Advanced Learning Updates (Good luck, parents)
Update: interesting comment thread from the Community Forum for HCC (APP).
One more update:
From the district:
The Advanced Learning office will notify families (who referred a child by the Oct. 8 deadline) via email about a child’s eligibility as Cognitive Abilities Test scores are received and processed from late January through February. Families who haven’t received an eligibility email by Feb. 29 should contact Advanced Learning at alsupportanalysts@seattleschools.org with the subject line “Eligibility Letter.”
One more update:
As observed the AL office has not reached the point of scheduling the K-2 callbacks. They don't have a predicted date for when that part of the process will start yet.
"CogAT scores are not expected until later in January. Students in grades K-2 who score at or above the 94th percentile on the Screening Form will be scheduled to take the full CogAT. Kindergarten students will be taking the MAP this month at school. Older students should have achievement data on file from last spring. Those who do not will be contacted for achievement testing."
"So they plan on using MAP results to determine if Kinders are advanced learners? For kids who have never used a computer and which content doesn't overlap at all with the CogAT..."I say "good luck" only because I read this thing twice and the level of detail that you are supposed to track and follow is hard to believe. Anyone new to this district and its AL system would be scratching their head.
From the district:
The Advanced Learning office will notify families (who referred a child by the Oct. 8 deadline) via email about a child’s eligibility as Cognitive Abilities Test scores are received and processed from late January through February. Families who haven’t received an eligibility email by Feb. 29 should contact Advanced Learning at alsupportanalysts@seattleschools.org with the subject line “Eligibility Letter.”
Important notes:
Enrollment: Families who would like their child to participate in Advanced Learning programs or services in a school other than the attendance-area school should enroll the child duringOpen Enrollment, Feb. 17 to March 1. Families should submit a School Choice Form during this window even if they have NOT received eligibility results by this time.
Ineligible Students and Appeals: Families who wish to appeal must provide all appeals documents no later than THREE WEEKS from the date of the eligibility email. (We have tightened the appeals window in order to accommodate budget and staffing timelines.)
Ineligible Students and Appeals: Families who wish to appeal must provide all appeals documents no later than THREE WEEKS from the date of the eligibility email. (We have tightened the appeals window in order to accommodate budget and staffing timelines.)
Eligible Students and Enrollment
- Highly Capable-eligible students: HC services are guaranteed, either at the attendance-area school or through self-contained classes in the pathway Highly Capable Cohort school. To join the cohort, families should submit a School Choice form during Open Enrollment.
- Advanced Learning-eligible students: Students may receive advanced work at the attendance-area school or through self-contained or cluster-grouped Spectrum classes, available at designated sites on a space-available basis. Families may submit a School Choice form during Open Enrollment, but a seat is not guaranteed.
K-8 testing continues at least through January, but all families who referred by the Oct. 8 deadline should have received a testing appointment at this point. Those who have not should emailalsupportanalysts@seattleschools.org with the subject line “Winter Testing.”
For details about all of these issues, please see our Advanced Learning Enrollment page and ourAdvanced Learning Appeals page.
Comments
SW Mom
So families can demand HC services at the attendance area school. Really? And what if they don't get it? What recourse do they have? What assurances will the District provide?
"Students may receive advanced work at the attendance-area school or through self-contained or cluster-grouped Spectrum classes, available at designated sites on a space-available basis."
Again, families can demand advanced work at the attendance area school. Really? And what if they don't get it? What recourse do they have? What assurance will the District provide? For that matter, what if they don't get the services at a designated site? What recourse or assurances does the District offer? And, given the absence of self-contained classrooms, what seats are set-aside for Spectrum-eligible students at those designated sites? Isn't it none? So aren't the Spectrum services available only to children who live in the attendance areas of the designated sites? How is that equitable access?
Someone please get it in writing.
SW Mom
ground control
How large were class sizes 3.2 million years ago?
DisAPPointed
HCC has a lot of problems; it is too big, constantly under scrutiny and threat from the district, and the curriculum is the same pretty hackneyed stuff, but at least the math is closer, and the peer editing is more useful. This was the case with 3 different teachers(I am not including kindergarten, which I think is a different beast). I don't think differentiation can really happen in a scalable way, at least not with the incentives and class sizes we have now.
We Tried
About the rest of the K-2 testing...there must be a lot of families waiting to hear whether or not they need to dedicate another Saturday in January to three more hours testing. I'm sure early elementary comprises almost half of the testers.
shanti
Good differentiation relies on the same foundation that good teaching generally requires: time to plan.
One more thing: walk-to-math seems to work at some schools but at mine, it doesn't. The high kids go to a teacher who pretty much sails through. The low kids get a small group generally and the teacher takes time and learning is better. The middle teacher has those lows who are too numerous to stay in the low group (thus negating the good the low-group teaching would do) and the few high kids who are kept out of the high group to control for capacity. So your middle teacher continues to struggle. That's the situation at my school. At my school, the high and the medium classes are pretty much matched in numbers. That is the problem. The high group should be the biggest group without a doubt. They come engaged, with home support generally, and ready to learn. But that is not what happens. So the middle teacher has 25-28 extra kids (beyond homeroom kids) to monitor and for whom to do paperwork and parent communication.
We have so many issues in our schools. Many of them brought about by administrative people who simply do not understand education, developmental stuff and the teaching of kids.
How does walk to math work for students at your school? It sounds like it's an improvement for both the above and below grade level kids. Would it work at your school if you had additional support - maybe a math specialist who worked with a group in each grade so that every group was slightly smaller? That's something that could be done with class size reduction funds in any school that doesn't have physical space for more classrooms.
I think some schools who do make it work manage by getting extra people - IAs. Our schools budget doesn't allow much extra help at all.
Your comments are a breath of fresh air and you might be the first educator I have heard speak so frankly. Most often, I get the impression that teachers (at least the ones I encounter regularly) think the system is actually good because they spend so much effort defending it to me when I question it. At what point should teachers be expected to stand up for what is morally right rather than what the principal or the district wants?
Many of us, in our own professions, have risked a great deal of personal security to take an ethical stand, is the teaching profession exempt from this?
Differentiation is the perfect example. As long as it continues to be measured in terms of what was given by the teacher instead of the impact on the child, the power structure continues to reward bureaucracy over students. I don't know how any teacher, in good conscience, could support this. Silence is consent and, in my world of elementary school, there appears to be a lot of silence these days.
(Frustrated)
SW Mom
ground control
How can a student's family know that the student is getting either HC or Spectrum/ALO services? What are the hallmarks, the benchmarks, the metrics, and the assessments?
In the absence of an HC or a Spectrum/ALO curriculum isn't it impossible to tell?
If student drops, then school is responsible?
SW Mom
HF
Something has to give this team works tirelessly to assure that our kids get the testing and chance that they deserve in accordance to the WAC codes.
Write the school district to find out why they aren't funding this department to allow for systematic processes to help them process over 5000 kids through the testing, decisions and notification processes.
I feel for the staff trying to keep their heads afloat through this.
Seattle Public Schools administrators do not put enough emphasis on Advanced Learning. They are lacking administrative (leadership) support to improve the Advanced Learning area in system, increase in staffing and systematic processes.
Something has to give this team works tirelessly to assure that our kids get the testing and chance that they deserve in accordance to the WAC codes.
Write the school district to find out why they aren't funding this department to allow for systematic processes to help them process over 5000 kids through the testing, decisions and notification processes.
I feel for the staff trying to keep their heads afloat through this.