Friday Open Thread

Clarification: the forum on the school to prison pipeline (this Wednesday, the 29th at the New Holly Hall at 6pm) is NOT sponsored by either the King County Council or City Council.  It was organized by a few members from each group.  They have invited members of the Seattle School Board but it is unclear who may be going from that group.  The featured speaker is Professor Wayne Au from UW Bothell.

This is a good opportunity to point out how valuable that Middle College is to preventing more kids from entering the pipeline.  (I also suspect a fair number of candidates from City Council races as well as School Board races will be in attendance.)

Lots of state/national ed news:

Oregon gets 3-year reprieve from NCLB

North Carolina's Supreme Court rules for vouchers.
Washington State Budget and Policy Center reports too many kids are being left behind in economic recovery.

KIDS COUNT in Washington found that our  state fares especially poorly in economic security. A lack of quality employment for parents, combined with high cost-of-living, is a significant challenge for Washington state. 

Hilarious piece on TFA and Special Education from Voices of Resilience by Jennifer Kasten.

On teens and health, interesting new stats from Live Science on percentage of teen girls using the morning-after pill.

A survey conducted from 2011 to 2013 showed that, among females ages 15 to 19 who have had sexual intercourse, 22 percent said they had used emergency contraception at least once in their lives. That's up from 8 percent in 2002, according to the new report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The new report also found that teenage sex in general is on the decline. From 2011 to 2013, 44 percent of teen girls and 47 percent of teen boys reported never having sex. That's a decrease of 14 percent for females and 22 percent for males in the last 25 years, the researchers said.

Most teens who do have sex are using contraception: Nearly 80 percent of teen girls and 84 percent of teen boys said they used contraception (most often a condom) the first time they had sex from 2011 to 2013.

What's on your mind?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Debunking the myth that about half of new teachers quit teaching in five years comes a new study.

Way less than half of new teachers quit in first five years

Study says only 17% of new teachers leave during first five years.

I think you will find a much higher rate of new teachers leaving teaching positions in inner-city schools to go elsewhere than 20% in the first five years.

-- Dan Dempsey
Anonymous said…
Dan, it does not surprise me that fewer than 50 percent of new teachers quit during the years of that study -- 2007/2008 through 2011/2012. I wonder what the percentages were in the 5 years before that.

Recession?
mirmac1 said…
All-City Band Jam

DATE: Friday July 24, 2015
TIME: 6:30 - 9:00
LOCATION Southwest Athletic Complex (by Chief Sealth HS)
2600 SW Thistle St
Seattle, WA 98126

All-City Band will once again be hosting its annual Band Jam. This non-competitive event, is intended to celebrate the best part of any parade – the marching bands – by giving the community and opportunity to hear from some of the bands that will be participating in Saturday’s Torchlight festivities. We will also be highlighting some “non-traditional” adult groups as a means of emphasizing that music can be a lifelong source of enjoyment and socializing. Family and friends are encouraged to join us. Please invite people to come. We would love to see the stands full as we celebrate music and marching band.

Southwest Athletic Complex
2600 SW Thistle St
Seattle, WA 98126
Anonymous said…
Are there any school board candidate forums or debates scheduled for the general election? I haven't seen any signs up in the north end for any candidate except Sandy Brown for city counsel. It almost seems like no one cares about our elections, are people simply going by the voters pamphlet these days.


NW voter
Anonymous said…
Aren't they waiting until after the primary? I already voted and sent my ballot in for the primary.

HP
NW voter, I know of a few but not until Sept (after the primary).
Anonymous said…
Ok, can you post all the event and dates you have.

Does KUOW plan on doing anything?

NW voter
Anonymous said…
The only candidate that has bothered to knock on my door was Mian Rice and he has withdrawn.


NW voter
Anonymous said…

Did anyone see this--Seattle Public Schools Title IX investigation now of interest to the University of Washington

Combating sexual assault in schools

http://www.dailyuw.com/features/article_ae1ac346-301b-11e5-a42b-877cd0e34842.html

Curious George
Anonymous said…
I haven't met any of the School Board candidates. District 5 candidates Sandy Brown and Halei Watkins knocked on my door. I have met Jon Grant and talked with him.

I pretty much followed the Stranger recommendations when I didn't know who to choose.

HP
NOtoBradburd said…
Bill Bradburd is running for City Council (Position 9) and he supports charter schools. The other candidate in this race served as Murray's attorney. No good choices in this race.
Carmaig said…
This quarter's American Prospect has an in-depth article regarding teachers' inroads toward unionizing charter schools. Do we have any charter schools in Seattle yet? If so, or if soon, this article is especially relevant.
Bradburd doesn't support charters (not to my knowledge). Where did you read this?
Anonymous said…
Recession? ,

You were wondering about other teacher retention stats.

In this recent PBS NewsHour spot
Teachers face tough jobs
The much greater than 17% five year quit rate surfaces.

