Friday Open Thread

Teens Take a Stand: Learning about your rights - a program on Friday, April 21st at the Douglass Truth Library from 4-5:30 pm.

We are now in the home stretch for this legislative session but it's a safe bet that the budget will not be done (because of McCleary).  Good point here from WPD Facebook:
Hypocrisy: WA legislature doubling down on unconstitutional funding of charter schools citing "the will of the voters" in 2016, while rescinding constitutional ST3 funding in 2017 that voters passed. We see you and your voting records. Don't you dare rescind the class-size reduction we all voted for. This is getting ridiculous.
Yes, it's amazing when a majority vote is the "will of the people" when it suits the legislature's purposes but when it doesn't, sorry, your vote doesn't matter.


Also in the home stretch is filing to run for the Seattle School Board.  That date is May 19th.  What we know for certain is that Director Blanford will not be running.  Huge opening in that district.  The other two spots up are in districts currently represented by Director Peters and Director Patu.  My read is that Peters is hitting her stride and may want to continue on.  Director Patu has had eight long years (that included the death of her husband, Von Paul) but I get the vibe that the work sustains her and she may run again.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover!  (Of course, with the battles of words about actions between Trump and the North Korean leader, by Monday we may be at war so make it a good, safe weekend.)

Image result for passover images



Comments

Anonymous said…
DeVos Pick to Head Civil Rights Office Once Said She Faced Discrimination for Being White

"Although her limited background in civil rights law makes it difficult to infer her positions on specific issues, Jackson’s writings during and after college suggest she’s likely to steer one of the Education Department’s most important — and controversial — branches in a different direction than her predecessors. A longtime anti-Clinton activist and an outspoken conservative-turned-libertarian, she has denounced feminism and race-based preferences. She’s also written favorably about, and helped edit a book by, an economist who decried both compulsory education and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964."

--No DeVos
4/14/17, 3:29 PM
dan dempsey said…
As we draw closer to a possible middle school math instructional materials adoption (finances permitting) you might like to read my latest analysis of current USA scores and math direction.

Letter to Nasue Nashida
Executive Director of Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession

A Perfect Storm of Data: We Must Take Action
-- by NCTM President Matt Larson

The Elusive Search for Balance - (with some history)
by NCTM President Larson
4/14/17, 10:07 PM
dan dempsey said…
At Brookings and the Brown Center ....

Redefining Accountability

----------
For the last two decades, policymakers have understood “accountability” in K-12 education to mean something very specific: formal consequences for schools and/or educators based on student outcomes (typically test scores). Outcome-based accountability in the form of high-stakes testing has been the primary policy lever used to promote school performance. The Every Student Succeeds Act creates opportunities for policymakers to re-imagine accountability in schools—and not only by incorporating additional measures of student success into outcome-based accountability regimes.

Accountability exists in other forms that are common outside of K-12 schooling. Elected officials are accountable through the ballot box. Bureaucrats are accountable through rules and regulations. Doctors and lawyers are accountable through professional standards. Consumer-serving firms are accountable through the market. In fact, school choice initiatives such as those promoted by the new administration can be viewed as efforts to inject more market-based accountability into schooling. As my co-authors and I discuss in a recent paper, these varied forms of accountability reflect the fact that, psychologically, accountability can be created in several different ways.
-------------------------------------------------------

So what will WA State and SPS be doing in the
Evaluation and Accountability areas,
given that the new law gives a lot more latitude?
4/17/17, 4:31 AM
Lynn said…
I wonder if the board would take their responsibility to ensure that the superintendent enforces board policies more seriously if they were aware of every legal settlement the district makes. The threshold for notifying the board of these settlements should be much lower - think $10,000 rather than $250,000.
4/18/17, 12:23 AM
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