Garfield Football Game To Receive Extra Security Tonight

From our friends at the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog:
The reaction was widespread, divided, and intense last week after the entire Garfield High football team voted to kneel during the national anthem for the rest of its season as a silent protest against racial injustice.
While many were supportive, backlash against players, coaches, and the school was in some instances extreme and threatening as news of the demonstration spread nationwide. Seattle Public Schools does not publicly address safety issues concerning specific students or staff, but a spokesperson said the school and Seattle Police are taking precautionary measures during Friday night’s game.
“There will be increased SPS safety and security presence at the game,” said SPS spokesperson Luke Deucy. “SPD will also increase police presence at the game.”
Garfield is playing Chief Sealth tonight.  I would hope no one would want to harm students playing a football game. 
One interesting item is the team's list of "concerns:"
  1. Equality for all regardless of race, gender, class, social standing and/or sexual orientation – both in and out of the classroom as well as the community.
  2. Increase of unity within the community. Changing the way the media portrays crime. White people are typically given justification while other minorities are seen as thugs, etc.
  3. Academic equality for students. Certain schools offer programs/tracks that are not available at all schools or to all students within that school. Better opportunities for students who don’t have parental or financial support is needed. For example, not everyone can afford Advanced Placement (AP) testing fees and those who are unable to pay those fees, are often not encouraged to enroll into those programs. Additionally, the academic investment doesn’t always stay within the community.
  4. Lack of adequate training for teachers to interact effectively with all students. Example, “Why is my passion mistaken for aggression?” “Why when I get an A on a test, does the teacher tell me, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could pull that off.’”
  5. Segregation through classism.
  6. Getting others to see that institutional racism does exist in our community, city, state, etc.
 I had thought that there was a way to help pay for AP testing fees for low-income students; I'll have to ask the district.

And, I'm not sure what "the academic investment doesn't always stay within the community" means.  I'll try to find out. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
"Getting others to see that institutional racism does exist in our community, city, state, etc." Ok I see it,right on the football field!

These kids have taken way too many blows to the head. Why am I paying for this? Time for SPS to consider cutting tackle football.

Luke
Anonymous said…
And it only took one post to validate the reason why we should all follow the lead of these young men and start honest conversations what we can do to begin to dismantle the racism that pervades our society and limits the greatness of our country.

-Applauding
Joe Wolf said…
Snared by friend Shannon Braddock on her Facebook: The Garfield team discuss the reasons behind their action. Powerful words.

http://www.principaltedhoward.com/2016/09/2016-garfield-high-schools-football-team-statement/
Anonymous said…
Brave and wise kids. Hope this spurs substantive conversations.

- seafarer
seattle citizen said…
Bravo for these students asking for necessary conversation. As seen in the first comment, there are still too many who dismiss...with sad insults...the voices of youth and the community.
Luke, have you no ability to discuss? Or are you merely an attack dog who looses himself on children?
Unknown said…
Luke, I imagine you as a person who owns and carries a personal copy of the US Constitution in your pocket and professes your love for it-- except for the parts you would like to repeal. Interesting that when Black Lives Matter stages a big, messy protest everyone like you says something like, "I agree with your right to protest, but why can't you do it peacefully?" Then when a peaceful, quiet demonstration materializes you criticize that. Bravo to these brave guys for exercising the freedom of expression guaranteed to them in the laws of our great country.
Anonymous said…
I think Luke was referring to the concussions football players get -- in other words, Why am I paying for this dangerous sport, not Why am I paying for kids to protest.

Careful Reader
Anonymous said…
There's a photo of the Garfield football team in this week's issue of Time. -TeacherMom
Anonymous said…
At Hale, AP test costs are covered for F/RL students. I would bet that is true at the other high schools. Also, I thought AP classes were open to all.

HP
Anonymous said…
Yes careful reader, thanks for explaining the harm of concussion on Garfield football players and their actions. Real science at work.

escapism
SusanH said…
HP: yes, AP classes are open to all, as are honors classes. There is no tracking in high school.
z said…
And to be very clear, at Garfield as well, AP classes are open to all, and honors classes are open to all. Contrary to what many of the "honors for all" proponents would have you think.

