Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS to parents:

The Viaduct is closed and I see no tweets from SPS Communications about transportation issues so I hope all is well for schools in that area.

This story was on KUOW today. "Perhaps the greatest challenge we face in addressing the opportunity gap is the persistent disparities in our public schools," said Murray, in an statement promoting the event. schools," said Murray, in an statement promoting the event. "This is not just the responsibility of the Seattle school district. This is clever way for the Mayor to get the City more involved but really he should have said: "Perhaps the greatest challenge we face in addressing the opportunity gap is the persistent disparities in our city.." Because that is equally true AND his turf.

Charlie and I have always enjoyed a good laugh over the district's "Facilities Master Plan" because we both could never understand how a list of buildings with descriptions and policies around them is a "plan."  It will be interesting to see if the newest one is any better. I attended both Work Sessions yesterday on facilities and it pretty much turned out how I thought.  Staff's presentation for the first work session was overly long - a lot of flowery talk about the mission and values of facilities which is fine but you don't need five minutes about it - and sure enough, they had to rush at the end of the first Session.  Directors seemed to have more questions to ask but they had to plow on. I'll have a write-up of my notes soon.  There were several handouts including this one that I thought parents might want to see.  It's the newest Facilities Master Plan Replacement or Major Modernization Priority list.  It has many categories of facil

School Board Director Sue Peters has proposed changes to the policies that govern program placement. The staff have responded with their suggestions for updating the policies. Both versions will be discussed today in a work session. You can read them here .

Crosscut is featuring this story: Charter schools suspending black students at high rates . It's full of accusations and denials.

Update: some common sense from one of my favorite education writers, Jersey Jazzman, and his "The PARCC Silly Season. end of update It's just hard to know where to start. First, the new thought from ed reformers is that parents just don't understand what they are doing when they opt their children out.  Thanks for patronizing them as if they are not thinking adults.  There are also new pro-testing groups springing up and many of them are funded by the Gates Foundation.  It's the same thing, over and over, with the Foundation. Create faux parent groups, data use groups and even media groups. 

From SPS: The district is distributing prevention materials to families and students this week. The materials were selected by the Task Force for the Prevention of and Response to Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault and were shared with principals and assistant principals at leadership learning events earlier this year.

From Washington's Paramount Duty and Democracy for America: Please SIGN WA's Paramount Duty's petition to WA legislators: "Stop the delays: Fully fund our schools!"  Please SHARE the petition on Facebook, Twitter, and email, and ASK your friends to sign.  WPD is partnering with Democracy for America on the petition.   We need as many people as possible in WA to sign this petition right now, so legislators know that we won't let them delay any longer in meeting their constitutional, Court-ordered obligation to make sure every public school in our state has the funds they need to give all kids a great education! https://youpower.democracyforamerica.com/petitions/stop-the-delays-fully-fund-our-schools?source=wpd

To save you some time, there was virtually no talk about any changes to the overall program. Spectrum was not even mentioned.  Whatever is to become of AL programs is something that Teaching and Learning is choosing to keep a mystery. What was interesting is that Director Burke, who chaired the meeting, had people write down questions (even the audience, though none of our cards got read but we handed them in.) There was a huge group of SPS staff there including Stephen Nielsen, Clover Codd, head of AL Stephen Martin, and all the Board members. Shauna Heath lead the discussion which I found interesting given the presence of Mr. Martin who spoke very little.  She did say that HC was "big" part of her department.  They say they are dedicated to "everyone who wants to get in, gets in." Highlights:

It would seem a simple enough premise - Mayor Murray cares about students in Seattle and wants to find new/effective/supportive ways to help students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools (heck, maybe even the kids in so-called charter schools but that's unclear.)  Here's what's been happening so far. The agenda was published this week.  (See below.)  The Summit is this Saturday, starting at 9:00 am.  T hey have moved it to Garfield High School's Commons due to popular demand.  ( I am a bit mystified about that location, despite it being in a central location.  The street Garfield is on - 23rd - has major construction going on and Garfield has very little of its own parking.  They are warning people about the traffic and have a list of parking lots for attendees to access.) They will be serving a free lunch. So the first half of the Summit is sitting and listing to a lot of people talk?  And why Michael Tolley and not Steve Nielsen or the Superintendent or President P

Judge George Finkle decided that the district's decision to dismiss Garfield choir teacher Carol Burton for procedure violations during a choir field trip to New Orleans was excessive. See the Seattle Times article here .

