Tuesday Open Thread
Looks like three people have filed to start campaigns for School Board, each in a different region.
Ruben Van Kempen, a 35-year teacher and head of the drama program at Roosevelt High School, is retiring. I can't say enough about this man, his energy, his hard work to build a stellar drama program and, most of all, his belief in students. A fund has been set up to raise money to name RHS' theater the "Ruben Van Kempen Theatre."
Who got the Federal Reserve building? Long-time developer Martin Selig. No word on what he'll do with it.
I had been waiting to see what tomorrow's Work Session on Charters/Strategic Plan was about and now I know.
The Board is actually considering being an charter school authorizer.
The Presentation reads like a campaign ad for 1240 and includes "best interests" of the District and discussion of continuum of partnership and collaboration. And guess what? Not a single Director or staff member name attached. There's the courage of your convictions for you.
I will write a separate thread but honestly, this is utter nonsense if ONLY from the viewpoint of how does this district (and Board) have the bandwidth and money and capacity for this? It's bullshit and it's evidence of some larger puppetmasters out there.
My advice? Write to the Board, RIGHT NOW, and tell them that they and the district have a LOT better things to be addressing. It's schoolboard@seattleschools.org.
On a lighter note, literary tattoos (but don't show these to your teen).
What's on your mind?
Ruben Van Kempen, a 35-year teacher and head of the drama program at Roosevelt High School, is retiring. I can't say enough about this man, his energy, his hard work to build a stellar drama program and, most of all, his belief in students. A fund has been set up to raise money to name RHS' theater the "Ruben Van Kempen Theatre."
Who got the Federal Reserve building? Long-time developer Martin Selig. No word on what he'll do with it.
I had been waiting to see what tomorrow's Work Session on Charters/Strategic Plan was about and now I know.
The Board is actually considering being an charter school authorizer.
The Presentation reads like a campaign ad for 1240 and includes "best interests" of the District and discussion of continuum of partnership and collaboration. And guess what? Not a single Director or staff member name attached. There's the courage of your convictions for you.
I will write a separate thread but honestly, this is utter nonsense if ONLY from the viewpoint of how does this district (and Board) have the bandwidth and money and capacity for this? It's bullshit and it's evidence of some larger puppetmasters out there.
My advice? Write to the Board, RIGHT NOW, and tell them that they and the district have a LOT better things to be addressing. It's schoolboard@seattleschools.org.
On a lighter note, literary tattoos (but don't show these to your teen).
What's on your mind?
Comments
Barbello, Julie A
This employee no longer works at Seattle Public Schools. For assistance on any public records requests please email: publicrecords@seattleschools.org.
Thank you
Account Operations
As you may know or not, it was Julie who unfortunately released the information to the law firm who in turn released the same information un-redacted.
Another victim of Ron English's mismanagement. We should soon see English's official resignation.
Dez
Ingraham had two of the three teams from Washington state that qualified.
Wake up
This is the best placement, ever, by the Iron Riders, and we're all very proud of what they achieved.
Roosevelt Dad
Seattle Schools @seapubschools ·4 minutes ago
2 more schools sheltered in place for @SeattlePD investigation: Roxhill and Gatewood.
Seattle Schools @seapubschools · 9 minutes ago
Shelter-in-place: Sealth, Denny, Sanislo, WS Elem., Highland Park as @SeattlePD investigate report of nearby robbery. No students involved.
reader47
http://dianeravitch.net/2015/04/07/bloomberg-news-murdochs-amplify-floundering/
-NewsUcan't Trust
-LCP
From tomorrow's
Strategic Plan Implementation Update
Strategic Initiative 1.3.B Early Math:
Planned work through year end
• Will have completed administration & grading for summative
CCSS math assessments for all Grade 2 students.
• Will have completed delivery of comprehensive instructional
guides for K-5.
• All kindergarten teachers trained in the intial 12 hours of PD
will have honed and demonstrated to other kindergarten
teachers their classroom implementation of instructional
strategies for going deeper in math so that all students are
challenged in class.
Reader
--TC
-Opted my kid out
Momof2
Interesting.
Does the teacher making the robo call mention the school he/she teaches at?
Betting not from an overly ELL; high % FRL school or a high school.
Old Mom
She seemed to be very efficient and generally concerned about the state of affairs at SPS. Imagine the stress of seeing what she saw everyday. It's must have been like working for Enron knowing all the issues, but knowing you can be disbarred for speaking about it.
