Tuesday Open Thread
Unhappy with Pearson? Apparently you are not alone.
Speaking of Big Brother, here's the SBAC's "Guidance for Social Media Monitoring during the Field Test."
The State Senate is to drop its budget this week. Let's see how that fulfillment of McCleary is going and where they find the funding. I spoke to Speaker Chopp last week and that's pretty much all he would say. I note that when I mentioned that while I think preschool is great, that the Constitution says K-12 is the state's paramount duty and that I was worried about the push that both preschool and higher education are receiving this session. He said something to the effort that there would be more dollars for preschool but not in McCleary.
Whether it's in McCleary or not is not really the point. Because, frankly, education dollars are education dollars. I note that there's a new group, Why Not Us Washington that is pushing the Legislature to invest more in preschool. It's a group of child advocacy groups sponsoring this group that looks like it's mainly MomsRising. Interesting thing - preschool isn't even listed as one of Moms Rising's main issues. Oh wait, it's also sponsored by LEV.
Congratulations to Physical Ed teacher of the year (according to SHAPE America), Shelly Ellis. Ms. Ellis teaches PE and Health at Broadview-Thomson K-8.
And good luck to the Franklin Mock Trial team that is headed to the state competition this Friday. They have been past state and national champions. They took second this year to rival Seattle Prep at the county level and hope to best them at state.
What's on your mind?
Speaking of Big Brother, here's the SBAC's "Guidance for Social Media Monitoring during the Field Test."
The State Senate is to drop its budget this week. Let's see how that fulfillment of McCleary is going and where they find the funding. I spoke to Speaker Chopp last week and that's pretty much all he would say. I note that when I mentioned that while I think preschool is great, that the Constitution says K-12 is the state's paramount duty and that I was worried about the push that both preschool and higher education are receiving this session. He said something to the effort that there would be more dollars for preschool but not in McCleary.
Whether it's in McCleary or not is not really the point. Because, frankly, education dollars are education dollars. I note that there's a new group, Why Not Us Washington that is pushing the Legislature to invest more in preschool. It's a group of child advocacy groups sponsoring this group that looks like it's mainly MomsRising. Interesting thing - preschool isn't even listed as one of Moms Rising's main issues. Oh wait, it's also sponsored by LEV.
Congratulations to Physical Ed teacher of the year (according to SHAPE America), Shelly Ellis. Ms. Ellis teaches PE and Health at Broadview-Thomson K-8.
And good luck to the Franklin Mock Trial team that is headed to the state competition this Friday. They have been past state and national champions. They took second this year to rival Seattle Prep at the county level and hope to best them at state.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Curious parent.
Its a fantastic learning experience for all involved and Franklin is a great representative for Seattle Public Schools.
Good Luck!
-GHS Parent
BTDT
Four yrs of science lab courses are sufficient to apply to any college in the country.
No student should be allowed to double dip, if not all students are offered the same opportunity.
Are MAP results linked to The Source?
It is my hope that the city begins paying for IB program; the program sets high expectations and it is exactly what we need.
There are hundreds of millions of dollars in this levy and will provide the results we want/ need.
Please lobby the city and the board.
https://megonfire.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/cursing-cursive/
This is a 3rd grade question. Okay, perhaps they are supposed to be analyzing argumentative writing and the test creators thought cursive writing was a relatable topic for 3rd graders...but is it? The hand printing of job applications was a correct answer in supporting the statement against cursive writing. What does a 3rd grader know about job applications? I'm still annoyed by the suggestive nature of the question (cursive is not needed), and wonder what other gems are going to be in the upcoming tests.
opt out?
Snake Oil
""30 years of test scores have not measured a decline in public schools, but are rather a metric of the country’s child poverty and the broadening divide of income inequality."
http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/what-if-education-reform-got-it-all-wrong-in-the-first-place
Roosevelt Mom
For example, if a lot of kids want to take more than one science class--since there are many different options, they are not all sequential, and you can't squeeze them all in without doubling up--then hire more science teachers! Those kids would be having to give up some other subject instead, which would lighten teaching loads and/or class sizes in those other subjects. It's not like the supply of teachers and classes is 100% fixed, is it? If students would rather take more science and less of some other elective, it seems like the teacher composition could be shifted to better reflect student needs/interests. And if there aren't enough science labs, it should be feasible to share space and alternate days between regular rooms and science rooms.
HIMSmom
In my experience -- which I do not claim to be representative, or applicable to all situations -- when anyone tells you IB or AP is college level work, they are -- as nicely as I can put it -- stretching the truth considerably.