“The Seattle Public Schools considers student health and safety as a top priority. Over the last several years we have adopted and implemented a set of rigorous standards which have set nationally recognized standards for safe drinking water quality in public schools. The program was established by the School Board, which adopted a Drinking Water Policy in 2004. It includes periodic testing of each drinking water source in each school, coupled with reporting of the results on the District website.” Here's a link to the Drinking Water Testing program.

Interesting story on NBC last night about one of the members of Cheap Trick and his use of music to help his autistic son.  He's started a group called Rock Your Speech . Also from STAT, this story, Is the dramatic rise in autism tapering off? CDC officials found that 1 in every 68 children in the country has an autism spectrum disorder, a rate unchanged from the last CDC survey  two years ago. And while the new findings may help counter claims that half of all children in the United States will be autistic within a decade, it’s too soon to say whether the rate has reached a plateau, CDC officials cautioned. Here's yet another great story about the move to bring back more CTE (Career and Technical Education). The Tri-City Herald reports that the Kennewick School District's Tri-Tech Skills Center students built two "tiny" houses that will be put up for sale along with all other district surplus items.

This NPR story is aptly titled, Can More Money Fix America's Schools ? The bottom line to that question is yes BUT no one seems quite sure what is the best bang for the buck and many legislators are loathe to give out extra dollars if there is uncertainty about what to do.  (But more on that in a minute.) That's a super broad question.  Does it mean:

Tuesday, April 26th International School and Dual Language Immersion Programs Meeting Chief Sealth International Schools from 6:00-7:30 pm Seattle Public Schools invites families, community members and staff to share thoughts and ideas on our International School and Dual Language Immersion programs. The district is examining these programs in order to make recommendations about potential changes in the 2017-18 school year. Boundary Change Community Meeting Roosevelt High School from 6:30-7:30 pm Mayor's community conversation on education , hosted by SEA.  Van Asselt Community Center from 5:30-7:30 pm. Mayor's community conversation on education , hosted by SEA.  Northgate Community Center from 5:30-7:30 pm.

Prince was a Jehovah's witness and that faith doesn't allow telling of good acts.  But since he has passed, friends have been speaking out. There were several letters from neighbors left at his home who said they knew it was him who came thru every time their schools in Minneapolis needed help.   He helped start, Yes We Code. Apparently, nearly every concert season, he reached out to communities in need wherever he played. His death is a loss on many levels but losing someone who cared about more than his own career and acted on his beliefs is tragic. 

From Erica C. Barnett (of C is for Crank): Tomorrow, the city council plans to fund nine new legislative assistants, one for each council member, bringing the total number of legislative assistant salaries for each office to four. (Council members can divide up those salaries however they want, for example by hiring multiple part-time aides, but council members' budgets will increase to add the new full-time equivalent position.)  The reason for the change, according to a staff report, is that council members have mor e work to do now that they represent districts, instead of the entire city. (This is the first council under the new system, in which seven council members represent geographic districts, and two are elected at large).  "The additional staff support provided by the new positions in this ordinance will be used to address the increased workload resulting from this switch to district elections," the staff report says. The legislation does

Mrs. Clinton sat down with Newsday in Long Island for an wide-ranging interview that included the topic of public education.  Her wording was a bit hard to understand so I'm not quite sure I understand all that she is saying.  She has some things wrong (but that was the propaganda of Common Core so I don't entirely blame her.)  But she offers zero solutions and that's troubling. And she has a lot more faith in charter schools than I do but that's another thread. Common Core and Opt Out (this is how Newsday titled this section of the interview)

Clinton hasn't been entirely clear on her position on several K-12 issues but, given she like hedge funders and their money, she probably supports charter schools in some form.  But this comment is a true one.

And speaking of field trips , yet again the district cannot get the smarts to head off situation. Now it's all over the news.  This morning students at Stevens protested outside their school for about an hour.  They were protesting the very abrupt announcement that a long-time tradition of 5th graders going on an overnight field trip was not happening.  This is two weeks before the trip was to happen. The "official" explanation is that the paperwork didn't get to the district in time and, even with an extension, could not get done.

