Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Comments
MK
IB students are in a similar situation as AP students - with the added issue of many taking a full load of IB classes. They will be done with testing by the end of May, yet will still need to twiddle their thumbs for another month.
New York City starts after Labor Day.
Most Massachusetts school start after Labor Day.
Philadelphia and Chicago public schools all start after Labor Day in 2019.
Portland Public Schools (OR) start after Labor Day in 2019.
Testing drives the calendar in states with a higher level of lower-income populations, and also states that have attached high-stakes to testing.
-CT
MK
-South End Teacher
Fairmount Parent
@Fairmont Parent, my partner is UW faculty who has reviewed credit-hour requirements, and you misinterpret them here.
In any case, these are state requirements outside of SPS control. My reading, is SPS will look to waive the non-contact days after after Mon Jun 24, and after... As teachers we have to determine how to shorten instruction and that's a challenge, often we are still beholden to high-stakes tests...
-South End Teacher
As South End Teacher has stated this does not help students achievement.
"As a teacher of an AP course, my students start a month behind the rest of the country. Starting at the end of August instead of after labor day wouldn't be a bad thing..."
I agree and wish our calendar year for all our high school students was better aligned to truly help our kids on pathways to college, instead of placing them at a disadvantage. I am curious as to how the high school schedule aligns with running start as well.
Adding to the issue, our only local commutable (no room & board can equal more affordable) in-state university in Seattle UW also is much more competitive than it should be for certain majors such as engineering and computer science.
SPS seriously wants to help their students achievement? They should be doing whatever they can to better align their schedule so teachers and students do not have an unfair burden. They should be helping our local students college readiness.
MK
HP
MK