Running Start classes ARE college work, and not "college level work."
-- Ivan Weiss
Presumably, if students are limited to 6 periods per day, that will mean less demand for other classes. Yes, I get that there are limitations on how many sections of say chemistry can be offered based on how many labs you have and that teachers aren't fungible commodities. Still, I think demand should be a strong clue to what should be offered.
For the record, my daughter took two IB science classes at Ingraham last school year and was only prevented from doing that this year by schedule issues in unrelated classes.
My kid recently scored a 5 on the Calc BC exam and was counseled by a college math teacher to NOT rely on that score as an indication that he was ready to take the credits and jump as far ahead as allowed. It was only because he'd found the AP exam easy and was confident he'd only missed a few points that the math professor thought it reasonable to skip. I suspect they've seen way too many kids come in with 4s and 5s but who really only have a very basic understanding of the material. If a kid is "pleasantly surprised" by their 4 or 5 score, I'd recommend repeating the material in college anyway. Better safe than sorry. (And yes, I wish I'd been given this advice myself many, many years ago. I wasn't, and found myself in way over my head!)
HP
opt out?@11:04 AM, Thank you for the post on the SBAC 3rd grade ELA Cursive question. I am also disappointed with the quality of the practice SBAC questions. It's a shame that we can't make the board, superintendent and the teaching and learning department take the test.
I am guessing that teachers are not going to grade the written portion of the ELA tests. I vaguely remember reading something about hiring people from cragslist at minimum wage.
Does anyone know why APP students take the grade level SBAC? shouldn't they be taking 2 grade levels ahead?
I liked the post on the Seattle Opt Out Facebook page that was in response to Nyland's letter to staff. The post also mentioned that some 3rd graders have already been through 6 hours of the SBAC ELA test and have another 6 hours scheduled for SBAC Math test in April. It's amazing that somehow we can find 12 hours or more to administer the SABC, but can't find an extra 10mins for lunch or recess.
Congratulations to the Franklin Mock Trail team!
-NH
What is the scenario where a student needs to show two AP Science classes taken in one year?
How many college credits does a student really need to earn before...going to college?
It just seems to me that the "rigor" bar just keeps getting raised and I don't understand why.
Sorry for the typo. Should be Trial not Trail....
Congratulations to Franklin Mock Trial team and Good Luck!
-NH
I share your thoughts. I think the current culture is to push our kids into being achieving machines by doing everything early (e.g., college during high school). I think some people's argument is that they save a bit of money by having their kids take AP tests or college courses. But I think it reflects a generalized underlying worry on the part of well-intentioned but somewhat competitive parents of: my kid will only get ahead in life if they do everything early and perfectly. And this attitude is filtering into the school administrations (who should know better)--who freak out the kids by constantly talking about how much competition is out there.
Roosevelt Mom
HIMSmom
Many Bookmarks
I am not sure what you are implying, but the fact that man had barricaded himself adjacent to an elementary school and that the children at the elementary school were sheltering in place is a relevant item to this blog. If I were a parent of a child at that school, I would want to know.
At the time, I did look at the real time 911 page and did not see any relevant items. And eventually what was posted was not helpful. The Seattle Times did not have anything posted until an hour after my question. Melissa often does know what is going on, and frankly, I consider her and many of the posters on this blog to be good sources of information.
APP/HCC is 2 years ahead. I understand that the administration at Hamilton has been working for years against the APP model (not buying the text books Washington has; shuffling good teachers away from their APP classes, etc), but it is 2 years ahead in math, science, language arts, etc. that may not be your experience, but it is ours. And, 2 years ahead is the minimum, as many kids go beyond in their academic work. Yes, I know some students are asynchronous and some are 2 E, so it is very diverse in many aspects, but really, these kids who have been in APP for years really are 2 years ahead. I saw the Thurgood Marshall kids at the UW math lecture this weekend, the lecture was for high and middle schoolers... I saw a child in the third grade answer one of the prof's questions. Before you say math in middle school is not an APP course, well, APP kids from Lincoln and Washington are put into 'math 8' in the minimum.
I could go into a lot more detail, but I doubt it would make any difference. And despite what anybody says, including Shauna Heath (who didn't know) elementary students piloted benchmark assessments last year that were given 2 years ahead (she denied this, but we have the paperwork).
2Y
I think what happening is each year the idea is if Jane and Johnny show 10 AP classes they will "edge out" the students w/ "only" 8 AP classes; then 10 becomes the new benchmark.