A funny thing happened to me.  Someone wrote that because I believe there should be multiple ways for students to look at work/career after high school, that I was for "tracking" and that meant kids of color and ergo, that's racism.  (I know, quite the leap.)  But here I see, from conservatives and others, that CTE (Career Technical and Education) is making - thankfully - a big comeback.  Many of these new job start in high school and involve a couple of years of community code including algebra.  Or, they are a stepping stone to a college-based career. It's not your grandpa's voc-ed and one more choice for students.

Updates to come: Seattle Speaks evening, discussion of the Work Session (kinda) about HCC. Prince has died and that's a sad thing for many of us.  He was almost impossible to classify as an artist; a true original. Associate Superintendent Michael Tolley will be remaining with the district for now.  Bainbridge Island chose another person to be their next superintendent.  Interesting thing about this article was that the Bainbridge School Board certainly revealed a lot of their thinking - openly and about all the candidates - to the press which is not what we see here in Seattle. We're losing an important voice for public education in Senator Rosemary McAuliffe who announced her retirement.  What a blow at this important time. Tweet from SPS: Seattle Public Schools to @ GaryKIRO7 it routinely tests water. No problems found. No gooseneck pipes containing lead. On this Earth Day, a n

On Tuesday, April 12, the OSPI sent Dr. Nyland an eMail reminding him of the requirement that districts and school achieve a participation rate of 95 percent on the state proficiency assessments. The message included a table naming the 49 schools in our district that did not meet the 95 percent participation rate on one or both tests.

The District is definitely having trouble around field trips. There has always been incidents of misbehavior on field trips but they didn't get much publicity until the report of a rape on a Garfield High School field trip to NatureBridge. The review of that incident revealed the lax supervision that was practiced and the total neglect of the policies and procedures.

From a comment by Board Director Sue Peters: I invite Melissa, Charlie and readers to start a thread or send the Board emails on their Dream Budget or People’s Budget (with a nod to Councilmember Sawant, who initiated a similar proposal with the city's budget): What would you like to see added to the school district budget? What would you like to see removed? Because we are working within the reality of an unfulfilled McCleary mandate and thus limited resources (the state's failure to fulfill its Constitutional duty to amply fund public education), everything we add to our wish list will require an adjustment somewhere else in the budget.

The Board Audit and Finance Committee agenda for yesterday included a proposed change to Policy 6010, School Funding Model, which, if adopted, will prevent mid-year classroom shuffling and staff reassignment caused by enrollment overestimation. Director Peters is introducing this motion and she has a lot of stuff to back it up. Including a number of letters of protest to Superintendent Nyland about staff reductions this year. It's good that Director Peters included them because, as we now know, the Superintendent doesn't make it a practice to read letters. Director Peters shows that the staff reductions make little sense - staff is reduced at schools due to under-enrollment while the school has a wait list for enrollment, the costs of the staff reduction wipes out most of the savings, and the staff reductions are incredibly disruptive to students and their education. We'll see how it goes.

 This from SPS Communications on the upcoming closure of the Viaduct and traffic issues : School bus transportation and commute times for nearly all schools will be affected by the closure.

The " Education Funding Task Force " set up by the legislature to plan for a plan for fully funding schools starts its work tomorrow.  But would I want to go to this meeting?  Nah.

I got word from the human Energizer bunny, teacher Web Hutchins, that Seattle Schools has agreed to bring in the Civics for All initiative to SPS.  I am so happy this is happening for our district.  Here's how Web explains it:

Seattle Speaks will be talking about school funding.  This is a live event so nothing will be filtered or edited.  Program starts at 7 pm.