Of course you need to have the pre-requisites - you can't jump from Algebra I to Calculus - but that's the case at every school. If teachers are discouraging kids from taking honors/AP classes, that's their own damn fault, and they should be reprimanded for that. Instead, we're getting one-class-fits-none.
I should ask the district about paying for AP test fees for F/RL. I was under the impression they were paid for (or had a deep discount.)
Anonymous said…
Judging from the statement put out by the GHS football team, it seems that not everyone feels that these classes are open or available to all. - CH
Anonymous said…
From the team's list:

Academic equality for students. Certain schools offer programs/tracks that are not available at all schools or to all students within that school. Better opportunities for students who don’t have parental or financial support is needed. For example, not everyone can afford Advanced Placement (AP) testing fees and those who are unable to pay those fees, are often not encouraged to enroll into those programs. Additionally, the academic investment doesn’t always stay within the community.
- CH
Anonymous said…
Googling leads me to forms on the sps page (that download so I cannot link) that say AP test fees are paid for if you qualify for FRL, or at least were in 2014-2015. I can find this on the Roosevelt and Cleveland websites but not Garfield, though I can't see why it would be different there. Disappointing if it is.

I would like to hear more about the academic investment not staying in the community. Is that about hcc pathway students? So they don't want students from outside the neighborhood in their school? Or is it students from the neighborhood leaving if they have been invested in? Who is doing the investing- the district or the neighborhood surrounding Garfield?

And as always all the classes of all kinds were and are open to all; shame on the Garfield teachers if they have put up barriers unnecessarily. Maybe the football players are talking about another school.

-sleeper
Anonymous said…
Interesting adult responses here.

The big picture is that the team has made a statement about inequity
in their lives that they perceive, feel and experience.

The focus here has turned on some specific details that adults know about, but
apparently not all students know.

If a student is low income, but not FRL, does the fee get waived? Does
the perception that the FRL students have to pay come from the experience
of these students that their low income classmates are not in the fast tracks?

Just because Honors and AP are, on paper, open to all--is this the reality? In
other words, the reality to the students is who they see and sit with in class,
not what the handbook says.

The desire and know-how to enroll in an AP class entrance is usually a culmination of years of preparation. High school is the end point.

Are you seriously blaming Garfield teachers for this? When they tried to mitigate the problem by having Honors for All, many people on this blog went wild. Now you're saying "Shame on them" for not doing it school-wide. Never a dull moment.

Fixating on these details is completely missing the team's spirit and desire to address their experience of inequity. Teammates do not like inequity. It's against the team spirit.

Ignoring their real-life experiences by focusing on a few details is a textbook
example of minimization.

FWIW
Anonymous said…
No, I am blaming them for apparently not counseling their students in an appropriate way, if students who should be in honors classes are counseled into regular classes and vice versa, which has led to the honors for all mess. I think there should be honors and ap classes, and teachers should not erect unnecessary barriers and should instead help students find the right classes. I think that would go a lot further toward educating students than having all high school students do reading logs regardless of what they actually need. It looks like the team also feels teachers don'the know how to interact with them, in point 5.

But I don't think the football team is talking mostly about 9th grade honors for all language arts and social studies. Melissa is right about AP fees, which is why I led with that, and I wonder why that is not common knowledge when this issue has been so charged this year. That seems like pretty low hanging fruit. I understand most of their list, but I would like to hear more about the academic investment part. That could mean a lot of different things.

-sleeper
Anonymous said…
Those who have the most preparation are already on track for those classes!

Honors for All is an attempt to increase the preparation for AP and Honors
once they get to Garfield. It's the only chance many of those formerly regular track
students have to get academically prepared for AP, which is a main goal of this approach. They are trying to make AP the "right classes" for more students by preparing them--after getting them their first year of high school and after years of
getting further and further behind have already piled up.

"Counseling" a student to take a class that is a culmination class, without preparing
and/or providing needed supports for them for it, would be professional malpractice.