At some point the scales will tip to the impossible. Then what? A reset I hope!
I agree, the district should be paying for IB programs, but it isn't going to happen.
I hope you and the folks at Rainier Beach can successfully lobby for the city to pay for IB. The city's attempt at raising test scores have been dismal. Remember: No strings attached to funding.
I'd much rather funding go directly to students. Here is the "tip" of the ice cap related to the city's prek administrative expenses: positions PFA Director $199,006 PFA Assistant Director $170,600 PFA Finance/Admin Director (F/A) $170,600 PFA Finance Manager (F/A) $156,309 PFA Senior Finance Analyst (F/A) $115,930 PFA Contract Supervisor (F/A) $113,994 PFA Contract Specialist (F/A) $98,428 PFA Data & Evaluation Manager (D/E) $169,658 PFA Database Administrator (D/E) $112,160 PFA Data Analyst (D/E) $156,309 PFA Management Systems Analyst (D/E) $106,606 PFA Comm & Outreach Coordinator (C/O) $156,309 PFA Continuous QA Manager (QA) $156,309 PFA Sr Education Specialist (QA) - PFA Coach $108,364 PFA Strategic Advisor (QA) $144,513 PFA Operations Manager (Ops) $156,309
My comment was referring to the overall HCC program districtwide. To the extent there exists a defined HCC program, it no longer promotes itself as "two years ahead." It's not in the description online anymore, and Stephen Martin has said it's no longer the intent. The new LA/SS scope and sequence for HCC middle school is now aligned with that of GenEd, and according to draft materials I saw, as well as a presentation by Kathleen Vasquez at an HCC Advisory Committee meeting not too long ago, the LA/SS standards they'll be targeting in HCC middle school are the grade-level CCSS. Not 2 yrs ahead. I don't know what standards they're using in HCC elementary, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's different across sites.
As for science, yes, that's ahead. Maybe 2 yrs, but maybe more like one. The 7th grade science class uses some of the 8th grade science kits, and I don't think it's equivalent to a real HS Physical Science class. But the Bio in 8th should be pretty equivalent, so that's good.
At the HS level, it never really was 2 yrs ahead, and access to AP classes in 9th grade was recently scaled back. For the most part, HCC kids are on a pretty similar HS track to non-HCC kids. IBX is the exception, and they are only one year ahead of IB.
If I'm wrong about these details, though, please let me know. Clear info isn't always easy to get in this district.
HIMSmom
School budgets are very tight and decided in March of the previous school year dependent on projected enrollment. At the high school level, each department is allotted a number of teachers as needed per projected enrollment. If one department would expand their offerings and thus hours worked/paid based on kids wanting to double up and not take an elective but a core course, it would throw the entire budget off because something would have to be taken away from another department to make the doubling up in a core subject feasible. It is not possible to just add classes at the high school level. When you increase one department, another department has to shrink, given the fixed budget the schools are working with. Taking hours away from World Languages, Art, Occ Ed, or whatever, affects every other student who might not want to double up in AP science.
BTDT
reality
Unless the district sent out a notice or Melissa has a police scanner, I'm not sure why she'd know anything more than the general public. I was trying to be helpful. Sorry.
Many Bookmarks
I got your message and your tone just fine. You didn't do anything wrong.
- seafarer
There are several different ways AP can benefit students. There's obviously a college admissions angle, but also benefits in college. I had a lot of AP credits, but didn't graduate early. Instead, I took another quarter's worth of classes in my major and was able to take classes that I found a lot more interesting than English 101. The only person I know who graduated in 3 years did it by taking an enormous credit load, not with AP classes.
Sign me, Lighten up
Chill Out
http://paloaltoonline.com/print/story/2015/01/30/guest-opinion-school-needs-more-limits-on-courseload
BTDT
Y'all backoff
Stand for Children Leadership Center
Date: October 2014
Purpose: to support Common Core implementation and teacher effectiveness programs
Amount: $2,551,388
Term: 13
Topic: College-Ready
Regions Served: GLOBAL|NORTH AMERICA
Program: United States
Grantee Location: Portland, Oregon
Grantee Website: http://stand.org/
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2014/10/OPP1117471
No_fan_of_mid-winter break
Sept. 9: Start of school
Dec. 21-Jan 4: Winter break
Feb. 15-19: Mid-winter break
April 11-15: Spring break
June 23: Last day of school
HIMSmom