Fourth in a series.  There is one new candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, David Spring , and I will be reaching out to him as well. Ms. Fleming's Facebook page . As a native Washingtonian raised by a single mother, who had a brother with Down Syndrome, and who attended eight different schools before graduating from high school, I understand struggle. As an educational researcher and published author with a doctorate in Educational Policy and Leadership (with an emphasis on school finance and multicultural education) I understand educational research and policy. As a school nurse who for 13 years worked with some of our most vulnerable students, and with families, teachers and administrators, I understand what it is like to be in the trenches. I have lived in the world of policy now for more than four years, working collaboratively with internal partners at OSPI and with the many state and community partners I have nurtured during my long career of building

From SPS Communications: SEATTLE–As part of the Seattle Police Department’s Safe Place strategy , Chief O’Toole, Superintendent Nyland and Mayor Murray will officially announce Seattle school buildings as designated Safe Places. Mayor Murray first mentioned the district’s participation during his State of the City address in February. All of the district’s 98 schools will support safe and secure places for victims of crime and discrimination directed towards the City’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community. Seattle Police Department launched the strategy through partnerships with businesses throughout Capitol Hill and the City to promote awareness of hate crimes and provide safe places for victims of harassment until officers arrive. Where:             Garfield High School (Outside Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center)                         400 23 rd Ave                          Seattle, WA 98122             When:              We

This week the School Board will conduct its required management oversight of Teaching and Learning. The agenda for the oversight meeting can be found here . In this session, the staff will share information with the Board about Curriculum Assessment & Instruction and Advanced Learning. Some of the information they are sharing does not ring true.

Well, at least I have company (in the personal attacks department.)  I am part of a coalition group for public education - Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - and I wrote them about my issue.  Guess what?  Apparently (and quite suddently),  it is happening to other advocates all over the country.  Almost makes you think is coordinated and paid for. As transgendered student news (sadly, focused mostly around the issue of use of bathrooms) has been a topic around the country, I realized that there are two very different pediatrics groups that have very similar names but very different viewpoints.  One is the American Academy of Pediatrics which has been the gold-standard for infant/child care founded in 1930.  The other is the American College of Pediatricians founded in 2002 which has a very conservative viewpoint.  And if you look at what each says about transgendered children, it's quite a clear divide - AAP v ACP.   Don't get confused like I did. Don't know if

Congrats to the Ballard High School Talisman newspaper. From an SPS tweet: The 2016 # NHSJC Best of Show award for Newspaper, Tabloid 17+ pages goes to The Talisman ( @ BallardTalisman ) from Ballard HS! The newspaper staff also won several individual awards. As well, there was this tweet: Washington Achievement Award April 18, 2016 A total of 258 schools earned for 2015. 16 Award-winning schools in @ seapubschools inc @ Sanislo

Seattle Public Schools has a longstanding policy that requires annual evaluations for all academic programs. It's policy 2090 and the need for these evaluations is beyond question. Not only do annual program evaluations provide a critical check on the quality and efficacy of our academic programs, but they are an integral element of the performance evaluation of the program managers, they are a necessary element of the District's budgeting process, and they address the most fundamental question for district managers: are the various programs getting the job done. There's really only two things wrong with the policy: 1. Despite the policy, the District does not conduct any program evaluations and never has. 2. Do I really have to list a second thing? Let's just list that first thing again but with greater outrage and disbelief: Despite a policy that clearly requires annual evaluations of the efficacy of every academic program, and despite the critical and fundamen

Seems this topic is all the rage.  This story is a three-parter with the other part coming next week.  I haven't had time to read it thoroughly but it has a very good interactive map that shows you who spends what.  We began with the question: "How do we pay for our schools?"  From a leaky ceiling in rural Alabama to a four-day school week in Arizona. From $9,794 to $28,639. Next week, we'll wade into the debate over the difference money can make in a classroom. And yes, it's a debate. National average for school spending - $11,841 Seattle: $10,610 Bellevue: $9,192 Issaquah: $8,096 Highline: $9684 Spokane: $11,610 The center of the state and the far NW of the state spend a lot more. 

It's a funny thing, this public education advocacy.  There are many of us, locally, and nationwide, representing all kinds of issues and viewpoints.  But, with the advent of corporate ed reform, there are now new players, most of the funded by the big fish (people like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Alice Walton, etc.)  They create these faux groups that just pop up as if they have existed forever and yet they can only point to a few - seemingly token - parents or teachers. But regular advocates forge on without that kind of financial backing or big name firepower.  Our coin of the realm is that biggest, widest picture on issues.  Many in corporate ed reform hate it.  They need to get something done and so, put their side in a pretty frame where the frame covers half the picture.  Since most of us regular advocates traffic in the truth with real data and real outcomes (just as the other side does sometimes), well, the truth has the ability to get people to pay attention.  Case in p