It is pretty clear that the team's statement is much more holistic than your focus.

They are looking at the big picture, which they identify as systemic. They are not in
the mindset of keeping a program viable until their child graduates and moves on.

FWIW
Lynn said…
Why weren't the teachers of regular 9th grade English classes willing or able to prepare their students for AP classes in the past? What has made that possible now that they're in classes with more prepared students? Are 9th grade reading logs good preparation for AP classes?

Anonymous said…
The football team does not trust the teachers to interact with them, which is reason to trust the recent program changes even less. We have not heard from many parents who've had students in both yet, but so far it doesn't sound great. Parents of black students have asked for more black students in honors classes- specifically not the eradication of honors classes.

Most of my first post was about poor FRL information and community academic investment. I hope someone else will come along who would like to discuss the issues I'd hoped to draw out. But for now I think I've engaged with you enough on your hcc/honors for all fixation.

-sleeper
Anonymous said…
If reading logs may be helpful to some students in the class, then what's the problem? Just because it seems "insulting" to some parents and their kids, what's the harm in writing down a few numbers? I'm sure that's not all they are doing in class.

As far as blaming the teachers (again)...given the vitriol they've experienced with Honors for All, it would have been easier to maintain the status quo. What makes you think they haven't been "willing"? As far as "able" goes, research is very clear that putting chronically low achieving and underprepared students in the same self-contained classrooms will not lead to academic improvement.

This is about so much more than 9th grade Honors for All and AP fees.

A little team spirit from the parents would go a long way. The beauty of the football team's response has been that they are looking beyond their own self interest and addressing the big picture to help create positive change.

Go Bulldogs!

FWIW
Anonymous said…
Well FWIW, reading logs are just beneath our gifted students, and 5 minutes is too much to ask.

Ironically, silence from the blog on one accountability measure for high achieving students: National Merit Semifinalists. These were announced last week. Despite the claims that our gigantic HCC participation is due to an extremely gifted population in Seattle - Garfield could only come up with 10 National Merit Semifinalists. All those 1%ers - and that's it? If our population in Seattle requires a "gifted cohort" - then why does that cohort underperform compared to non-gifted schools like Bellevue High and Newport High? Maybe that's why reading logs are necessary.

reader
Lynn said…
Accountability measure? What is wrong with you?

I'm not surprised by the results. If I were new to the area, I think I'd move into the Newport High neighborhood. The district is well-organized (no culture of desperate lurching from one academic cure-all to another there), Newport offers a really wide variety of advanced classes and the teachers appear to focus their energy on academics rather than social issues.
Anonymous said…
You know, in graduate school we also kept "reading logs" - that's how we tracked our data collection, research, sources etc. Getting in the habit of recognizing your work and improvement over time is a powerful tool regardless of what field you choose to go into. -CH
Eric B said…
This is anecdotal and several years ago, but one of the things that turned us off from Garfield was a teacher telling us that because my daughter had not been in APP at Hamilton, she would probably not be able to get into the 9th grade oceanography class. If honors for all can eliminate that kind of BS, then I'm all for it.

My kids are avid readers and hated reading logs. Eventually we asked them to enter reasonable if not exact page numbers.
Anonymous said…
Why does the gifted cohort "underperform" when it comes to National Merit Semifinalists? In my opinion, the district as a whole underperforms. Instead of asking why we need the cohort, I'm left asking why the cohort is so poorly prepared. Look at the PSAT/SAT content for some clues.

Readings are taken from historical documents, classic literature, journals, etc., and performance is correlated with being well read. Students who have been given a steady diet of quality literature and have read Great Expectations or period writings from the likes of Mary Wollstonecraft, for example, are more likely to do well on the exam than those reading simplistic modern literature or watered down history texts (I'd place Zinn in that category).

The Writing section requires a command of basic grammar rules, many of which are simply not taught in SPS. It's material students should have mastered in middle school.

