Seattle Public Education Updates

From the "there goes that idea" - Expedia is moving its corporate headquarters  to the Amgen campus.  Several readers had thought that might be an ideal spot to share space with a business and an SPS high school.  (This is considered a huge win for Seattle as Expedia is leaving Bellevue.) 

Sen. Maralyn Chase (D) and Senate President Pro Tem Pam Roach (R) will lead a bipartisan press conference Thursday afternoon followed by an exposé of the Common Core educational standards adopted by the Legislature in 2011.

The senators will meet with reporters at 4:00 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3 at the Capitol prior to a discussion that is scheduled to last until 6 p.m. and will include participants from the local, state and federal levels. “Our state’s Democratic and Republican parties have rejected Common Core as being bad for kids,” said Roach, R-Auburn. “Someone has to stand up for the students.”

“Common Core is uniting liberals and conservatives like no issue I have seen. Our conference Thursday is about building momentum toward a legislative repeal of Common Core in 2016,” said Chase, D­Shoreline.

Chase and Roach are the lead sponsors of Senate Bill 6030, introduced Feb. 18, which would have the state withdraw from Common Core standards and return to the Essential Academic Learning Requirements that preceded Common Core.

There are several high-level speakers Skyping in like Diane Ravitch and Wayne Au.


Op-Ed from the head of WEA, Kim Mead, on testing

Administering the tests dominates school calendars from March to June, in many cases, locking kids out of libraries or computer labs for the duration. Instead of being a place of wonder and learning, the library becomes a stressful place for test administration. Adding complication, elementary schools as dispersed as Richland and Mukilteo are reporting that third-graders were sent the wrong test, with some kids having to take it twice. 

In younger grades, districts use them to determine placements in programs like Advanced Placement classes, determining kids’ educational path very early in their academic careers. 

Uh oh, I wonder what districts are going to use SBAC results for placements in AP classes (or maybe Advanced Learning programs).

Politicians and others pushing for more  funding for the IB program at Rainier Beach High School.  One of them is Senator Pramila Jayapal who is asking the state for $250K for two more years of IB.  In addition, the Times reports that about $10K in donations have come to the school for students to attend the IB World Conference in Barcelona. 

So I had thought the Charter Commission was writing a letter to First Place Scholars to let them know they were about to be closed.  It appears the letter is some kind of 10-day reprieve.  The Commission says First Place has 10 days to clear up yet another issue - services for ELL students.  The school accepted money for them but it doesn't look like any services were provided. 

It appears that the Commission is seeing little in the way of results from their concerns about the school. 

Interestingly, First Place's Board President Dawn Mason is again saying it's the Commission's fault for allowing the school to open too quickly.  She said:

Granting a contract to begin as a charter school was a decision thtat came from the lack of the Charter Commission knowing the depth and breadth of a public school structure."

I would disagree with that statement.  Many of the people on the Commission are in education and know the ins and outs of creating schools.  But I do think the Commission was under tremendous pressure to open First Place (especially as the first charter school in the state).  I don't know if the charter proposal had just an outline for serving all kids and the Commission either believed it or didn't check that proposal for real legs.

The Commission says it will take action if they don't see real progress on the issues they have raised to First Place.