Monday (fun day), April 18th (fed tax day) My property tax postcard said that 47% of our taxes were local and I'd bet that is mostly SPS levies as well as the Families and Ed levy plus the pre-k levy.  Good for Seattle voters but again, I wonder how long voters can keep this up at every single election. Tuesday, April 19th Audit&Finance Committee meeting , from 4:30-6:30 pm at JSCEE.  Agenda  Of interest to me is the Data Privacy Policy that will not be presented by Carmen Rahm, our Tech lead staffer but by Clover Codd, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources.  Given that, I assume it is about adult data privacy issues, not student ones.  Staff is also giving more "informational" purchase updates to the Board for items that don't exceed the $250K vote to the Board. This is a good thing to see. From the minutes in a discussion about effects of catastrophic events on school buildings and the district's coverage: Washington School Risk Managem

The Times had two items of note this weekend; one is an editorial and the other is an article. The article is about field trips and how difficult it is to write a comprehensive policy that everyone can understand and cover.  I feel like this commenter, Teresa A., at the Times: "Without clear guidelines, some teachers and parents say, districts and individual teachers open themselves up to liability." This is all that is really needed.  IF students know what the expectations are AND they know with absolute certainty that the teacher will check on them  and enforce those rules AND they know with absolute certainty that they will immediately be sent home (at their parents expense) if they violate the rules AND they know that no amount of whining will change the teachers mind, then 99% of the students will follow the rules with no problems.  That is all that any reasonable person can expect. Students are going to try and break the rules, that's part of the yo

Update : good overview of funding from the Times . From KUOW : Washington Governor Jay Inslee must sign the supplemental budget next week. When he does sign it, that action touches off a series of deadlines in the McCleary case. KUOW is reporting that the Court told the legislature they must, within 30 days of Inslee signing the supplemental budget, give them a report on their McCleary plans.  Then the plaintiffs in the case can respond (within 20 days) and then the state has 10 days to reply to that response. Now we all know what the "plan" is - there was a bill passed on it.  They "plan" to kick the can down the road for another year.  I'm not sure what else the legislature could say they are actually doing. So I did a calendar check.  The end of next week is April 22nd and that would be the last day the Governor can take to sign the budget. The legislature has until June 6th to respond (Memorial Day moves it one more day further on.) The plainti

Below is a roundup of information/stories from the (Southeast Seattle Education Coalition) SESEC e-mail update; they do a very good job in covering youth/ed issues in South Seattle. The City of Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) is an ongoing comprehensive internship program. Applications are currently open until May 2. Seattle Opportunity Youth Fair for 16-24 year-olds not working or in school. Thursday, May 5. 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. All attendees must register online . South Lake High School is seeking volunteers and donations for their 4th Annual Teen Parents Community Baby Shower on April 29 from 4.00-6.00 p.m. Really good article on diversity in our neighborhoods from KUOW . Starting on Saturday, national parks have free entry for a week for National Park Week from April 16-24th.  #FindYourPark and #EncuentraTuParque. The National Park Service is celebrating 100 years of service this year.  

The Times is looking for an editorial writer with expertise in education. So tempting.  (And yes, I'm kidding.)

I'm trying to figure out what's going on with program placement, and I have to admit that I'm not confident in my understanding of the current status. Here's what I can determine:

A teacher-writer, Sean Riley, at The Stranger thinks so.  It's a pretty lengthy article but one that has good history that I hadn't heard before (not having grown up here.) In total, 10 of my 13 years in Seattle Public Schools involved long rides on a school bus. Between the ages of 6 and 9 alone, I logged thousands of miles looking at the city from a green vinyl seat. This is true for thousands of Seattleites. Seattle Public Schools used busing from the late 1970s through the mid-2000s in the hopes of achieving racial integration. To give just one snapshot of the program's breadth: In 1980, mandatory busing involved 12,000 of the district's 54,000 students. He has one pretty funny line (but I'm not sure if he meant it to be funny): It was watching the OJ verdict with black kids and getting so caught up, I joyfully sprinted in the halls with them for a second. 