The math sections do not require anything beyond Algebra 2, and is mostly content HCC students would have had in elementary and middle school. What does SPS use to teach this core content? CMP, Discovering Algebra, and Discovering Geometry. One weak math text after another. All students are left poorly prepared to do well on what are very basic math problems. The science curriculum is equally challenged, and does not provide students with enough reinforcement of math skills, or familiarity with a broad range of content.

Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum. When is comes to PSAT/SAT, the middle school curriculum is just as important as the high school curriculum.

I'd be interested in knowing how many of the NMSF are actually in the HC cohort - RHS certainly had a high number this year.

-st
Anonymous said…
I have noticed that the decrease in Garfield NMSF's is almost perfectly mirrored by the graduation of the first IBX cohorts from Ingraham. I agree with st that the HC cohort, and all the students in the district, are poorly prepared by the district's choice of curriculum. A few distinguished teachers buck the system but they do so at the risk of provoking SPS administrative backlash.

-SeenIt
Cap hill said…
As an FYI, the PTSA at Garfield has funded all requests not only for AP exams, but also for online course retrieval. Every year we ask the counselors to provide a list of who needs support, however I'm not sure that process goes so smoothly.

+1 to the Garfield football team for exercising First Amendment rights. Clearly to Doug Baldwin's point a thorough review of police procedures is warranted.

-1 to Garfield administration and teachers for poor professionalism in rolling out this HFA mess, for broken promises and lack of accountability. Note that the teachers promised quarterly checkins with the PTSA. The PTSA asked for 2 sessions explaining HFA and were rebuffed (although the teachers did do the 100 Black Parents event). School promised 9th grade parent orientation and it was cancelled, and likely won't be rescheduled.

Total lack of accountability in Seattle schools.
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
I'm trying to understand the GHS principal operating a website not overseen or vetted by SPS.

-odd
So I personally am not trying to minimize anything. I am trying to find a student on the GHS football team to ask for clarification on some issues.

On the issue of who takes honors and AP, I did ask a Garfield teacher about this issue. I was told that some students of color don't like being the single student of color in these classes. When I asked about teachers encouraging groups of students that they know can do the work/benefit from it, the teacher demurred and said he/she wasn't sure.

That would have been my go-to try first before the major overhaul that Honors for All is. I would have talked to all the teachers about who they believed would benefit from these classes and think about incentives/supports to get them into them.

Reader, I sometimes miss things. It's a tsunami of reading articles every single day. That "silence" was simple oversight.

Because that didn't happen, I have to wonder - again - if this is about academics or more about social justice.

Also, do NOT insult children. This "reading logs are beneath our gifted students" is unkind to say about children. This is a warning to all readers.

Odd, I did ask your question to the Board. Haven't heard back but they be asking their own questions.

Maureen said…
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Eric B, Oceanography has a Biology pre-req, so a 9th grader would need to have taken 8th grade Bio to request Oceanography (even then, not all students may get in). A 9th grader couldn't enroll in Algebra 2 without having taken Geometry in 8th. It doesn't mean they are forever blocked from taking oceanography (or Algebra 2), but they need to have taken the pre-req first.

9/26/16, 9:23 AM


(Anonymous, pick a name.)

That is baloney. Garfield wouldn't let TOPS kids go into Oceanography once APP started teaching Bio to 8th graders even though TOPS' three year science curriculum was miles ahead of standard SPS science (including 9th grade Bio) and was particularly strong in marine biology. Just total baloney. My oldest was in the last cohort that was allowed to pass out of 9th grade science at Roosevelt. Thank goodness Ingraham is willing to look at the individual kid to determine placement (or at least was four years ago) so my kid #2 was able to skip 9th grade science. I know Eric B's kid, she would have blown away the other APP 9th graders in oceanography. Instead, she was able to blow them all away in every science class at Ingraham.
Anonymous said…
Washington's cut score for the PSAT is low already compared to CA, so where are these semi-finalists that should be part of this extraordinarily gifted student population in SPS?

It's just not true, that's what. Seattle has gifted kids like everywhere else, but 15 or 20 per cent of some northend communities are "highly capable"?

