Franklin High Students Asked to Sign "Convenant"
This apparently happened yesterday and the reactions are quite interesting. The document is below this text.
From the Soup for Teachers Facebook page:
- Meg Richman I teach at Franklin. This was clumsy. It is a part of an initiative to focus on the achievement gap that hurts African American students the hardest. There was an assembly to get buy-in from the kids for an extra push on everyone's part. Lack of foresight about how it would be received, but it came from an honest and caring place.
Teachers BTW were not consulted.
Really? The district and schools don't know this is a sensitive issue and aren't clearly thinking these things out?
- reaction at Facebook
KT Jones But that's the inherent problem, right? Good intentions are great but the actions are damaging. This letter sends the message that black parents don't know how to prepare their students for college. It is beyond insulting and it is a crying shame that the teachers were not involved in the decision. There could have been outreach from the teachers to the community to ask the parents if they needed support and what they needed support with. Instead they were left with insinuations and degradation.
Odetta Owen Exactly. I can't grasp the mindset that says this is helpful or respectful. On the eve of a BLM event where families and PTSA's were not invited to collaborate with the District and SEA this is bad timing and shows lack of insight. While I believe the words that intentions were well placed I am worried about the lack of understanding possessed by the decision makers. Equally disturbing is the consistent pattern of attempting solutions without inviting parents/families to the table.
Ms. Owen is right... for so many issues, not just the opportunity gap. This district has a real habit of believing they know best and it seems to backfire a lot.
From 100 Black Parents:
So there is a letter/agreement given to African American Students at Franklin HS that is being shared tonight. After talking to some folks and getting MORE BACKGROUND and CONTEXT here is what it is: 1) The letter that is being shared is being taken out of context. 2) It is not from the PRINCIPLE (sic) but rather a part of an overall program: Keeping It 100: GET SMART that is seeking success for STUDENTS OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR and 3) It is just one of MANY Community Partners in the building (see List) 4) If you are a PARENT IN THE BUILDING have not seen this paperwork, then you need to be more involved in the building or at least call the school to see what's going on. The program CLEARLY seeks to involve BLACK PARENTS by asking them to check their child's grades in the Source. Once again we prove that we are the BEST at being #REACTIVE but have a ways to go in being #PROACTIVE
This is all fine and well but again, the principals and the district should be working together and if there are outside partnerships, everything should be vetted thru the district.
- KING 5 story
From the Soup for Teachers Facebook page:
- Meg Richman I teach at Franklin. This was clumsy. It is a part of an initiative to focus on the achievement gap that hurts African American students the hardest. There was an assembly to get buy-in from the kids for an extra push on everyone's part. Lack of foresight about how it would be received, but it came from an honest and caring place.
Teachers BTW were not consulted.
Really? The district and schools don't know this is a sensitive issue and aren't clearly thinking these things out?
- reaction at Facebook
KT Jones But that's the inherent problem, right? Good intentions are great but the actions are damaging. This letter sends the message that black parents don't know how to prepare their students for college. It is beyond insulting and it is a crying shame that the teachers were not involved in the decision. There could have been outreach from the teachers to the community to ask the parents if they needed support and what they needed support with. Instead they were left with insinuations and degradation.
Odetta Owen Exactly. I can't grasp the mindset that says this is helpful or respectful. On the eve of a BLM event where families and PTSA's were not invited to collaborate with the District and SEA this is bad timing and shows lack of insight. While I believe the words that intentions were well placed I am worried about the lack of understanding possessed by the decision makers. Equally disturbing is the consistent pattern of attempting solutions without inviting parents/families to the table.
Ms. Owen is right... for so many issues, not just the opportunity gap. This district has a real habit of believing they know best and it seems to backfire a lot.
From 100 Black Parents:
So there is a letter/agreement given to African American Students at Franklin HS that is being shared tonight. After talking to some folks and getting MORE BACKGROUND and CONTEXT here is what it is: 1) The letter that is being shared is being taken out of context. 2) It is not from the PRINCIPLE (sic) but rather a part of an overall program: Keeping It 100: GET SMART that is seeking success for STUDENTS OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR and 3) It is just one of MANY Community Partners in the building (see List) 4) If you are a PARENT IN THE BUILDING have not seen this paperwork, then you need to be more involved in the building or at least call the school to see what's going on. The program CLEARLY seeks to involve BLACK PARENTS by asking them to check their child's grades in the Source. Once again we prove that we are the BEST at being #REACTIVE but have a ways to go in being #PROACTIVE
This is all fine and well but again, the principals and the district should be working together and if there are outside partnerships, everything should be vetted thru the district.
- KING 5 story
One parent, Timika Anderson, said her 17-year-old daughter brought the form home two weeks ago. Anderson said her daughter was upset that the form was passed out only to black students. A similar form was sent home for their parents to sign, but the words “African American” were left out, making the form appear to be more general.