Dez
JB
The number of no-shows among the “opted-in” was large—about forty.
One thing to note is that of the 225, some number are scheduled to take the SBA in May. However, most of those students have opted out anyway.
So on the first day of testing, a grand total of 21 students (9.3%) took the SBA.
David Edelman
-puzzled
I did attend the press conference and the numbers are high for 11th graders at Hale, Garfield and Franklin. At Hale about 50% of the 11th graders opted out.
The technical issue were legion as one Franklin teacher expalined that they wasted TWO days because the State had not uploaded the test Another school, kids took the practice test instead of the real test. That'll be a redo. Another school said that they had to lower the bandwidth because the wireless wasn't working properly.
And I note that Randy Dorn asked the DOE to NOT use these scores for AYP this year.
Good call on his part.
1.Administration consistently complains that they are overworked. Why would they want to create another bureaucratic nightmare?
2. We don't know if the Supreme Court will rule charter schools Constitutional. Why is the district spending a lot of time on something that may not be constitional?
3. The district can't afford to fund IB and language immersion schools. Why would the district even think about charter schools.
4. We already have a wide variety of choice in Seattle.
Another bureaucratic nightmare that will create work for a high level employee.
My student is a 10th grader. The 11th graders taking the SBAC left the classroom to go to testing. The 11th graders who were listed on the opt-out list, were allowed to stay in class. The 11th graders who were not listed were required to leave class, even if they thought they were opted out or decided to refuse the test. They didn't test & they couldn't stay in class. Why couldn't they choose to stay in class if they refused to test?
-puzzled
But clearly, the rules are not clear to those giving the test.
Or maybe those kids are being made an example.
Maybe the teacher was following instructions from the school administration?
Foil Hats
http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2014/05/whats-math-summative-assessment.html
Did anyone ever get the results of these tests from last year? We didn't.
TC
- seafarer
I'm not disputing that. In fact, the Charter Commission has approved several charters to open in Seattle in the fall and next year. So that mother probably will get a choice if she wants it.
The point is whether SPS has the resources and bandwidth and need to take on being a charter authorizer.
The amount of work and issues they have seems to point to No for an answer.
I'd like someone to convince me how that is possible and still fully serving the existing SPS students, families and staff.
- seafarer
No, I never saw results. Where do I go to find them?
Westy
A teaser: "But rather than seeing learning as a process and valuing educators as an important part of a healthy society, we keep looking for easy ways out of our current predicament, solutions that don’t involve respecting the hard work that goes into educating our young."
New study out of Berkeley seems to show it's cultural differences regarding early reading and language use that gives whites a lead going into school.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-latino-literacy-20150401-story.html
As I heard on NPR, in the context of the US system, Mexican-American parents are not doing the right thing, it's really not about poverty but about conforming to the dominant culture.
Wanda
Director Peaslee felt it necessary to send a statement in OPPOSITION to this request and Director Martha McLaren did not support the fore-mentioned resolutions.
These two directors are up for re-election and all attempts should be made to disallow them back into office.
SPS used tens of thousands of children to develop baseline information for SBAC and neither McLaren or Peaslee spoke in opposition--when it mattered.
PC errors
I didn't read your article, but something is seriously wrong when SBAC training involves making children sit in chairs for 80 minutes.
NOTE: With the exception of Peters/Patu not one director spoke-up about this issue. McLaren thought we should encourage the children and make them feel "proud".
It is also important to note that Nyland didn't take leadership in this effort, either. He was, Peaslee's hire and she attempted to ram through his hire over a holiday weekend.
- bc
HF
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-latino-literacy-20150401-story.html
The UC Berkeley study found that four-fifths of the nation's Mexican American toddlers lagged three to five months behind whites in preliteracy skills, oral language and familiarity with print materials.
"Being warm and fuzzy may lead to well-behaved youngsters but it doesn't necessarily advance a young child's cognitive agility."
Mothers of toddlers who fell behind were more likely to be foreign-born, low-income and less educated.
...Latino mothers tend to believe that children should wait for kindergarten to learn to read, compared with white mothers who see age 2 as the appropriate age for such learning, according to a UCLA study. Fuller said that difference may stem from the traditional Mexican respect for teachers.Less than half of all Latino 4-year-olds attend preschool, compared with 70% of whites.