I'm barely capable and I was a semi-finalist back in the day, in Cali no less!

HCC is a joke, a privileged, entitled program for smug Seattlites who don't see anything wrong, ever, in the huge gap between the races or the classes, but, and this always kills me, they will always accuse the district of trying to bring down the test scores of the HC to close the gap!

And now it's the districts curriculum to blame for low PSAT scores!
Get real, people, get real.

Blackberry Broken
Anonymous said…
@ Eric B - We encountered the same thing with Oceanography. My child was coming from a private middle school, had had Biology, and was told she might get in - in 11th grade. Priority was clearly going to the APP kids.

@ Melissa "On the issue of who takes honors and AP, I did ask a Garfield teacher about this issue. I was told that some students of color don't like being the single student of color in these classes. When I asked about teachers encouraging groups of students that they know can do the work/benefit from it, the teacher demurred and said he/she wasn't sure.

That would have been my go-to try first before the major overhaul that Honors for All is. I would have talked to all the teachers about who they believed would benefit from these classes and think about incentives/supports to get them into them. "

I appreciate the thought, but the problem with this approach is the ad hoc, random nature of this approach. What other schools provide, and what GHS is now trying to do, is institutionalize academic opportunities and supports across the board.
-NP
Anonymous said…
Odd, I think district employees should be allowed to have personal websites (maybe not with his job title in the name, and it should be a little more separate from his school), but I agree it is odd this is going on in a regime where teachers are not allowed to express any negative sentiments to parents about standardized tests, no matter how they feel.

I've also been thinking about the poster supportive of the BLM t-shirts, and teachers expressing their views on BLM. I'd like to be supportive, but then do I need to be just as supportive of the anti gay marriage teacher who wants to bring that up during health class? Or the anti-abortion one? It's hard to find the balance between letting teachers be who they want at school and recognizing the unusual power they have over these kids.

-sleeper
Outsider said…
People often don't see the meaning of events as they happen, and the meaning becomes clear only in retrospect. I think that is true with the national anthem protest.

It's been a long time since my last anthropology elective, so please forgive the loose vocabulary, but standing for the national anthem might be called a "ritual of solidarity." I admit that as a snooty, anti-war secular humanist, I have always felt uncomfortable with the ritual myself. But I always went along because rejection of the ritual is not a small deal. Rejection of the anthem essentially says there is no solidarity. I could imagine African Americans would say the apparent solidarity has always been fake, a mere pretense; it never included them; and they have nothing to lose by refusing to pretend any longer. I don't fault the Garfield team at all. But it's a bigger deal than people realize. The way anthem rejection has swept the country suggests not just a personal choice of some people to protest, but signs of a social turning point.

What comes next? You can't create a bargaining chip for your side by refusing to stand for a song. In the end, no one cares if you stand or not. When it comes to wrangling over policy, no one is going to give ground just so you will stand for a song. On the contrary, the more people perceive that all pretense of solidarity is gone, the more their mindset will shift to pure bargaining. Your standing for a song is of no concrete value to anyone else. The anthem protest won't move anyone who wasn't already on their side, and won't get them anything. So how can they ever stand again? Perhaps the next phase is actually to just stop playing the anthem at Garfield home games, and they can kneel at away games forever.

Again, I am not trying to criticize or complain. The Garfield team's actions are quite reasonable as an adaptation to a sweeping social change that seems set to happen anyway.

This blog (which I love and read faithfully) is "fighting the last war" headquarters, but sometimes you can get a glimpse of the future. Such as the remarks about NMS semifinalists above. SPS plies its students with fluff teaching and junk materials, and then when they test badly, the PC crowd comes out to say ha! we told you so -- they were never smart to begin with. If that argument has a familiar ring, it should. It's almost exactly what African Americans have always accused the system of doing to them. Scratch "E Pluribus Unum"; our new national motto could be "Turnabout is fair play." There is no pretense of solidarity any more; just increasingly hostile communities negotiating co-existence, with plenty of trash talk on the sidelines.

