Tuesday Open Thread
In a surprising move, the Boy Scouts of America say they will accept any child who says he is a boy (whether his physical traits are a girl's).
Interesting data article from Education Week on policing in public schools. Washington State is on the lower end for number of police in schools and the percentage of arrests at schools. However, Washington looks to be in the middle for the number of arrests. The numbers on who gets arrested the most are quite interesting; take a look.
Thoughtful op-ed from the New York Times about how lower income students could receive more encouragement to push onto college via direct messaging, counseling and texting.
The number of homeless children in Washington continues to climb to nearly 40,000.
It looks like it may be a clear night to see the moon, Venus and Mars to form a triangle.
Interesting data article from Education Week on policing in public schools. Washington State is on the lower end for number of police in schools and the percentage of arrests at schools. However, Washington looks to be in the middle for the number of arrests. The numbers on who gets arrested the most are quite interesting; take a look.
Thoughtful op-ed from the New York Times about how lower income students could receive more encouragement to push onto college via direct messaging, counseling and texting.
The number of homeless children in Washington continues to climb to nearly 40,000.
It looks like it may be a clear night to see the moon, Venus and Mars to form a triangle.
Bottom line: As soon as darkness falls on January 31, 2017, see a beautiful trio – the moon, Venus and Mars – gracing the evening sky. Look west!What's on your mind?
Comments
--No Devos
NPR just reported that DeVos used - without attribution - several statements from other sources including the Obama administration. Goes to integrity.
After waiting for hours, large numbers of people testified in favor of the levy cliff bill. It is not scheduled for executive session to be voted out of committee. Meanwhile, 5607 is scheduled for executive session today.
Deirdre Gregg
EdVoter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_GecU2348
Betsy DeVos appears to have plagiarized
-McClureWatcher
Watch the video from PBS of the Senate Education Committee Hearing on Betsy DeVos:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/watch-live-betsy-devos-confirmation-vote/
-L
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/trump-education-secretary-pick-squeaks-through-committee-may-face-senate-fight/
The deeply divided U.S. Senate Education Committee on Tuesday agreed to send to President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. education secretary, billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos, to the full chamber for confirmation, but comments ahead of the vote show DeVos faces choppy waters ahead.
-McClureWatcher
1. Mercer Island School District: median house sold for $1.32 million in 2016
2. Bellevue: $939,750
3. Issaquah: $775,555
4. Lake Washington: $770,000
5. Bainbridge Island: $740,000
6. Seattle Public Schools: $635,000
7. Northshore: $589,950
8. Snoqualmie Valley: $575,000
9. Vashon Island: $539,475
10. Riverview (East King County): $529,000
SPS is hurting my resale value. Knock it off.
IDBH
Liza Bo
PSED crackheads
here is what Eva Moskowitz had to say about Betsy DeVos:
Why we need an outsider like Betsy DeVos.
-- Dan Dempsey
How Trump’s refugee order targets educational injustice
Public schools beleaguered by waves of refugees will get a breather thanks to President Trump’s executive order suspending refugee entry for 120 days. And under Trump’s new policy, when the US reopens its doors to refugees, local communities will be consulted. .....
Until now, refugee children have been placed in districts with little or no advance notice. Arriving from countries like Congo, Burma, Somalia and Syria, they speak no English and bear the signs of trauma from their ordeals. They need interpreters, counselors and attention. But often they’re placed in the poorest school districts — which can least afford them.
The above impact on schools sounds similar to the decades long WA State situation in the lower Yakima Valley. Many districts were overwhelmed by the impact of Hispanic students. Districts who could least afford them. Yet our state continued to kick the McCleary can down the road.
I watched as Toppenish School District's schools were the most rapid to move up the ladder of "needs improvement levels". Then they got the mandated unproven experimental "school turnaround models", which were completely inadequate for the task at hand.
A recent study of 409 pages by US Dept of Ed concluded that $7 Billion spent on Turnaround Models improved nothing.