I always wonder about methodology when these retention numbers show up.

As a nation I would say the teaching force is not in a good place.

Morale is down considerably. Many older teachers are holding on until they can retire. Many teachers are frustrated with top-down dictates that make very little sense. The actual instructional needs of individual learners often go unmet because of one size fits all requirements. CCSS & SBAC will likely amplify this mess.

The Federal Take Over of Education has been detrimental to the teaching core.

-- Dan Dempsey

Lovely Ladies said…
There are two lovely women that felt it necessary to fund a PAC to support Suzanne Dale- Estey for School Board, and their names are Julie Yee and Lisa McFarlane(DFER). Both of these women and Suzanne Dale Estey have contributed to Lauren McGuire's campaign. To make the trio complete- Dale-Estey has also contributed to McGuire's campaign.
Anonymous said…
The post above is weird. Go count how many attorneys and upper-crust Laurelhurst people donated to Jill Geary. It's stupid to have a donations pissing match (and I haven't checked but willing to bet Geary has a way bigger $ pile from all those lawyer, doctor, judge, business leader donations).

But that's all beside the point and frankly not important. What's important to me right now is school discipline issues. I'm really excited by the restorative justice movement maybe making its way to Seattle. Does anyone know when the school board is going to make a final decision about suspension / expulsion?

Thanks,

Mom 3

Mom 3, I think at the August Board meeting but the agenda is n/a yet.
Lovely Ladies said…
PAC contributors are quite different than campaign contributors, both in scope and motivation.
Lovely Ladies said…
As an aside, Lisa McFarland's organization- DFER- is sitting on $135K. McFarlane has a history of using DFER dollars and funding PAC(s) to achieve her goal, and Yee joined her efforts. All people/dollars are not equal. Where will McFarland use DFER's dollars this year?
mirmac1 said…
And let's not forget the "Civil Alliance for a Sound Economy that kicked in funds into the PAC for Dale-Estey. They're back at it again with heavy spending on media buys for Shannon Braddock, Pamela Banks and Rob Johnson for City Council (and the nouveau school board). Braddock, former Lafayette PTA mom, is a tool of the political and commercial establishment. Just who's trying to buy these elections? Well let's see:

R.C. HEDREEN CO. 20000
WA RETAIL ASSOCIATION SEATTLE PAC 10000
ALASKA AIRLINES INC. 5000
CALLAHAN PATRICK 5000
COMCAST CABLE 5000
GOODMAN REAL ESTATE INC. 5000
LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE CO PAC 5000
PUGET SOUND ENERGY 5000
SEATTLE MARINERS 5000
SWEDISH MEDICAL CENTER 5000
VULCAN INC. 5000
WRIGHT RUNSTAD ASSOCIATES 5000
NUCOR STEEL SEATTLE INC. 4000
AGC 3000
AT&T 2500
CLISE PROPERTIES 2500
FEAREY GROUP 2500
NORTHWEST MARINE TRADE ASSOCIATION PAC 2500
PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF 2500
PREMERA BLUE CROSS 2500
REPUBLIC SERVICES INC 2500
SEATTLE-KING COUNTY REALTORS 2500
VULCAN INC 2500
VULCAN INC 2500
WA RETAIL ASSOCIATION SEATTLE PAC 2500
etc.

When will they begin funding McGuire? Or will Matt Griffin, Chris Larson and Nick Hanauer renew their Great Seattle Schools PAC for that purpose? It's all a shell game.
dan dempsey said…
From the disabilityScoop =>

Feds: Most States Failing To Meet Special Ed Obligations

July 14, 2015

Federal officials indicate that less than half of states are meeting their obligations under special education law.

The U.S. Department of Education says that just 19 states qualified for the “meets requirements” designation for the 2013-2014 school year. The rest of states were classified as “needs assistance” or “needs intervention.”
Anonymous said…
From the disabilityScoop =>
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/07/14/feds-states-failing/20436/

Feds: Most States Failing To Meet Special Ed ObligationsStates determined to “meet requirements” for the 2013-2014 school year include Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The Education Department said that the remaining states need assistance.

Advocate
Anonymous said…
But Dan. We had "intervention" in sped. And now, we're all better. Ask OSPI ... they say yes. We got to use our sped resources on know-nothing consulting firms, one after the other. Getting really great "data"... eg survey monkey. And we also hired a whole bunch of "program specialists" at central office. They will all quit as quickly as possible. They don't actually like sped, or people with disabilities unless they are something they can use to get their pay grade bumped up.

Sped Reader
dan dempsey said…
Sped Reader,

Yup the profusion of administrators is hardly beneficial to students. Reminds me of the "Math Coaches" that suddenly appeared out of no where across USA Education. "program specialists" are cogs in building an empire and often little else.

If McCleary eventually brings about full state funding of teaching positions, I sure hope "program specialists" are not funded.

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