Parents and students tell us African American families were invited to an assembly after school to explain what the staff is doing to improve graduation rates at school.
The principal, Dr. Jennifer Wiley, declined an interview with KING 5.
Seattle NAACP President Gerald Hankerson said the covenant, on its own, is particularly troubling in the way it appears to put the onus on the student, not the school.
"The problem is, if you're going to have straight talk and a conversation with these families and these kids, but you're not willing to admit your failures as an institution, that's where the problem begins," Hankerson said,
Late Tuesday, Seattle Public Schools released a statement, that read, in part, "After meeting with senior students, Franklin staff discontinued the covenant as it proved to be a distraction from their original intent which is to increase efforts and support for African American students and ensure college readiness."My question is - who's on first? How does the district allow this kind of mistaken thinking to happen?
"In addition, a parent/community advisory group is under development to increase the school’s collective wisdom, inform their practices and build capacity to reach the goal of 100% of African American students college ready."
Comments
~(former)Franklin Parent
Notsurprised
I like Jennie and I was on the original committee that hired her into the district, as a principal for Summit-K-12, ( actually I voted for someone who was much experienced, he had been a superintendent for a district in Eastern Washington, but the fact that he also was a minister, although I was confident that wouldnt be a concern, seemed to throw the others on the hiring committee- but he reminded me of Mr Rogers- who also had been a minister) Who would turn down Mr Rogers?!?
But, I did feel that she cared about the students, however she made multiple very bad decisions during her tenure at Summit, that affected many students. Some might have even gotten her fired in another district.
It's a shame.
She has always felt strongly about Franklin, in fact her resume that we recieved from the district, named Franklin as the achool she wanted to work at. But frankly, I attributed her earlier issues to youth and inexperience, but 15 + yrs later, it sounds like she is not learning from her experiences.
who will go to Lander first?
THIII or Jennie?
Fire Nyland
Second, yes, this "document" is not good and I don't get why someone didn't think it thru.
Third,we don't name-call so that last comment is gone.
Hmm who says that a lot....
- Left of Center
You should be fired Melissa.
namecaller
As for me being fired, there aren't a lot of benefits to this work but not having a boss or funders is one of them.
- Name Called
And, for the most part, this blog is a place for free expression that you will not get almost anywhere else.
I have never said I was a journalist - I'm a citizen-reporter. (As for investigator, I actually did do a brief stint as that.)
Trying to learn about "New Media"
Then we have blogger.. of which many have claims to fame. Andrew Sullivan is one, Erick Erickson and others whom have made successful forays into Television journalism and some print medium.
And you are who exactly?
- Name Called
If you don't like their point of view or the other people who comment here, you are free to not come here. You are also free to create your own blog and distribute your own information.
Momof2
I am just really surprised/concerned that there is not more activism on this blog on this matter. Thank you for posting about it originally, Melissa and Charlie.
Reader
This pledge - without the words "African-American" - could have gone to every student. And, if it had, it would have been recognized as worthless, meaningless, lip service and ignored completely. By including the race-specific language and distributing it exclusively to the Black students, it is recognized as not only worthless, but stereo-typing and derogatory. Yay team!
Aren't all of the items in this pledge already listed among the Student Rights and Responsibilities?
I will note that Senator Murray and other legislators have allowed me into their events (indeed Murray's office secured a press pass for me to go to an event for President Obama) and former Mayor McGinn allowed me into press conferences (I only went to ones that had some relationship to schools.) But Mayor Murray does not allow me in nor will the press office answer any questions. I guess it depends on who is in office.
This issue this week around allowing media into any school event around Black Lives Matter day was not just me - it was everyone. But you'll see from the Friday Open Thread that Ann Dornfeld at KUOW asked Highline SD and she got a powerful piece from it.
Name called, move on. I don't have to explain or justify my work to you or anyone else.
https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/reardon%20whither%20opportunity%20-%20chapter%205.pdf
But additional research shows that the gap varies between whites/blacks depending upon where they live. So in affluent cities (Seattle comes to mind), the gap between blacks/whites is wider. This is likely because whites are richer in these cities. Important research with wide implications for small town, rural America, small cities versus large rich cities.
"Richer places have bigger achievement gaps than poorer places, all else being equal--which is quite striking and disturbing, since you'd hope that those places that have the most resources would be most effective at reducing the gaps, but in fact they seem to have the largest gaps," Reardon"
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2016/04/achievement_gaps_school_segregation_reardon.html
-NW
In richer places people dive more expensive cars and live in more expensive homes.
Some people work for a living, perhaps they might have started out mowing lawns. In other places people take end-less government handouts all the while complaining. They never seem to take any responsibility for their own situation.
Broken record
-Always learning