Progress from here is not trying to persuade people to stand for a song. That's irrelevant; that's over. Progress from here is accepting the new reality and trying to create a healthier and more honest bargaining environment.
Anonymous said…
Blackberry asked, where are these semi-finalists that should be part of this extraordinarily gifted student population in SPS?

It looks like an increasing number of them are choosing Ingraham.

National Merit Semifinalists IHS vs GHS

2010: 3, 18
2011: 2, 22
2012: 2, 15
2013: -, 19
2014: 10, 11
2015: 6, 7
2016: 11, 10

While WA's PSAT cutoff is lower than CA's, it's still one of the higher cutoffs, maybe in the top 10 highest states.

My oldest was in the last cohort that was allowed to pass out of 9th grade science at Roosevelt. I thought Roosevelt was currently allowing students to take the next course in the sequence based on middle school courses taken (though I'm not sure what happens for students entering from private school).

It drives me crazy that different schools seem to have different placement policies. There should be a district wide policy, with some limited discretion given to principals. Middle school math placement has the same issues.

-parent
"What other schools provide, and what GHS is now trying to do, is institutionalize academic opportunities and supports across the board."

NP, what schools are you talking about that already have higher rates of students of color in their AP classes (save Rainier Beach?) And helping a core group of students of color in an AP class would also be institutionalizing academic opps and supports. And, would have been easier and cheaper to implement.

Bravo, Outsider! All of this is indeed part of a big social earthquake.
Anonymous said…
For the above NMS stats: Do not know how many HCC students went to Ingraham this year. Perhaps someone can note. But it does not matter to some extent. HCC did not accurately post enrollment information for Ingraham, families thought they had automatic entrance and fought for it and so an unusually large HCC cohort went to the school.

Downtown did not wish for Ingraham to be an automatic enrollment choice for HCC, only an option choice. After their mistake last year and admit everyone they have already said the coming year HCC admittance will not be a given. Ingraham or downtown, do not know which, has been cagey on how many HCC students can go to Ingraham. Is it a number? A percentage? People will need to know before this year's enrollment as demand has apparently exceeded supply of seats.

That means the rest of HCC will go to Garfield or neighborhood schools. It is another reason the true high school enrollment crisis is difficult to track; no knowledge of where these students will go.

A separate issue but related to non-information from SPS: Also unknown is whether the NMS awards, which often lead to healthy academic scholarships, are relatively low because students take the ACT v PSAT/SAT. Some statistics would be nice. On the face of it, the number of NMSers within SPS, whether HCC identified or not, is unimpressive.

CapacityWonk
Anonymous said…
Ingraham has been an unguaranteed option since the IBX program began 4+ years ago. Downtown/enrollment has just never tried imposing a cap until last year (Why? It's not really clear). The program has done its job of minimizing capacity pressures on GHS and RHS. IHS had every reason to believe those opting for IBX would be enrolled, hence the surprise by both IHS and parents when students were not given an IBX assignment. On top of that, for some students the assignment did not default to GHS, as per the assignment rules. Some were enrolled at their neighborhood school rather than the default HCC pathway of GHS. I'd like to hear district rationale for capping IHS IBX enrollment when GHS, RHS, and BHS are bursting at the seams.

Don't all SPS high schools administer the PSAT to sophomores and juniors, free of charge? NMSF need to complete an application and take the SAT to become finalists, but that happens after the PSAT is taken.

-grapevine
Anonymous said…
"If that argument has a familiar ring, it should. It's almost exactly what African Americans have always accused the system of doing to them."

Using the fact that some have stated that it's unlikely that 20% of some Seattle schools have gifted children, and turning that into an equivalence with the history of African Americans ("accused the system"?): legally forbidden literacy; subject of "scientific" eugenics that "proved" they were intellectually inferior after they were allowed literacy; separate and unequal schools...is absolutely stunning.

From the football players: "Academic equality for students. Certain schools offer programs/tracks that are not available at all schools or to all students within that school. Better opportunities for students who don’t have parental or financial support is needed."

