Friday Memo of December 12
Each week the superintendent prepares a "Friday memo" for the Board. This memo is used to inform the Board about ongoing issues and to answer questions that have been asked at meetings or in emails. The Friday Memos are made public each week, one week after the Board sees them. They are posted to the district web site here.
The December 12 Friday Memo has information about:
The December 12 Friday Memo has information about:
- Board SMART Goals set at the Board Retreat on December 6
- Specific efforts to close achievement gaps
- Special Education - the corrective action and the data leaks
- John Hay/Interagency
- Garfield Field Trip
- Legislative issues (McCleary)
- Bailey-Gatzert PreK enrollment rules
- Bell Times Task Force update
- Capital Projects update
Comments
Goal two of our Superintendent Evaluation SMART Goals provides greater detail about efforts to close gaps for AA Males:
Each school set a goal for African American Males achievement growth
Disaggregated data on attendance, behavior, and course completion
African American think tank, ERAC and input from other groups
MTSS – B (Behavior >> Belonging)
Council of Great City Schools – “Pledge” around efforts to support Males of Color
Theory of Action around our policy and equity work Principal PD with Dr. Powell at SLI/DLT/Regional meetings
Identifying positive outliers
Review of research and exemplars
This year will focus on identifying emerging best practices.
This is a year for identifying practices. I presume it will be followed by a year of planning. So we are at least one - if not two or more - years away from any actual action, let alone results.
But I also wonder what else they really can do. Nyland and the Board have been told to fix the achievement gap without any additional funding.
Everything I know of says fixing the achievement gap requires additional funding. The achievement gap, in large part, is due to summer learning loss and lack of resources and time in families in poverty, a disproportionate number of which are African American. Successful attempts to address the achievement gap, such as Harlem Children's Zone, do expensive things like longer school hours, no summer vacation, weekend hours, smaller classes, free food, and free clinics.
Are there any examples anywhere in the nation of being able to do what Nyland and the Board are supposed to do, fix the achievement gap without more funding? Or have they been given an impossible task, and, rather than admitting that, they're cynically pushing it down the road using lengthy task forces and planning committees?
The other choice, move all your under achieving students of color into special ed, claim victory for the "achievement gap", but then ignore special ed. That solution helps nobody.
Speddie
Northgate Transfer Station unsafe (known human trafficking location).
The 75 Metro...past drug addicts park on Roosevelt.
Human trafficking? (did they mean drug trafficking?) What park is "drug addicts park?"
curious
I am not trying to argue. I really do not know of fixes that do not involve a lot more money. If they exist, I would like to hear more about them. Can you provide more detail please?
Concerns shared by the SpEd PTA Executive Committee include:
*Data breech reporting to parents
*Concerns that the district is too legally focused in regard to Special Education
*Desire for district to get better at inclusion
*Want to see supervisors providing more support/training for principals and teachers
Data Breech – We did recover the data and we have fired the attorney. We are researching the data released on each student and plan to mail personalized information to impacted families. It will take some time to complete the review, translate the letter and stuff thousands of letters.
No mention of the SpEd PTSA's expressed wish to look closely at the individuals in Legal who okayed release of these educational records.
Who is on it? How were they selected? Who was rejected?
Seems like Charles Wright and Pegi McEvoy are just buying themselves time... time to do nothing.
Task force it; then study it; then talk about it; then say almost nothing to the Board; then a new crisis comes along and then they won't have to actually do anything.
Besides, high school is going to tip into an 8 or 9 or even 10 period day; aka "high school in shifts", so why bother even pretending that you are thinking about aligning bell times to the adolescent brain? As if the District cares about student learning.
Instead of a later start, our children are going to be saddled with an earlier start.
Yes, it is that bad.
This is not about transportation, or learning, or SpEd. It is about capacity. That is what is going to drive bell times.
The task force, like so many others, has the feel of a magician's ploy, distract us with shiny object while the other hand is actually doing the thing we are not suppose to be noticing, which in this case is the fact that the whole bell time discussion is irrelevant because they don't even have enough capacity for the kids in the first place. Psyche!
hocus-pocus
The scary thing is that a school district has identified an active human trafficking marketplace and has not notified police, or police have not acted. Human trafficking is a problem here. We are a port city. Many human trafficing victims are held in slavery in the sex industry.
It annoys me to no end that she told the board at that meeting that this was a preschool "for the Bailey Gatzert families." She hadn't considered how enrollment would work - and wasn't willing to tell them that for fear it would result in the grant acceptance being delayed. Also - why didn't someone working on this project realize this was a problem? How hard is it to read the policies and procedures? It shouldn't take a reminder from a parent or community member.
Finally, the updated enrollment procedures tell us this: Effective January 2015, Bailey Gatzert will open a new preschool program. Enrollment period will occur on December 11, 2014 through December 22, 2014 by 4pm. If more students apply for a school during Open Enrollment than can be assigned, tiebreakers determine assignment and waiting list status is determined by the following:
1) AttendanceArea
2) Sibling
3) Distance
4) Lottery.