We've had discussions here about the role of PTA in public education in our district.  There are several schools that are now PTOs (parent-teacher organizations) that operate solely at their schools.  Being a PTO is more work in some ways but in another way, it's better as your school gets to keep all your fund-raising dollars (without dollars going to state and national PTA.) We've talked about trying to figure out if it would be possible to share PTA wealth from some more empowered schools since other schools have small PTAs.  (I was doing a random check and so far I haven't found a school without a PTA/PTO.)  As I previously reported, the district says that PTA grants are now well over $3M a year and that's now above some other grant providers. Seattle PTAs have certainly taken on more and more. But it's not just the money but how PTA at all levels seems to be different to me.

From OSPI: OLYMPIA — April 13, 2016 — Funds are now available for low-income students who are eligible for Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge Capstone program exams, the US Department of Education announced yesterday. Qualified low-income students will now pay $15 per exam. This is a $3 increase from last year’s reduced rate of $12 per exam. There is no limit to the number of exams a student may take. For more information on the program, as well how students qualify for the fee reduction, please visit Advanced Placement .

I'll have a full write-up but here's a new fun fact. Under the new law there are two new commissioners.  One would come from the State Board of Education and one from OPSI (the law says the executive director board chair of BOE and the state superintendent but we all knew that was never going to happen.) OSPI has not put forth someone yet but from the BOE it's going to be Isabel Muñoz-Colón . Ms. Muñoz-Colón is the K-12 Investments Manager for the City of Seattle’s Department of Education and Early Learning, where she also co-chairs the English Language Learner working group for the South King County Road Map Project. That's quite a cross-reference of groups for Ms. Muñoz-Colón.

Nonprofit Quarterly, a journal on "innovative thinking for the nonprofit sector" has always been a  lately favorite of mine.  They are generally very straightforward in their thinking.  This particular article, Charitable Plutocracy: Bill Gates, Washington State, and the Nuisance of Democracy, by Joanne Barken, is much more harsh than their usual writing but, on this topic, I don't mind. Joanne Barkan is a writer based in New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. For the past six years, her work has focused on the relationship between “big philanthropy” and democracy, and the intervention of private foundations in public-education policy. (Barkan also has another excellent article, They (Not We) Shall Overcome: Private Largesse and Public Education, that I hope to write about in context of what I see happening in Seattle around discourse on public education reform.)

Looking ahead, there's a great talk on public education coming up at Town Hall ; it's Ed Boland and Inside America's School Systems based on his book , The Battle for Room 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School .  It's on Tuesday, June 28, 7 pm.

FYI, the latest on enrollment for the next school year, 2016-2017.

From SPS (note: the survey at the bottom currently does not have a live link): The district is examining these programs in order to make recommendations about potential changes in the 2017-18 school year. Interested families, community members, and staff may participate in one or more of the following ways:

And why not? He's a long-suffering SPS parent as well. In this particular column, Westneat asks some hard questions in his usual gentle manner.   He's writing about the Mayor's upcoming Education Summit and how the Mayor seems to be figuring out what he might think needs to be done for/to Seattle Schools.

There's yet another pro-charter op-ed in the Seattle Times . This one by Robin Lake of the Center for the Reinvention of Public Education. While pretending to offer cooperation and reconciliation to charter school opponents following the passage of the new charter school law, Dr. Lake takes a number of shots at the other side and defines cooperation as "You abandon your position and adopt mine."

Here is your semi-weekly opportunity to use this blog as a space to talk about what you want to talk about.

Seattle Speaks: Making the Grade State of K-12 education subject of live, interactive televised forum, April 19 SEATTLE— In a city with a skyrocketing student population, the math isn’t adding up. Why have state lawmakers not amply funded public education for yet another year? How can we close the opportunity gap and improve outcomes for all kids? Seattle Channel host Brian Callanan will lead a live, televised discussion, Seattle Speaks: Making the Grade, 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 19, at Town Hall Seattle , 1119 Eighth Ave.The community conversation will take place before a live audience. Seattle Speaks is presented by Seattle Channel, Seattle CityClub and Town Hall Seattle.