Among Mexican-Americans, greater growth was recorded among toddlers whose mothers worked outside the home than those who didn't, even controlling for parent education levels. Fuller said the reason is still "a bit mysterious" but may be connected to greater acculturation and exposure to different parenting practices among working mothers.
Wanda
Peaslee, after scolding Peters, gave a very long winded speech and told Peters that issues should be brought to committee. Committee meetings, per Peaslee, are a place for resolutions to get refined.
Peters brought her resolution to committee and legal informed the public that all aspects of this resolution were legal.
In the end, Peaslee did not support the resolution and she did NOT work to better Peters resolution.
Peaslee, in the end, sent a letter opposing the Peters/Patu resolution.
Shame on both Peaslee and McLaren. I never expected much from Steven Blandford.
-sleeper
HP
3inSPS
Enrollment projections are expected to be released in May. You could make a public records request for that information.
reader47
This latest finding is built upon previous 2012 study by Bruce Fuller. From UC Berkley newsletter:
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/12/11/study-shows-mexican-american-toddlers-lag-in-literacy-skills-excel-in-social-skills/
Researchers looked at the difference between whites, native born Mexican-American vs. immigrant mothers in level of education, work outside the home, SES alongside cultural practices. These differences do have an effect. What the study also showed that while reading at home to children may not be as emphasized, Mexican American culture nurtured very agile and socially successful children. These are strengths which learning intervention can build upon. A reason while you see less issues with prenatal care and low birth weight in this group. (The research was first printed in a maternal child journal.)
“Researchers have long assumed that poor parents display poor parenting,” said UC Berkeley sociologist and study co-author Bruce Fuller. “But we find robust cultural strengths in Mexican American homes when it comes to raising eager and socially mature preschoolers.”
**As to your juicy comment that culture and not poverty is the dominant effect here. The study didn't come to that conclusion. From the actual study itself:
http://hjb.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/06/0739986315571113.full.pdf?ijkey=bI6e78BTk6PiWgZ&keytype=finite
"Overall, we find considerably lower rates of cognitive growth among most Mexican American toddlers, compared with toddlers of native-born White mothers. The mother’s social-class position, consistent with developmental- risk theory, largely explains flatter growth trajectories. Indicators of class posi- tion include maternal education, employment status, and certain home practices
We observed few factors that differentially affected the cognitive growth of Mexican American children, relative to Whites. The interaction of poverty status and Mexican American membership was significantly negative, indi- cating that economic exigencies threaten cognitive growth even more in these families. At the same time, the factors linked to biological processes (birth status), along with maternal education and interactive practices with the child, largely explained the overall negative association of Mexican American status and cognitive growth. So, after the positive benefits of strong prenatal practices are realized by the infant—favoring offspring of Mexican American mothers—developmental-risk factors appear to operate with greater force than any positive mechanisms situated within a Mexican ecocultural heritage and manifest home practices. "
reader
Don't.http://www.nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_1073.pdf
http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_1073.html
reader
I usually have trouble getting past the abstract, here's what it says:
Abstract
Recent studies reveal early and wide gaps in cognitive and oral language skills—whether gauged in English or Spanish—among Latino children relative to White peers. Yet, other work reports robust child health and social development, even among children of Mexican American immigrants raised in poor households, the so-called immigrant advantage. To weigh the extent to which Mexican heritage or foreign-born status contributes to early growth, we first compare levels of cognitive and communicative skills among children of Mexican American and native-born White mothers at 9 and 24 months of age, drawing from a national sample of births in 2001. Just one fifth of Mexican American toddlers kept pace with the cognitive growth of White toddlers at or above their mean rate of growth through 24 months of age, matched on their 9-month cognitive status. We then assess how factors from developmental-risk or ecocultural theory help to explain which Mexican American toddlers kept pace with White peers. Growth was stronger among toddlers whose family did not live beneath the poverty line, and whose mothers reported higher school attainment, more frequent learning activities, and exhibited steadier praise during a videotaped interaction task, factors more weakly observed among foreign-born Mexican American mothers. We found little evidence that foreign-born mothers exercised stronger home practices that advanced toddlers’ early cognitive growth as posited by immigrant-advantage theory. The positive factors emphasized by developmental-risk theory helped to explain variation in the cognitive growth of children of native-born, but not foreign-born, Mexican mothers.
