bold as to say I am an impartial third party because I've never had major issues with my own child's special education. Yet, despite numerous successful group OSPI complaints submitted on the behalf of whole classes of students and families, I apparently still don't know WTF I'm talking about.
Some would say readers of this blog are in an echo chamber, but I would challenge the ed reform establishment and central bureaucracy to do the broad-based research Melissa, Eric, and kellie among others do.
I don't know that it will effect change, but I hope it will.
I would say that the problem in Seattle is entrenched apathy. People are so used to hearing the same things over and over that they fail to respond to things as humans should.
I have shared my own past experiences with special education services and superintendents, interim superintendents, school board members, special education administrators fail to respond appropriately as another human being should.
But even saying that, the worst response administrators can have is to deny the validity of your experience, and unfortunately, that even happens. And it even happened again last night.
SPS needs to stop pretending that "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME," (to quote my son's new favorite movie) and respond genuinely to parents' concerns.
-angry taxpayet
RR
What is the district's official LA/SS curriculum in middle school? Is it Readers and Writers Workshop, along with state GLEs for social studies?
The district website is so vague as to be useless. The social studies link goes to a defunct site.
What are teachers responsible for teaching? And how do principals assess delivery of curriculum that isn't clearly defined?
wondering
Some charters have similarities to what Seattle has in it's alt schools, which can be a good fit for kids with certain disabilities and for some gifted kids. There are also private schools that are a better fit for some kids with some kinds of disabilities, with more customized and child-centered curriculum, smaller classes, more stability, single-subject acceleration, etc. And that doesn't even count places like Morningside or Hamlin Robinson that are targeted to kids with particular disabilities. Yes, I know this isn't an option for everyone who needs special ed services, but it is an option for a lot of families in Seattle, and she's not crazy or out of touch to talk about it.
We all know what most service is like at SPS (try to call and get a live person - I can only do that for the Board and the Superintendent offices).
But she seems to think that her experience explains everything and asking for hired parent advocates or "secret shopper" is even logical or viable.
Both are laughable.
I'm curious, though... What do you see as the big driver of private school attendance in Seattle?
I hear complaints similar to Robin Lake's a fair bit in my social circle, where about half the kids are in attendance schools, and about half in either private, home school or alt schools.
Here are my reasons: (1) The north end SPS school they attended was awful --- the teachers they had were not very good and the principal was a terror, (2) the Catholic K-8 school has more of a neighborhood feel than the SPS school and (3) I've worked in one position or another in public education for nearly 20 years and have known professionally as well as personally a number of SPS downtown staff (past and present) and I'd be damned if I was going to let these people experiment on my boys. I know too much to keep my boys in SPS.
--- swk
Probably half of the kids in the younger grades of our Catholic school are there because they didn't like their neighborhood school.
Wishing Public was Possible
My elderly neighbor with 3 kids were one of those who switched their children into Catholic schools and chose to live in Seattle. They also recounted when Nordstrom hired the first black Santa and how that was quite confusing to them and their kids. Time has changed our neighborhood make up just a bit with the end of redlining convenant. We are proof of that ;) Their kids though are children of a newer generation who are at ease with themselves and all the changes. The grandchild will be going to his first school in the CD next year.
moving on
2) religious reasons - I note a number of comments about going to a Catholic school because you didn't like the neighborhood school but I have to think if you chose a religious school, there was a reason.
3) unhappiness with public school - we all can name reasons for that
I think - and I said this way back - that the district could have been working to get some of those people back. I think they could probably get 6-10% if they tried. But, at this point, they don't WANT them back because there is no room at the inn.
It is likely that charters will draw off from public schools as most private school parents are unlikely to want what many charters offer (which is programming aimed at more at-risk kids). The exceptions might be Summit high school in the south end which would largely hurt RBHS and Cleveland.
--- swk
HIMSmom
CCA
If my kid lived in this district, I'd send her to private - primarily because my spouse works for SPS and I have seen "how they make the sausage" one too many times to trust SPS admin with my kid's future.
But that being said, I do think at this point, SPS doesn't WANT private kids back in the system and so therefore has no incentive to take corrective action that would make their schools more attractive.
blueglass
This type of experimentation on our children still exists and it is very disturbing.
I for one, thing a much better lesson would be to respect one's body and not push until one is vomiting.
There are issues with both public and private. The lack of resources in public school is tough, but there are wonderful teachers, students etc. that surround my children on a daily basis.
It's the rare family at our Catholic school who chose it primarily for the religious aspect. People do not trust Seattle Public Schools. My oldest entered school when you had to list many school choices and weren't guaranteed any of them. We were assigned to our fifth choice. Plus - there was no way to know if your school would be open next year. Now that we have the neighborhood assignment plan, the new families enrolling in the Catholic school are coming from neighborhoods with unpopular attendance area schools. I would not be surprised to see some private schools closing or reducing the number of classrooms they provide.
Not Catholic
leaving
My oldest continued in Waldorf for high school but my youngest wanted a different high school experience and attends Nathan Hale. There are many things to love about Nathan Hale and the community there but I am not loving the Seattle Public Schools curriculum which do not seem to take child development into consideration at all. My kid is receiving a good education but not nearly as good as the one my older one received at the Waldorf high school.
HP
For data, check out this site. You can find % of students in pvt. Schools vs. public schools, household income, rental rates, home sales, adult ed levels, etc.
Looking at the data, much is explained about the ways of Seattle. Just plug in your zip code.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Seattle-Washington.html
-Seattle parent
It is when you DON'T enroll in an AL program during the next enrollment period, that you need to re-test. In that case, I'm sorry that she didn't know the policy or timeline, but that doesn't constitute a reason for AL department to accommodate her.
That's how it used to be at any rate, who knows how many policy changes have been undertaken, though on the AL webpage it says "Students retain their eligibility designations (academically highly gifted or academically gifted) as long as they remain enrolled in the Accelerated Progress Program, Spectrum, or an Advanced Learning Opportunity School and do not need to re-test each year."
I can't speak to eligibility, placement etc in SPED programs or the district policies re: same.
-AL parent
Don't get me wrong. I am as much, if not more, guilty as some in slamming CREEP (there I go again) and Ms. Lake.
But in this case I (versus perhaps other posters critical of SpEd or, in this case, AL) find a kernel in common with the writer and points raised in the Crosscut article.
I reckon this with a personal reconciliation of my antipathy against TFA versus those impacted (including the TFA candidates.)
I know. Either I'm a big phony or I'm smokin' somethin'. I tried to do the same with Banda. Obviously the goal is more important than being right.
It is a fact that many sped families share Lake's hopelessness and exhaustion.
That said, I don't understand her support of charters because nothing good for special education inclusively has EVER been linked to charters.
But as another sped parent, I totally hear and respect and can confirm that the current situation for our students especially students who should be included in general ed most of the day, is beyond not acceptable.
big picture