Mayor Ed Murray will sponsor an Education Summit on April 30. They will be preceded by a number of community conversations: Wednesday, 5 p.m. at Lake City Community Center, hosted by North Seattle Family Resource Center/Children’s Home Society of Washington and Lake City Future First Wednesday, 6 p.m. at Seattle Wood Technology Center, hosted by Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle Friday, 4:30 p.m. at Chinese Information and Service Center, hosted by Chinese Information and Service Center Saturday, 3 p.m. at Rainier Community Center, hosted by TeamChild April 14, 5 p.m. at Neighborhood House High Point Center, hosted by Neighborhood House April 26, 5:30 p.m. at Van Asselt Community Center, hosted by the Seattle Education Association (south) April 26, 5:30 p.m. at Northgate Community Center, hosted by the Seattle Education Association (north) High school conversations: Thursday, 3:15 p.m., Rainier Beach High School April 19, 3 p.m., Garfield High School April 20, 6 p.m.,

There's a story in the Seattle Times about Carol Burton, who lost her job for violating field trip procedures. The story outlines her argument but it leaves out her best one: when other teachers violated field trip procedures - in worse ways with worse consequences - they were not disciplined at all.

Spring is here! What are you up to? What are you looking forward to? What are you dreading?

After the jump is a letter from Associate Superintendent Flip Herndon to the Pathfinder community regarding the forced relocation of the before- and after-school care currently using school space. The letter makes the District's priorities clear: the first priority is K-5 classroom space, then pre-school space, and then childcare space. While the letter suggests that "we may be able to find multiuse space (e.g. gyms and cafeterias) within our buildings that is licensable and will work for our childcare providers", it is not particularly optimistic about it. As the District designs schools, I would be curious about the extent to which they include space for preschool or childcare in their facilities plans.

From KIRO-7: So she and a group of other neighbors filed a preliminary appeal last week to stop the project, at least temporarily. They plan to finalize it Monday.

Check out the most recent Friday memo to the Board for the test requirements for graduation. It includes this entry: Is this correct? If students have already taken and passed the EOC exams for algebra and/or geometry, they do not need to take the SBAC Math assessment to graduate. Yes. If students pass the Algebra or Geometry EOC assessments, they would meet the graduation requirement. However, the Smarter Balanced Assessment would still be required by the state for accountability. I guess we'll be seeing a lot of students opting out of an unnecessary test again this year.

I will be unable to be updating the blog on a daily basis for a short period of time.  Fear not, there will be the Tuesday and Friday Open Threads (and Charlie may have something to say along the way.) I have to confess I've been a bit confused by the reaction on the pro-charter side.  They seem happy to have won but also slightly miffed that the Governor didn't sign the bill.  They also seem to be on a game plan to try to discredit anyone who disagrees with them. Now that's a odd thing because we all have differing opinions about what public education could/should/does look like and just as many ideas about how to move the needle. I am baffled at the notion that any one idea should get more traction (especially without heavy supporting evidence) than others (like fully funding schools or more wrap-around services.) Who is to say what idea or direction is the best?  I'm not saying it's me but I'm also going to go out on a limb and say not Bill Gates, eithe

Some interesting and important issues being discussed this week. Monday, April 4th Curriculum and Instruction meeting , 4:30-6:30 pm, JSCEE. Agenda Highlights (partial) -  Resolution to Consider Alternative Summative Assessments and Reaffirm Student Opt-Out Rights (Burke)  Brave and ground-breaking resolution (see page 16): Under Resolution No, 2014/15-33 on Use of Smarter Balanced Assessment , The Board of Directors of Seattle Public Schools: -  Asked Congress to support the Elementary and Secondary Education Act -  Supported the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn’s efforts to suspend the use of the Smarter Balanced 2015 assessment scores for any consequential judgment or purpose such as federal school evaluations (Adequate Yearly Progress)   - Called upon the Washington Legislature to reconsider high stakes graduation requirements until we may ensure assessment scores are interpreted and applied appropriately. - Called on Congress to continu

It's none other than Trish Millines Dziko who announced it today on Facebook.   Trish is one of a couple of public education heroes of mine (along with Diane Ravitch.)  About Trish:

Governor Jay Inslee, by taking no action, has allowed the charter school bill, SB 6194, to become law, See the Seattle Times article .

Put up without comment because I know many of you will have your own:

Will you look at that - a school district voted to opt out of all statewide standardized tests .  This was in Lee County in Fort Myers, Florida. The Chicago Teachers Union is staging a one-day strike over funding issues from the state .  Has a familiar ring to it, that wish for fully-funded schools.   Great ad from New Zealand on checking your phone in your car . Show your teens.