In 2015-2016 Toppenish 6th graders SBA results showed in math 6.7% meeting standard in English Language Arts 15.9%. In our State 6th graders in math 49% met standard and in ELA 57.6% met standard. In Seattle 6th graders in math 64.3% met standard and in ELA 68% met standard.
Is anyone arguing that the Washington State Constitution's requirements in regard to education are being met in Toppenish? Increased funding would help, but it will need to be accompanied by the intelligent application of relevant data.
-- Dan Dempsey
I think that connection between SPS quality and resale value may not be accurate.
Consider the US News ranking of top high schools in WA State, HERE
Of the top 20 high schools in the state can be found:
#6 Roosevelt
#7 Garfield
#9 Ingraham
#15 Ballard
-- Dan Dempsey
Public toilets
My very talented children have dark skin and after touring Hamilton Middle School I don't want them in the HCC program as it is so unrepresentative and I don't want them in the classes with "regulars", as I heard them refer to themselves. I was completely shocked by those comments coming from children and equally shocked by the difference between HCC classrooms and general education.
Sulky kids texting vs. excited actively participating kids.
SPS has areal problem if they want attract families with highly capable children ith brown skin.
Atlanta Falcon
-GH
How does this help your argument?
FWIW
Many kids who test into HCC have had very strong early childhood experiences, which is where the real problem occurs disadvantaging black children in Seattle. They come to school reading etc. In addition to the barriers Charlie has mentioned with SPS system of nomination etc.
Private schools on the other hand, are likely skewed with 30% of Seattle's affluent and upper middle class students due to cost of attendance. Who is remaining in Seattle Public Schools? Some are affluent or middle class. But there are others who likely cannot afford private even with aid, they may miss the FRL threshold. Nobody measures economics along a spectrum just FRL versus not qualifying. Private schools are not subject to the same level of scrutiny. They do not report socio-economic data (FRL) and and "ethnic diversity often means primarily Asian students.
-HY
Details?
Maybe more to your intended point, do AL classes get the "best" teachers, as some claim? No. They get the same mix of teachers as any other classes in SPS - mostly good, some great, and some who simply should not be teaching. It sometimes seems principals assign weak teachers to AL classes because "the kids will be okay, they're smart." But let's not get into the business of who has it worse. Deficiencies abound in SPS and some families have more resources to deal with those deficiencies, but maybe not enough to jump ship and go private. And not all private schools are equipped to handle students working years ahead - they generally aren't equipped to handle special needs of students on either end of the spectrum.
"fact" checker
Betsy and inflated numbers
-- Dan Dempsey
In the following charts by clicking on the tabs for federal, state, local spending for the nation, I learned a lot.
Pie Chart
Percent of spending on schools by agent =>
Federal 3% of spending to education
State 18% of spending to education
Local 37% of spending to education
So those are current national averages for Education, which likely includes more than k-12 education.
Hard to miss that Local 37% and State 18% for national average.
Clearly the current interpretation of the WA State Constitution by our Supreme Court sees this spending pattern as a non-starter for Washington.
So now after so many years will things radically change for 2018?
-- Dan Dempsey
National norms already applied to you, apparently (although local norms, in a fair world, would also apply to highly educated clusters and be around 1%), especially since SPS uses a neighborhood school model and most Seattle neighborhoods are already segregated by SES, etc.
David Lohman (author of CogAT) stated in one of his most recent articles that he was creating a formula for districts to use to make local norming easy. I haven't seen his results yet but I'm sure the AL office at SPS can access that information.
Leaving your neighborhood school for HCC because you couldn't afford Kumon is not the issue at hand when discussing scoring norms.
FWIW
Details
Sounds like a great idea. I'm sure nobody would complain about disparate access to advanced learning in that case. At least it would keep Bryant's 98th percentile kids in an environment that's more diverse than an HCC school.
Fix AL
Snarky and unpleasant. We all know you don't believe in gifted ed and mightily dislike AL but that statement is not helpful.