Friday Open Thread
Three times in a decade - yet another Washington State teacher has been named nationally as the Teacher of the Year. Congrats to Mandy Manning, a teacher at Ferris High School in Spokane.
Hale showed the film, Mostly Likely to Succeed, during mentorship time yesterday. Mostly Likely to Succeed is a documentary about an unconventional high school that uses what they call "creative problem solving" to teach students. It has had its critics.
I'll have a longer post but the Colorado Democratic state assembly passed an amendment that was basically a kiss-off to DFER Colorado (Democrats for Education Reform). I'm pushing for the Washington State Dems to follow suit.
There's a GoFundMe for a girls running club at Lowell Elementary.
The district's Annual Family Survey is out; don't forget to take it.
Community Meeting with Director Eden Mack on Saturday at Magnolia Public Library from 11am-1pm.
What's on your mind?
Manning joins Jeff Charbonneau (2013) and Andrea Peterson (2007) as the third National Teacher of the Year from Washington state in the past decade.Batter up! Good news for SPS kids via SPS Communications:
In addition to teaching English and math to refugee and immigrant students, Manning also coaches fastpitch and girls basketball, advises the writing club, and co-advises the Gay-Straight Alliance.
Manning regularly hosts new teaching candidates, district leaders, school board directors, and legislators in her classroom to experience an inclusive environment and her student-first attitude. As a National Board Certified Teacher, Mandy is an ambassador and facilitator who encourages and guides fellow educators to connect with students and to continually improve their practice.
Thanks to a special partnership and gift of new equipment, this spring, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) elementary students will be learning the fundamentals of bat and ball sports and the positive character skills that go along with playing as a team.
The Fun At Bat program will equip all of the district’s K-5 physical education (PE) teachers with a Franklin Sports equipment kit, a pack of Fun At Bat books focused on character development and digital access to standards-based lesson plans co-developed with SHAPE America.Fun At Bat, a USA Baseball youth initiative which is supported by Major League Baseball, is a bat-and-ball program for all children created for use in elementary school P.E. classes. The overarching goal of this program is to promote fun and active lifestyles for children, while teaching them the fundamental skills of bat-and-ball sports. The program also includes a literacy component and teaches character traits such as leadership, teamwork and fair play.
The Seattle Mariners have invited all of the district’s K-5 PE teachers to Safeco Field for an afternoon of training followed by special activities during the April 18 game against the Houston Astros. The Seattle Mariners are the first MLB club to have created such an opportunity for their local school district.Thank you, too, Seattle Mariners!
Hale showed the film, Mostly Likely to Succeed, during mentorship time yesterday. Mostly Likely to Succeed is a documentary about an unconventional high school that uses what they call "creative problem solving" to teach students. It has had its critics.
Ted Dintersmith a venture capitalist who bankrolled the movie is problematic.
https://seattleducation.com/I'll have a longer post but the Colorado Democratic state assembly passed an amendment that was basically a kiss-off to DFER Colorado (Democrats for Education Reform). I'm pushing for the Washington State Dems to follow suit.
The Democratic Party in Colorado just told an
influential group of school reformers to pound sand — and went so far as
to ask the group to stop using the word “Democrats” in its name.
I note that the head of national DFER is scheduled to speak in our area next weekend at a charter conference in Sea-Tac.At their 2018 state assembly last weekend, Colorado Democrats first booed Jennifer Walmer, head of the Colorado chapter of the national Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), an influential political action committee. It is supported heavily by hedge fund managers favoring charter schools, merit pay tied to test scores and restricting the power of teachers unions.
There's a GoFundMe for a girls running club at Lowell Elementary.
The district's Annual Family Survey is out; don't forget to take it.
Community Meeting with Director Eden Mack on Saturday at Magnolia Public Library from 11am-1pm.
What's on your mind?
Comments
New parent
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/guest-essay-how-the-right-approach-to-math-can-reduce-the-achievement-gap/
HP
The M-F school week is driven by the typical M-F work week, and in that sense it's partly to serve as convenient childcare. Remember the complaints during the teacher strike? They were primarily from parents who needed to find alternate childcare. Same with opposition to the bell time swapping--parents were mostly fine with the idea that school schedules should align with teen and child sleep schedules, except for when those educational priorities got in the way of their childcare needs.
If kids had shorter school days and/or shorter school weeks and less stress and more time for sleep and more time for--and equitable access to--extracurricular and enrichment activities, I think they'd be better educated.
Old parent
There were many other reason people didn't like the bell times than childcare.