They are in high school and know that opportunity and access are the keys. Opportunity includes support. Yeah, there's change occurring. Rev. Dr. William Barber calls it the "Third Reconstruction", a moral and justice movement, as opposed to "a big social earthquake".

The attempt to turn the most privileged in this district into victims on this thread isn't passing the vomit test.

FWIW
Anonymous said…
The ACLU has addressed the issue of teachers wearing politicized T-shirts:

Can I wear items conveying political or religious opinions in the classroom?
...a court has ruled that a school may ban teachers from wearing buttons supporting a current political candidate, as this could be considered “disruptive.” Courts have also upheld discipline for teachers wearing T-shirts with political messages or slogans. The same rule applies as for classroom decorations or displays: it is best to avoid any appearance that you are advocating a particular religious or political view.

SPS administration, however, seems very supportive of teachers wearing BLM T-shirts (John Muir), so it seems doubtful they would be disciplined. Could teachers wear T-shirts saying "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter?" Very unlikely. And that's the issue. SPS administration seems okay with a less than impartial climate, as long as it skews in the direction they support. And who would challenge them?

https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/free-speech-rights-public-school-teachers-washington-state

...getting back to the demands of students - would they like to see Cleveland STEM go away, or no longer have IB at Rainier Beach? These are options not available at all schools. What about biotech at Ballard? Should Nathan Hale not be allowed to have their radio station? Where does it end? Or are they instead asking to raise the minimum level of core offerings at every school?
Outsider said…
FWIW, it's hard to travel logically from the football players' vague but vaguely reasonable statement to your personal obsession with cutting back the education of HCC students you deem unworthy. OK, the amount you want to take away from those students is (at least for now) small compared to what was denied to African Americans in the past. But still, reducing the education of children from other communities seems to be an essential part of your program. You consider that a "moral and justice movement," and I think I understand why, but you will have a hard time selling it.

The way I read the winds that blow, the future won't hold any further rounds reconstruction. The future holds fragmentation and deconstruction. You insulting people in blog comments strikes me as more confirmation than counter-evidence.
FWIW, could you please stop with the throwing up/vomit comments? There are many ways to show disgust without getting graphic.

Yes, there are differing programs at schools and, when the enrollment process was redone, we were all promised "Open Choice" seats to access those programs. But nearly every high school does have some kind of specialty so in that way, there is some equity. As well, every comprehensive high school has AP courses (almost the same number at each high school except those with IB) that are open to all students.
Anonymous said…
That the HCC is the most victimized group in SPS is arguably true.

1. Almost no exposure to FRL students.

2. Effectively no exposure to black and Hispanic kids.

3. No exposure to academically challenged kids.

4. Less neighborhood kids.

5. Long bus rides.

6. Stigmatized

The district is messing these kids up for life. I would never put my HC kid in the cohort as it is now.

It amazes me that people think it's something special. It's got huge drawbacks.

Lorna
Maureen said…
I think Blackberry's point deserves some attention. I was a National Merit finalist FINALIST (eons ago of course) and I went to the crappiest little Catholic schools you can imagine. I learned no trig (because Sr. Regina didn't like it.) I took not a single AP exam. I just read a lot and was a meticulous sort of girl.

National Merit Semifinalists are the top 1% in any state. So if we have, what is it now, 2, 3, 400 juniors identified as HCC (top 2% right?) then half of them should be semifinalists. Nothing they learn at Garfield or Ingraham should make any difference in their test scores. I guess you could blame it on the crappy math curriculum in middle school, but they would have had three years to learn that basic material before they sat for the PSAT. (And how many years do HCC kids spend with CMP?) Either a huge percent of them don't care (I can see that) or our way of identifying HCC students is not robust.

@parent, I should have said "test" out of 9th grade science, not "pass" out of it. Of course, the teacher proctoring the exam didn't choose to give any of the kids a periodic table so they had to do the chemistry part from memory, but 5/6 of the TOPS kids passed anyway (the 6th was just a point or two short, but decided not to complain.)
Anonymous said…
I was also a finalist, 20 years ago, in California. That was basically the dark ages and tells us nothing relevant about kids in Seattle today.

