Friday Open Thread

The district's website states that:
Logins to our websites and other systems will not be available Saturday, morning starting at 6 a.m. for planned maintenance. We will bring services back as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience. 

Looks like Kansas will join Washington as a state where courts are finding that their legislature is not fully funding education.  Their case has now gone to their Supreme Court.  This "throwing more money at it" idea seems more and more off.  I think we can all agree that changes needs to happen but change - whether ed reform or common sense - DOES come with costs.

Good story from NPR on juvenile incarceration.  The overall numbers are going down but, as you would suspect, not for Hispanic/African-American youth AND the number of girls is going up.  The good news is that if there is outreach/supports, many of these kids will then "age out" of some behaviors that would have gotten them in trouble.

Other good story comes from NBC on the value of two 15-minute a day meditation sessions at a troubled middle and high school (the high school had been dubbed "the Fight School.")  Their suspension rates are down by 70% and test scores have risen modestly.  I wish more districts would embrace this thinking. 

What's on your mind?

Comments

cmj said…
Scientific American article on ability and mindset. It argues that instead of telling kids that they're smart, we should applaud them for working hard and achieving. When you tell kids that ability is fixed, then they either think that they're brilliant and that something's wrong if they struggle with a hard assignment -- or they think that they're stupid and they'll never accomplish anything. If you tell them that learning is like building muscle -- you just have to work hard and effectively at it -- then they achieve more. This is particularly good for underachieving students who are convinced that they're just stupid and can't learn. They're not.

I am, however, worried that some people might use the growth mindset theory as proof that giftedness doesn't matter. It does. Some kids naturally start school with more "mind muscle."
Anonymous said…
Saddest Seattle education story to end 2014 start 2015. The Asian Resource Center is out. Thanks to B&M foundation, Seattle's next charter school, out of CA, is IN. Times had the story, hidden over the holidays.

Why so sad? Because any of us who know the community and have used the Asian Resource Center understand this was the heart and soul of the ID for families of many cultures. It's where kids already were learning. And families were gathering. And social services were offered. If the family needed to sell, the city no doubt coulda shoulda worked out a deal to keep it in the public domain. Instead, no doubt to city insider + business insider + B&M handiwork, the building will be displacing the families to offer a lottery high school...sure, for the Asian community but also the resource heavy NE Charter Believers - just wait and see. The local community gets less. So much less. Unbelievable just unbelievable 1984 Orwellianism to see a charter that takes everything from the community promoted as a Solution. Charlie Melissa hope you consider a dedicated thread on this when people are back in school and reading this blog. Summit Public School: Sierra = a community breakdown and the danged franchise school hasn't even started holding classes.

Completely Dispirited
Anonymous said…
Ted Nutting, one of the big backers of getting Singapore Math into SPS K5, has written a math editorial in The Seattle Times. It pushes for getting moving on new Middle and HS math textbook adoptions.

EdVoter
Anonymous said…
Also, I read the article referenced above on the location of Summit-Sierra. I have gotten many advertising mailers for the school this fall and have been wondering where it would be located, as the fliers did not say but hinted that the school was finalizing a location in the International District.

Now that I know the location, I agree it is sad that it is taking over the Asian Resource Center. I know many families who have considered the ARC a second home and many students who found resources there for their academic work when their families did not have the ability to provide those resources.

I would like to hear the backstory on the sale. Was it open knowledge the building was for sale, or was it only quietly up for sale? (The article says the owners decided to sell 2 years ago.) If it really was procured before the community had a chance to solicit resources to keep its current mission intact, locating a charter there is certainly awkward. I bet a lot of International District families don't know they are losing the building and will be devastated to hear the news. At the very least, I hope Summit-Sierra finds ways to keep the cafeteria, meeting rooms and gymnasium open to the community after school hours.

EdVoter
EdVoter, I have heard from several people who say that they are saddened by the news of the Asian Resource Center sale. The Times says that it was a general sale but I have no knowledge of how open it was.

Summit says they "will spend almost two years getting to know the community before the school opens its doors..." so you'd think they would know the value of the building to those in the community.
Anonymous said…
Uh, how's it going to spend two years meeting the community when it opens this fall? That's one year and a scarce one year at that. They're doing a rollup model. Maybe there'll be space for the community the first year or two but after that nah. But then the model of Summit is plopping kids in front of the computer then calling it individualized education so maybe they will have a few rooms to sublet after all.

NoCharters
Push Continues said…



On Wednesday, Jan. 7, nearly 300 King County elected officials, educators and representatives of agencies, organizations, businesses, and parent advocacy and faith-based groups will meet to talk about how they can work together to make early learning a county-wide priority.

The state is failing to fully fund education and has not met their Constitutional duty to fund mental health. Yet, the push for free prek continues. dow Constantine and Ed Murray are hosting symposiums and will be speaking in Bellevue, too.



Anonymous said…
There goes another possible location for a Magnolia/QA high school - http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2004374934_ftlawton26m.html

- Steve
Anonymous said…
Whoops - that's from 2008!
Anonymous said…
Crosscut asks, what do parents want from a public school?

http://crosscut.com/2015/01/05/community-idea-lab/123405/what-parents-say-they-would-change-about-public-sc/?page=single

HP

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