My take-away is that the developmental-risk theory does not explain lower cognitive ability in children of foreign-born mothers. That leaves the eco-cultural differences, as mentioned in the LA Times article.
Fuller also said this in the Times article,
"The findings underscore the need for widespread parent education and renewal of federal funding for such programs as home visits to train families on effective parenting practices, Fuller said. Most funding is focused on preschool but "we've got to start earlier because "the disparities open up far sooner," he said.
Wanda
While risk factors are present (poverty, violence, poor housing, poor schools in poor neighborhoods, lack of quality childcare for working parents, lack of good health care- as in access, timely and continuous health/dental care, having non English speaking or less educated parents, etc.), there are things we can do to mitigate these risks. There are cultural strengths (strong family and community ties, hard work ethics, respect of teachers, 2 parent household, extended family) which this community can build on.
This study helps clarify where to begin and how to parlay what there is now to something even better.
-reader
I reread the last sentence of the abstract
"The positive factors emphasized by developmental-risk theory helped to explain variation in the cognitive growth of children of native-born, but not foreign-born, Mexican mothers."
"...not foreign-born, Mexican mothers."
The author concludes that it is not poverty and its appendages causing the variation for this group. The paper suggests it is lack of awareness of, as you suggested, basic NYT quality advice on parenting.
Wanda
Years ago I read an article which emphasized the need to read in one's native language first for all the nuance and complexities inherent in that original language. Children who learn to read in a language other than the one they heard as early as prenatally and continue to hear at home seem to have difficulties in comprehension.At least this seems to be true with these two children.
George Gonzalez, a Spanish-speaker who moved with his family to the US at a very early age, presented a workshop for reading teachers on behalf of one of the reading publishers, and he encouraged us to encourage families to get kids in front of TVs, reading comic books, just hearing English-language use everywhere to promote comprehension.
I tried this at my school which was heavily SE Asian with success. When reading time came, I put kids on recorded books and they would listen over and over. Whenever I taught something that was of less significance than learning to read, I put them on those audio books and they would read, and read, and read. Honestly, these kids caught up fairly quickly. It helped not only decoding and comprehension reading skills but also their ability to converse conversationally. I only did this one year because I had to move on to another school but it remains a really fond memory for me.
Learning and teaching are the most complex skills. Too bad so few administrators and politicians really understand that.
I guess I don't see this research as being earth shattering. Being poor sucks! It tells us being poor, lacking language skills to navigate a foreign country successfully, living in isolation, being less educated, living in transitory housing, and having many children to care for do have an affect on the development of a child's cognitive development. Wow!
There have been similar research in other populations. I'll let you figure who they are. The attention grabbing headline comparing cognitive gap between whites and Mexican Americans is unfortunate because people are looking for things which aren't there
I'm not sure I will define success or mighty cognition as being able to read NYT (given its quality and content sad slow decline) or mommy blogs. But I have no doubt, my awareness of such things have raised my social status mightily in some circle ;)
Unfortunately, while the back and forth is great for distraction, it does diddly squat in making real world difference. Thanks for engaging Wanda.
reader
.
reader
April 7 editorial LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-ed-language-development-latino-toddlers-20150407-story.html
"In other words, preschool alone will not prepare toddlers for success in school. That's a problem. But solutions are clear, inexpensive and relatively easy to achieve."
"Yet it doesn't take a college degree or a diploma, or even literacy. Telling stories, asking questions, playing with children interactively — these simple actions can make a profound difference."
"Programs funded by schools and governments that provide home visits by a nurse or social worker or other mentor have shown repeatedly that they improve educational outcomes."
"Just as language differences don't explain the discrepancies, neither do a family's finances."
Wanda
Both might be expensive. Which is the better bang for the buck?
Mexico has a middle and upper class, who value education, read to their kids, send them to private school so they become bilingual, ideally learn perfect English while living in a Spanish speaking society. It's cultural (i.e. not reading to kids) in the sense that it comes from poverty, not from being Mexican, and certainly not from speaking another language at home; the largest proportion of Mexican immigrant do come from poor backgrounds. That is the direct result of the failure of the Mexican Government.
BTW, many Asian cultures also believe that teaching should be left to teachers and absolutely trust and respect teachers. You've heard of the Confucian belief that teachers should be held with the highest respect, even above parents, yes? How does Wanda explain ASIANS' lovely grades and test scores?
mom