Could be this is the aha moment. Or it's top 2% in different ways(iq and appropriate curriculum needs vs ability to take a general information test), of different populations (public school students vs juniors of any kind who take the psat) and maybe the psat is even more socioeconomically biased than whatever problems our hcc tests have. There are a lot of possibilities. I am glad we don't use it as an accountability measure. I do wish we had some measure of hcc success, and I wish it was growth, on out of grade level tests. NMSF numbers just seems blunt and designed as a gotcha as a measure, especially since it's competitive.

I do think you can tell from this that more advanced students are staying in neighborhood schools, frustrated with Garfield, and IB isn't for everyone. Unless that Roosevelt number is a one off. Very curious to see the 9th grade hcc numbers this year, and wonder what they will be like next year.

-sleeper
Anonymous said…
Lorna,

Are you saying that HCC was considerably more diverse in past years? This is how I read your comment "as it is now". Did you have children in HCC in during the years that Robert Vaughan ran the program? You speak as if you have a great deal of experience with the program yet, almost without exception, your statements run counter to our personal experience (no busing, more diversity in HCC than our neighborhood school, lots of exposure to kids with considerable psychological diversity and academic struggles - some on the autism spectrum).

-Interested


Anonymous said…
It seems fairly simple. HCC participation rates of 20% in many neighborhoods, are in the top 2% "nationally", or 10X more gifted than national norms. We hear over and over about how it isn't surprising that we smarties here in Seattle produce many more super-gifted children than average. Yes 10X national norms is completely reasonable for us. Why then does HCC - produce so few national merit semi-finalists - year after year? In fact, as a percentage of the total district population, it looks like the NMSF numbers are declining significantly from the combined total of IHS and GHS, and from SPS overall. In 2010 those schools produced the same number of NMSF as today - but there are 7,000 more students in SPS, and probably twice the number of gifted high schoolers. What is going on?

Yep. They all take the PSAT. And then they go on to take the ACT and/or SAT. Those are irrelevant to NMSF standings which is purely based on PSAT. But it's still obvious. You can private test your way into HCC, and take the CogAt a million times at a million venues. But when it comes to the PSAT - you get what your real standing is, on your second run through. Maybe, just maybe - the 20% aren't actually in the top 2% nationally after all. Could it be? And, it seems pretty clear that the program isn't really producing results for all of those gifted children who we are told absolutely MUST MUST MUST be in a segregated cohort or they will shrivel up and not progress. Afterall - the PSAT materials were totally mastered by HCC students way back in elementary school according to ST - even now after the results are in.

reader
Rufus X said…
Getting back to the original post, titled “Garfield Football Game To Receive Extra Security Tonight"

I’ve spent a fair amount of time monitoring social media re: Garfield Football team taking a knee during the national anthem. I’ve read some very vile, ignorant, moronic, sometimes violent comments from those who’ve re-posted the story since it went national. Once it hit pages like “Locked and Loaded”, the Christian Defence League (look them up) and Fox and Friends, the antagonists came out of the woodwork. Lots of “little $hits”, “entitled brats”, “ship them off to China/North Korea/Middle East”, “Draft them”, etc. My least favorite comment was “My wish is a bullet to the back of the head – every one. F*** them all.”

I was quite nervous prior to attending last Friday night’s game, thinking there may be some nutjob who’d show up to make a point. Instead, I saw:

A team & coaches who took a knee during the national anthnem.

A cheer squad who also knelt during the national anthem.

A band that stayed seated during the national anthem.


A vast majority of GHS parents/fans who also remained seated during the national anthem.

(Kudos to all who followed the courage of their convictions, whether it involved kneeling or standing.)

And then the game went on.

The two schools' bands joined together to play a couple of songs, including a smokin’ 8 minute version of “Do Whatcha Wanna”. It was a good night.
I think we will end this discussion here as yes, it has gotten off track.

One thing about the times we live in now - it's very reactive and cutthroat. For or against.

Makes it hard to have a civil discussion.

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