Tuesday Open Thread
State Superintendent Randy Dorn is having a press conference this morning to talk about his funding plan for McCleary He says:
Speaking of ESEA (NCLB), the Senate bill on this issue is scheduled to be discussed in the Senate this morning with Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lamar Alexander leading that discussion.
KUOW reported this morning that Spokane School district is removing students whose parents have not submitted full accounting of vaccinations. The students will be allowed back in class if their parents either submit proof of vaccinations or file a request to waive vaccinations for religious or personal reasons. The district is offering immunization clinics all this week.
Also from Spokane School district:
The school day will be 30 minutes longer for elementary schoolers starting with the 2015-16 school year.
But this action only brings Spokane in line with the rest of the state who have longer school days for elementary students.
Interestingly, while their high school time stays at 8 am, they move elementary to 8:30 am (from 9 am) and middle schools to 9:00 (from 8:45 am).
And check out the chart out for elementary school time for districts around the state from their FAQs. It ranges from a high in Yakima of 7 hours, 15 minutes to a low in Spokane of 6 hours. Where is Seattle? Second from the bottom with 6 hours and 10 minutes. Eyeballing the chart, I'd say the average looks to be about 6 hours and 30 minutes. Kind of shocking to see that much difference from district to district.
What's on your mind?
“I want to make sure that every student, from Cape Flattery to Clover Park to Clarkston, has an equal opportunity to a basic education,” Dorn said. “That isn’t happening today. My plan will ensure that.”Also from OSPI, the announcement of math and science partnership grants to seven districts including Seattle.
The grants will be used to help increase student achievement in math and science. Specifically, the grants allow for partnerships between schools and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty at institutes of higher education.
State funding for the projects totals $1.9 million, to be split among the grantees. Awards, which have yet to be determined, range from $500,000 to $1.5 million and will be distributed during the course of the three-year grants.
The MSP grant program is part of the federal Title II, Part B section of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The size of awards for each state is based on student population and poverty rates. Partnerships through MSP grants develop and implement programs that, among other benefits, focus on the education of mathematics and science teachers as a career-long process.I won't be able to follow-up with the district this week due to the Spring break but I'll ask which schools this might affect.
Speaking of ESEA (NCLB), the Senate bill on this issue is scheduled to be discussed in the Senate this morning with Senator Patty Murray and Senator Lamar Alexander leading that discussion.
KUOW reported this morning that Spokane School district is removing students whose parents have not submitted full accounting of vaccinations. The students will be allowed back in class if their parents either submit proof of vaccinations or file a request to waive vaccinations for religious or personal reasons. The district is offering immunization clinics all this week.
Also from Spokane School district:
The school day will be 30 minutes longer for elementary schoolers starting with the 2015-16 school year.
But this action only brings Spokane in line with the rest of the state who have longer school days for elementary students.
Interestingly, while their high school time stays at 8 am, they move elementary to 8:30 am (from 9 am) and middle schools to 9:00 (from 8:45 am).
And check out the chart out for elementary school time for districts around the state from their FAQs. It ranges from a high in Yakima of 7 hours, 15 minutes to a low in Spokane of 6 hours. Where is Seattle? Second from the bottom with 6 hours and 10 minutes. Eyeballing the chart, I'd say the average looks to be about 6 hours and 30 minutes. Kind of shocking to see that much difference from district to district.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter gave three of the 11 educators who were convicted of racketeering this month 20-year sentences, ordering that seven years must be served in prison and the rest on probation.
Five more educators received five-year sentences, with two ordered to serve two years in prison and three to serve one year.
"There were thousands of children that were harmed in this thing," Baxter said during the hearing, after getting into heated exchanges with attorneys for the defendants.
"It’s like the sickest thing that’s ever happened to this town," he later said.
Another convicted educator was then ordered to serve six months of weekends in jail and five years of probation, avoiding a potentially harsher punishment by making a sentencing agreement with prosecutors.
After hearing the sentences given to the defendants who did not strike deals, the final educator to be sentenced cooperated with prosecutors and also apologized in court. She was sentenced to five years probation with no jail time.
Watching SPS
Imagine.
I went back to my parent's house not too long ago and found a box of old school stuff. Compared to what I was being asked in elementary to what I see with my daughter now, we've gone backward as far as standards and expectations here in Seattle.
Don't get me wrong, I don't ever want to move back to Texas but I've gotta say that life was pretty sweet before the days of out of control standardized testing. We took the ITBS every other year. That was it.
I would love to see Seattle with a 7 hour school day. Then again, I would also love to see a year round schedule (8 weeks on, 2 weeks off).
Seriously? If this cheating scandal is the worst thing to ever happen in Atlanta, I'm thinking the judge has led a sheltered life.
Pete S.
There's $2 million to use else where. Now, I hope SPS is not paying for water, power or garbage! If so, this also something we need to change.
No Profits
reader47
wondering
Crikey.
. Blue Grass Policy Institute's Analysis of claims made in AIR report.
This also raises questions about student privacy as well.
Just don't ever change the answers on a standardized test.”
Did Atlanta Educators Get Equal Justice Before the Law?
The reality is. You can't really cheat a cheater. And the real cheater really and truly is SBAC. And that robbery is WAY WORSE than anything any teacher ever did.
Fight Back
We have so much rush in elementary these days. And don't get me started on the 30-minute lunch.
@Ann D: all women and black; southern white judge. No surprise here. Outrageous but not surprising. Citizen's United, attack on the voting right's act, misogyny. It's all there. Right-wing male supremacy and bigotry. Nothing surprises me anymore.
I'd be reluctant to send elementary children to school for seven hours. (I want more time for lunch and recess within the current schedule.)