Has anyone who is not already a Gatzert family received notice from the district that this enrollment period was scheduled? It closes at 4:00 today.
Our central sped administration performs only 1 thing, student placement. That is, its only real job is to find an available seat for every student. The reason they need 50 people to find seats, is because students with disabilities have no assignment plan and are assigned on a space available basis. That's tricky when there's no space. Then there's a little bit of C-CAP paper pushing, the excuse de jour for deprioritizing sped students.
So, prioritizing special ed achievement would be a tremendous difference and change in practice. And since sped is predominantly minority, that would directly affect the gap most people worry about. No, it's not cheap. But minority students are already in special ed.
What specific recommendation is proven to work? Well lets start with having a book or two in sped classrooms. Last I heard, books were a proven tool in teaching literacy, and for teaching just about everything else. Yet, we have many sped classes with no materials. That's a start right?
Speddie
Seattle voters approved the LARGEST Family and Education Levy in the history of Seattle at $232M. This levy was passed BEFORE I 1240. I 1240 mandated that levy funds approved BEFORE the passage of I 1240...would not be permitted to go to charter schools.
Yet, the city decided to fund a charter school with funds approved BEFORE I 1240 passed. FOIA documents have been redacted and it is impossible to tell whether or not the city's attorney advised AGAINST providing funds to charter schools.
First Place has proven itself to be incompetent and they are on probation. Dora Taylor asks the question: Will the city continue to provide First Place with funds:
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2014/12/21/will-the-seattle-office-for-education-give-first-place-charter-levy-money-now-that-theyre-on-probation/
It is worth noting that the city's Office of Education approved these funds for distribution and these individuals are not responsible to the voting public.
Tim Burgess, Ed Murray and Holly Miller have been silent on this issue.
But here is the oddest thing:
McKinney-Vento Homeless Program:
In order to understand some of the budget impacts to transportation, the Audit and Finance Committee asked for the homeless data for the last several years. The matrix below displays student information is based upon the OSPI state reporting system data. The grade with the largest number of homeless students is 9th grade; however all grades are impacted. The 2013-14 school year data was impacted by the Power School conversion rather than a reduction in students served and staff indicate that homeless numbers continue to grow about 500-600 students per year.
Is this the smoking gun?
Right here, in the memo to the Superintendent forwarded to the Board, the District admits they can't count?
How is it that the District just glosses over this fact?
How is it that the Board doesn't write a STRONGLY worded memo back to the Super, asking him for his advice for how they are to rely on the enrollment numbers he supplies them in order for them to rubber stamp his big, costly, impactful decisions, such as get $53 million to do a capital project (the downtown school)? The district apparently cannot count students, let along project them. Anyone else see how Meg Diaz's Board testimony fits in here? She asked them what happened to a bunch (like, 900)of missing students from this year, and, they still haven't answered this question.
RED FLAG
Keep your eye on the cit's prek program and Seattle Public Schools. The Gates grant was very vague and I suspect we may see an attempt to form a Harlem Zone type of charter school.
Former school board member, Kay Smith-Blum- was an advocate for later high school start times. I heard that she wanted to be on the later high school start time committee, but was rejected because she no longer has children in the district.
Human/sex trafficking is a horrifying, growing problem here in the Northwest. It's been reported by the Times and by KUOW for a few years now.
King County officials have been working on policies and procedures to try to reduce it. The average age of kids forced into commercial sex services is 13-14 years of age, and they are recruited at malls, at transit stops, etc. You can read more about the County's effort to work on the problem at the intersection of trafficking and public transportation in this report, starting on page 7:
http://your.kingcounty.gov/mkcc/agendas/RTC/20140416-RTC-packet.pdf
Curious,
"Human trafficking? (did they mean drug trafficking?)"
No. Human trafficking means human trafficking. Because it's such a problem facing vulnerable teens approached by predatory pimps, Seattle has cracked down on known locations including Westlake Center -- now apparently Northgate Transit Center should also be on that list. Very scary.
Stop please
No need to get your undies in a wad. "Special education is a service, not a place" is the mantra of school districts everywhere. But the fact is - special education happens in a place - like every other type of education. Do we say, "first grade is a service"? Well, not really, but I guess you could look at it that way too.
And the places that special education happens in SPS are the most impoverished imaginable, and without any materials or anything. And, kids are often stuck in those rooms. So great. Call it a service. But, in the place that the "special ed service" happens - there is not arrangements designed to confer academic progress, because academic achievement for students in special education is not a priority. Have you ever once seen any goal, or any measurement, or any comment about special education academic achievement, ever published by the district - for any group of students with disabilities? Ever? Anything? Never happens.
