Things That Make You Go, Hmmm

Interesting but somewhat concerning article from the Chicago Tribune about students who take the state's free SAT who then find that the score appears on their transcript (whether they want it there or a not). 

While the test is designed to evaluate whether a student is prepared for college, some parents say it's unfair to rely on just one exam. They note that anything from an illness to anxiety could disrupt the test-taking process, leaving students stuck with a score that could hurt their child's chances of getting into their dream school.

Well, yeah. Some kids take the SAT multiple times.  Some do better on the ACT.  Why wouldn't the student and their parent decide what score goes to admissions offices?   Seems like this could be an opt-in thing rather than a blanket item.

Anyone heard of this for SPS?  
Jonathan Knapp, former head of the Seattle Education Association, is running to be the head of the Washington Education Association.  He has quite the interesting (and impressive) resume.  Sadly, he misspells McCleary as "McCleery,"  And he certainly wastes no words in criticizing past administrations. 

OSPI just released data on student attendance and absenteeism, saying Washington state was recently ranked second-worst in the U.S. for the number of chronically missing students.

For the 2015-16 school year, an average of 16.7 percent of students across the state were chronically absent, which is a 0.7 percent increase from the 2014-15 school year.

“About 21 percent of our students are not graduating high school, and absenteeism plays a huge role in that,” said Chris Reykdal, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

At the Soup for Teachers Facebook page teachers chimed in about health issues students face (with no on-site nurse to deal with them).

Still another comment from Rebecca Vaux:

Also, it would be interesting to know if there's a correlation between this ranking of chronic absenteeism and the rankings of how much states fund public schools.

Ah, the power of the Internet.  Recently three high school student journalists looked into the stated qualifications of their new principal and found some issues.  From the Washington Post:

The student journalists had begun researching Robertson, and quickly found some discrepancies in her education credentials. For one, when they researched Corllins University, the private university where Robertson said she got her master’s and doctorate degrees years ago, the website didn’t work. They found no evidence that it was an accredited university.

The students began digging into a weeks-long investigation that would result in an article published Friday questioning the legitimacy of the principal’s degrees and of her work as an education consultant.

“Everybody kept telling them, ‘stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong,'” newspaper adviser Emily Smith told The Post. But with the encouragement of the superintendent, the students persisted.

On Tuesday night, Robertson resigned.