Also, please don't give the SPS an excuse to teach LESS. Unless you want an extra week day to pay for tutoring (that would be money well spent). Finland has a national curriculum with extensive teacher training and oversight. That is how they do more with less.
SPS has a gift for doing less with more. I've sat through enough Superintendents to believe that little will change. Despite the valiant efforts of Melissa, I believe SPS is poised to become a classic troubled urban public school system as the city of Seattle grows larger.
-Sad&Tired
sunny
Seattle Lifer
- NP
The amount of supplementation we provided outside of school was outta control. We dealt with the unfortunate combination of EDM, CMP, and Discovering Algebra/Geometry. I tutored middle school students who had not learned standard algorithms or mastered their math facts. Is it any surprise that some schools are closing the gap by providing explicit instruction? Remember the Mercer miracle? Rainier Scholars is fortunate to have Nutting as a volunteer - your loss, SPS.
soapbox
New parent
Is Singapore sending out very many deep probes and creating GPS networks?
sunny
PacMan
OMG he wrote "man", where's my confort duck!
To make matters worse, a committee spent two years revamping science and math alignment. Other districts did not go through such disruptive changes. I'm not confident the district has the dollars to effectively implement this change.
Ted Nutting has been advocating for better math for years. UW science professor Cliff Mass also sees poorly prepared students when they arrive at the University of Washington. Many cannot go into a chosen field of science because they just do not have the math skills.
Please, new Superintendent, figure out what works with curricula. Stop forcing Discovery Math on students who cannot do advanced math problems until they become advanced math students. If they do not get the basics down, they never get there.
S parent
Research please
Ms. Louis
UWer
If that is the case, then Cliff Mass should produce the data. Opinion is not enough. Where’s the math in this opinion? Saying it is known what math classes students have taken does not correlate with knowing the methodologies used etc. Anecdotes are insufficient evidence and no credible academic institution would ever stand behind them.
Research please
Dr. William Hook of the University of Victoria did studies in Calif. school districts some years ago. He noticed stunning performance improvements for students who switched to Saxon math. Significantly, the teachers needed less special training and it worked as well for economically disadvantaged students as it did for high performing ones.
Those were the days of Terry Bergeson, our State Superintendent, who advocated for Everyday Math. We may have replaced those textbooks, but advocates of discovery math live on, to the detriment of our students.
S parent
UW is the most selective college in Washington State. It rejects 20,000+ applicants each and every year, from all over US and all over the entire globe. It is completely free to set its standards as high as necessary to get the best possible incoming classes. UW is absolutely free to reject even more students as it has an incredibly crowded campus. It is free to accept even more high paying, highly qualified international students to maintain its standards. After being given the liberty to admit the highest caliber of students, we still find whiny professors like Cliff Mass and UWer. The actual JOB of the faculty at UW includes teaching these high caliber students that the UW had already deemed highly qualified. Evidently these professors are not skilled at teaching, which is part of what they are paid to do. We do not need these prima donnas to whine about students, or malign previous teachers, or make excuses for their own deficits by pointing fingers at K12 education (an area for which they are not qualified). We do not Research from Cliff Mass, we need him to do his real job as a public servant.
Man Up
This is mostly about financial aid & other structural changes to help students graduate, but it does talk about the differences in students now vs earlier years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-college-students-are-changing-why-arent-our-higher-education-policies/2017/06/06/1fc0e37c-3678-11e7-b412-62beef8121f7_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6dd7dace3122
CT
Cliff Mass is not a whiny professor. He is someone who has seen too many students unable to progress in science careers. They do not have sufficient math skills to be successful.
The last few decades have seen a rush to fad math — the discovery approach so popular with many educators. Those of us whose children suffered through it did not find it effective. Solid math teachers like Ted Nutting are professionals we should listen to.
I remember when former UW President Mark Emmert said we were importing outsiders for the best technical jobs in Washington State and our grads would be washing their cars. Unfortunately, Emmert and many educators did not fix the structural problems with our math curricula. We are still waiting.
S parent
When my son started at Ballard High School some years ago, his math teacher said there were much better textbooks than what they were using. The more I learned about math practices, the less confidence I had in the central office at SPS. I do have confidence in current Director Rick Burke, who gets math.
It would be great if the new superintendent studies which textbooks work best in the numerous schools in the district. Why don’t they do this?
She should also talk to people like Cliff Mass and Ted Nutting. They have much to share.
