Tuesday Open Thread
From SPS Communications:
Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of two Seattle Public Schools students included in the second group of winners in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are:
• Anthony L. Bencivengo from Nathan Hale High School, whose probable career field is playwriting; and
• Tara I. Martin-Chen from Garfield High School, who listed her likely career field as international relations.
Several SPS high school theater groups have been nominated for theater awards from the 5th Avenue Theatre to be given out on June 9th at Benaroya Hall. Congratulations to Ballard High, Ingraham High, Franklin High and Nathan Hale High.
What's on your mind?
Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of two Seattle Public Schools students included in the second group of winners in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program.
The National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are:
• Anthony L. Bencivengo from Nathan Hale High School, whose probable career field is playwriting; and
• Tara I. Martin-Chen from Garfield High School, who listed her likely career field as international relations.
Several SPS high school theater groups have been nominated for theater awards from the 5th Avenue Theatre to be given out on June 9th at Benaroya Hall. Congratulations to Ballard High, Ingraham High, Franklin High and Nathan Hale High.
What's on your mind?
Comments
aurora
-Thanks
You can find minutes of task force meetings and some of the presentations on the Advanced Learning web page (scroll down to the bottom.)
Link to the Expanded FAQ doc for the Wilson-Pacific project, developed in the context of questions that arose from the community meeting.
http://bex.seattleschools.org/assets/bexiv/Additional-Frequently-Asked-Questions-May21-2014-r.pdf
If you have a question not covered in this doc, please email me (jawolf@seattleschools.org) and I'll do my best to get an answer.
Did a photo shoot over the weekend at the Genesee Hill site; my attempt to give the old school a proper farewell.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joebehr/sets/72157644418182408/
I want to second Melissa's shout-out to our high school theater students, teachers and supporters. I caught Ballard HS's production of "Urinetowh" and was blown away by the quality at every level.
My cast photo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/joebehr/13495610905/
Is the current leadership listening any more than the previous leadership?
I didn't see people talking about the need for a policy, but it was evident in almost everything they wrote. What I did see was a deep need for the District to step up and take control of the programs, dictate staffing, delivery model, professional development, and curriculum, and then to closely monitor quality and efficacy.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joebehr/sets/72157644872369421/
what: email traffic related to the K5 adoption, most emails dated in April and May (up through mid-May)of this year; a few emails dating back to December 2013.
Various pages interesting, including pages 228-232 ad 81-82: find in these pages some idea of Shauna Heath's plans for curriculum waivers.
FOIA Forever
"Describe the district’s plan for evaluating how well the district is meeting the academic needs of the identified students. Include the assessment data and other indicators used in the evaluation process."
SPS responded like this:
"All students in grades K-8 take the NWEA MAP in the fall as a pre-assessment and again in the spring in order to measure growth."
Really? Where is that data and what did it indicate about APP?
This answer, of course, is from the current grant application. We'd have to see earlier grant applications to know what evaluation method the District claimed in those. But we do know that the senior staff has acknowledged that they have not ever evaluated the program for quality or efficacy. So anything they told the state in the past was a lie.
Wow, just wow to Heath's multiple moves to dodge Schmitz Park's MIF reasoning - which principal Kercher lays out in his emails with grace, thoughtfulness and persuasiveness. Heath doesn't even seem to want him to have a waiver for MIF.
Having watched JSCEE for a long time it's this sort of Central HQ control insistence that leads to parent rebellion and yet another cycle of churn in administration.
Hope the board overrides staff and figures out a dual adoption way forward. Kercher is right - parents should not have to pay for the materials that work best for a school's population.
DistrictWatcher
Interesting reading. So, is this the short of it? It was down to three programs, the staff liked the price of enVision and told the committee to keep costs in mind, then redacted and said pick the best program, without regard to cost. Staff still wants enVision, so will frame the recommendation to support enVision. Then since Singapore math is part of Schmitz Park's school identity, they will have MIF, or continue with Singapore? Still reading...
DistrictWatcher
Looking forward to seeing next year's application before too long--and hoping the board won't just sign off if they are made aware (publicly?) of the inaccuracies.
HIMSmom
The report was produced locally, by KCTS Seattle, but was mostly about the Puyallup district's use of portables. Key message was that portables are much more expensive long-term (about twice as expensive).
Report is here: "Temporary portable classrooms get sustainable makeover"
The grant application for the 2013-14 year that you can find on the board's website isn't current. I pointed out inaccuracies in the original document and an amended application was filed with the state.
The original application stated that the district was in compliance with the requirement of the new law. We are not - as we have no testing process for students in grades nine through twelve, and no services were available for those students had they been identified as highly capable.
Here's Michael Tolley's memo on the issue.
HIMSmom