Speddie
reader47
Their bumbled implementation of IEPOnline led to considerable lost state funding AND an inability to use the data to process other reports. Now their undoing it. One step forward, two steps back.
I thought it was about 73% vs 27%.
The 27% most likely are in self contained classrooms that could be called " sped classrooms ", but most people fine that term derogatory in nature. In fact the term "special education" is derogatory and wrong. To most students with IEPs there is nothing "special" about what they are getting and these students are general education student first.
--Michael
The several sets of DTF Task Force Recommendations should be somewhere in some office at Stanford Center. I hope you will be able to locate them.
Some recommendations included:
No suspensions for non-violent offenses, such as non-attendance.
Elimination of the E grade, replacing it with the N Grade
Continuous Progress opportunities
Partial Credit opportunities
Staff Inservice training on cultural competency
Student workshops on cultural competency
Elimination of policies that exclude students from school- related activities based on GPA requirements.
Elimination of the requirement of excused absences especially from Homeless students, students living independently or in group homes or Students on the Witness Protection program
Expanding the definition for the identification of students for admission into APP classes.
Alternatives to suspension.
Elimination of the mis identification of students into Special Education Programs
Translations provided to all homes in native language
Data collection required from all schools. Each school required to submit a Student Disciplinary Action Report (SDAR) that lists by ethnicity, gender, special program the type of infraction, the interventions attempted, the discipline procedures determined
and many more that did not require extra funding.....although that should not be an excuse. It is not the funding, it is the priority of how we use the funds we have.
Speddie
From the Friday memo,
Data Breech – We did recover the data and we have fired the attorney. We are researching the
data released on each student and plan to mail personalized information to impacted families. It
will take some time to complete the review, translate the letter and stuff thousands of letters.
No mention of an investigation as to why the law firm had the student data in the first place.
Concerns shared by the SpEd PTA Executive Committee include:....Concerns that the district is too legally focused in regard to Special Education. Wonder what that means? That the district spends too much time fighting legal battles? That the district is too legalistic when providing services?
Correction -- "except for the part where Garfield BLT and JSCEE disagree." Bad proofreading on my part.
Each high school's 2013/14 staff signed a CAP from OSPI last year stating they have received training and
guidance around the proper use of studies skill type classes. If SPS is violating the district specific corrective action plan, then each offending school's principle should be terminated for cause.
--Michael
It means, the district's legal risk management plan is deny every allegation or make up baseless excuses. The data breach resulted from a case where the district should have provided compensatory tutoring which would have cost a few thousand dollars over 2 years maybe much less. The district chose to fight and so far has spent over an estimated $20,000 dollars.
Other cases are similar and have resulted in over $200,000 in legal fees from outside firms.
There are other cost the districts won't publish,one Washington state district administrator said that one year after a district engaged in a due process hearing requiring extensive time and paperwork by two special education teachers and three related service professionals, only one of those professionals continued to work in the district. Almost a quarter of school administrators stated that 10% to 25% of the time, teachers either left the district or requested a transfer out of special education after being engaged in due process hearings or similar proceedings.
--Michael
38 Boe, E.E., et al. (1997). “Why Didst Thou Go? Predictors of Retention, Transfer, and Attrition of Special and General Education Teachers From a National Perspective.” Journal of Special Education 30 (4): 390-411.
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Speddie
I also disagree that there is sufficient funding if it was only allocated differently. There isn't enough funding to help kids who come to school hungry, without proper clothing, who don't have books at home, or the many other problems caused by poverty. The only solutions that have actually worked anywhere in the nation involve more funding.
You're making suggestions of things you hope would help, and they're all things I mostly support in general, but we have no evidence at all that they would make any significant difference for the achievement gap. The only things that are actually proven to work are things that require a lot more funding such as longer school hours, no summer vacation, weekend hours, smaller classes, free food, and free clinics.
It is very frustrating that every discussion of fixing the achievement gap breaks down like this. This isn't a problem that just cultural training will solve. This isn't just a problem with racism. There are big, hard problems here that require a lot of money to fix.
Look. It's pretty obvious, there are many, many things that can be done - that are just common sense. Pointing that out, isn't a "break down you see here".
Reader
https://newsela.com/articles/edu-attendance/id/2038/
I appreciate that the achievement gap is a hard problem, but doing nothing or doing things that are ineffective won't help. There are solutions, but they do require more money, as many of the problems causing the achievement gap are rooted in poverty and expensive to solve.
More money won't necessarily solve this issue. Much of it is societal and schools can't change that by themselves. Schools can't become defacto parents (no matter what KIPP thinks).
But I think dollars are misspent and Reader is right about common sense with these dollars.
But Funding is also right about summer school. How SPS decided to let that go (and I'm not sure I understand how it works now with the F&E levy because they have backfilled some), I don't know.
QA parent
Npt as much as it costs when there are empty seats.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022301328_diplomasnowdennyxml.html