Friday Open Thread
Please check my update on the Science curriculum adoption; it includes how to give input.
The District is laying off Director of Logistics head for Transportation, Kathy Katterhagen. This from the Seattle Times.
The grants are not available in WA state. One interesting tidbit, though, is this (as we struggle over science curriculum in SPS):
What's on your mind?
The District is laying off Director of Logistics head for Transportation, Kathy Katterhagen. This from the Seattle Times.
The decision stemmed from a budget cut, SPS spokesman Tim Robinson said in an email. There are more layoffs planned in the next fiscal year, he added. Last school year, Katterhagen’s salary was $155,000, according to the state education department.On the issues of the final closure of the Viaduct today:
A major bus-storage base is tucked away in South Seattle next to highways that will be clogged with spillover traffic.Oh look, it's the Gates Foundation (again) trying to make their vast public education spending relevant. From Ed Week:
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest in professional development providers who will train teachers on “high quality” curricula, the philanthropy announced this afternoon.This from a guy whose own kids never had any outside group trying to tell their schools what and how to teach.
The investment, at around $10 million, is a tiny portion of the approximately $1.7 billion the philanthropy expects to put into K-12 education by 2022. Nevertheless, it’s likely to attract attention for inching closer to the perennially touchy issue of what students learn every day at school.
The grants are not available in WA state. One interesting tidbit, though, is this (as we struggle over science curriculum in SPS):
The funding announcement also comes as a number of recent reports conclude that teacher training suffers by focusing on general teaching strategies rather than on how to use a specific curriculum."Traditional male masculinity" harmful to today's boys? From U.S. News & World Report:
A great list of children's books with characters with disability challenges from the blog, Nicole's Learning Lab.The American Psychological Association has zeroed in on the ideology of masculinity, suggesting that parents and psychologists should think twice before instilling elements of "traditional masculinity" in men and boys.Traditional masculinity ideology – which the APA says includes elements of "anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and violence" – can be psychologically harmful to men and boys, the association noted in its 36-page "APA Guidelines for the Psychological Practice with Boys and Men" that's highlighted in the latest issue of its Monitor on Psychology magazine.
What's on your mind?
Comments
https://waospi.instructure.com/courses/34/files/folder/Module%203/Module%203%3A%20Key%20Readings?preview=1558
Here is their webpage with the information about it:
draft strategic plan and feedback form
Topping the list: Racial equity and bringing students up to standard, especially AA male students.
Not a peep on AL
Hella North Seattle families about to blow a gasket.
Honeymoon's over for Juneau.
Long live Juneau!
Popcorn Eater
Unicorn
Not pretty, but at least they're being honest that they really don't care.
titanic
titantic2
Stuck
June
Please note that the district is paying a consulting firm for this work; I'm not really impressed at this point.
Troubled
Welcome back. Thank you for your post.
Is the District trying to become more transparent with regard to the requested input into the Secret Strategic Plan Committee Goals with regard to selection and meetings and membership?
If so, it is a beginning in addressing the transparency of the committee meetings and the inclusion of additional members on the steering committee. Questions remain unanswered regarding who selected the Consulting company and why and how representative it is. Also, there is no mention of the inclusion of the Disproportionality Task Forces recommendations nor the timeline, implementation methods and evaluation. The community needs to know and understand who formed the steering committee and who selected the committee members. All of these questions have been asked many times by community members with no response from the District. The Committee is not representative of many groups such as UNEA and others. Why won't the District answer these questions?
"Earlier this week, someone made off with the wheelchair ramp leading up to a portable classroom at Adams Elementary School. It happened in the middle of the night, and followed a similar theft at North Beach Elementary — one of their ramps was stolen over the holidays."
http://storiesfromschool.org/equity-in-identifying-highly-capable-students/
We are looking for reasons TO identify students, not reasons to deny services.
Because while financially advantaged students can access opportunities outside of school to develop their talent, financially disadvantaged students rely on public education programs to develop their talent.
Newton Seale
LakeCityMom
MK
A wonky article but one about an issue with real effects - how do we count the number of low-income students? From U.S. News & World Report:
https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2019-01-07/why-its-getting-harder-to-count-poor-children-in-the-nations-schools
LM