S parent
Not sure the point of the bit about “underrepresented” minorities. African Americans are barely represented on the UW campus, so pretty hard to make a generalization about a special diversity pedagogy. And Asians seem to be doing great in the sciences. I don’t see a need for a prescriptive pedagogy driven by UW.
Man Up
Blah Blah Blah.
This gives me more time for walkouts and tending to my comfort duck.
Sweet Pea
For example, my husband was in the machine tool industry for years. Many young workers cannot do basic math and are unable to get these jobs. It is the K-12 math curricula that holds them back. Students who have English as a second language or students with ADHD are especially stumped with discovery math and its reliance on word oriented English problems. It is a complex and stupid way to learn math.
Saying math wars have raged for decades is a cop out. Give students the best way to succeed. The school district has a responsibility to examine the curricula, and they have fallen down on this for years.
S parent
Man Up
What you describe as the “data,” Cliff Mass has, is not a peer reviewed and approved study. Nor does it have any relevancy to the math instructional philosophies students have experienced. Claiming that Cliff Mass has data available is disingenuous and neither he nor any other professional instructor should be giving it credence. For all we know the students taking his tests have had traditional skills and drills and infinitum. In addition if Cliff Mass is profiling students based on their high schools, then aspects of personal bias raise their head and warrant investigation.
Research please
Approximately 25% of students in our school have been identified as needing Tier 2 intervention support during core math instruction.
This is a high percentage of struggling students in any school, but particularly so for a school where more than half the children in grades 3-5 are HCC or Spectrum students.
What is the intervention plan for struggling students in SPS elementary schools? At our school, there is none.
Without any math intervention support staff, we must ensure that our core instructional practices are consistent across the building and maximize student growth opportunities.
Fairmount Parent
Yeah, because as a UW student you have to complete a certain number of high level math to even apply for that major.
You know what we also don't hear about? All the students who WANTED to apply for that major--or any other that requires higher level math--but who were unable to apply or get into their desired major. Or any of their desired majors. Because they lacked the math skills and had to settle for something else.
If we required good grades in high level math for all UW majors, we'd probably have a lot more drop-outs.
Also, UW is not really all that selective. The bar is not as high as you think--especially for WA residents. Part of the reason for the high rejection rate is that our state university system is too small for our population. Oh, and as our flagship university, UW does need to accept a large percent of in-state applicants--even if that means many don't have the necessary math skills yet.
Adds Up
Man Up
--Future Beaver Parent
We do NOT name call here. If that's your flavor, go elsewhere.
FYI, UW is building a new computer science building right across the street from the "old" new CSE building. UW is listening to the demand for more computer science classes.
I go with smugness over either. Its the Seattle way!
-Very Seattle
KL
KL
Discovery math techniques may work for graduate students who have already mastered fundamental math skills. It is a recipe for disaster in K-12. Students deserve to learn during the school day without having to rely on outside math tutors or online programs. Neither is a substitute for effective training while they are sitting in classrooms.
Dismissing students as duds ignores the real struggles they face with inadequate instruction. If enVision math is not effective then the school district should determine a better curriculum. They should also ask UW professors like Cliff Mass and others what skills are lacking so they can include this instruction at appropriate age levels.
S parent
We hear a lot about helping get ELL kids into the AL programs yet we don't want them to learn English with their maths? Non Sequitur.
Wigner
Research please
Foolish article in the ST today IMO. Undoubtedly added by the ST to promulgate a math controversy against Ted Nutting's article. Its a shame that the media can't be about solving problems and conveying information but is instead about stirring up gladiator games for entertainment. In this article a software designer peddling her "math learning" games (COI) states bluntly that "Math is not computation." Next time you step on an airplane, please take a moment to appreciate how much computation went into the design and building at that aircraft. Feel free to wonder why the original home city of Boeing cannot educate its own kids in math.
I believe S parent hit the nail on the head that inadequate instruction is a key issue. Often non-math proficient teachers are corralled into teaching math. Stripping the math of its computational core can make it easier for non-proficient teacher to deliver the material. My kids' math learning and performance was very teacher specific as they came up through the SPS. When placed with an inexperienced math teacher their MAPs scores plummeted 40 points. That recovered when they lucked into a highly proficient teacher.
BasicTools
I read one study some years ago from a state that evaluated several types of math textbooks. They found that even accelerated students were at a disadvantage with discovery math since it took so long to complete the problems. They enjoyed the classes more, but they could do less math.
Please teach math in math class.
S parent
1. more emphasis on math facts
2. more repetition/practice
3. less group work
4. less writing about math solutions
5. less reliance on calculators
Old-School Math