Seattle Schools and Its Website - Why Can't They Get It Right?
Today was the unveiling of the new look for Seattle Schools' website. I really had hoped - as I do each and every time they tinker with it - that it will be better. You know, more accessible, easy to find pages, etc.
It's not.
I always say that after a website is redesigned, go get someone who has NEVER used it and give them ten areas to find. I can tell that didn't happen this time.
I can say the home page looks more attractive.
However:
- Go to the "Contact Us" page and you find...the physical address for JSCEE (plus links to transportation routes). Huh? At the bottom of the page is the main phone number for JSCEE but no email address. Hit the "Contact Us" at the very bottom of the page and it just shoots you back up. No window appears with a contact form as you might expect.
Where you DO find the form is an orange link off to the side of (hopefully) every page. But having a link at the bottom of the page for "Contact Us" that isn't the form could puzzle some parents, perhaps ELL parents.
- Also on the "Contact Us" page is a link to the "Conflict Resolution" page. Again, huh? Are they assuming that all the contact that parents/guardians need to have with the district is transportation and conflict?
They first ask parents/guardians to read the "Introduction and Policy Statement":
The programs and policies of the Seattle Public School District are intended to foster and enrich student learning and development intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically. To accomplish these goals, students, parents, teachers and staff must all work together. Just as students should behave in the positive manner expected of them by their teachers, parents, and peers, so also must administrators, teachers and other staff treat students and parents fairly and equitably, with respect both for groups of people and for the dignity of the individual. When conflicts, concerns and issues occur, school staff and leadership of Seattle Public Schools will try to identify, investigate and seek resolution and solutions.
To that end, it is the policy of the Board to provide an appropriate process for the orderly resolution of concerns and complaints. As part of such process, the Board and the Superintendent expect that school and site level staff will cooperate in an effort to resolve the concerns/complaint and that all parties will be treated with dignity and respect and that an objective and fair resolution will be reached.
Also, here's the District's "Shared Beliefs" which I have never seen before:
To ensure the entire Seattle Public Schools community is educated or can work in a safe and nurturing environment, we hold to the following beliefs:A belief that a positive school climate built on the principles of "acceptance" and "respect" is conducive to learning and thus allows students or adults to do their best both cognitively and emotionally.A belief that the district has the opportunity to create safe and positive education and work environments through the implementation of policy and procedure.A belief that students, staff, parents, and the community have a vested interest in, and should work together to promote, healthy social, emotional, and learning outcomes.
- And here's a pro tip from the district:
Tip : If you do not hear back from the school leader after your first attempt. Try again. School principals receive hundreds of emails a day and may not see your concern immediately
- And oddly, you don't see anything about COVID on the homepage and you have to scan to the middle of the 2021-2022 School Year page to find out anything.
- I find the School Board page (look under "About", not "About Us" as most other school district websites have) very uneven in how the layout is. And would it kill someone to have used bullet points in explaining the order of speakers at Board meetings?
- Also, is proofreading not part of the revamping service? Because just from my brief search, I see several grammatical errors.
- As well, the use of a serif typeface for headers with san serif for everything else is distracting. (I feel qualified to give input on this as I worked for a book design firm for years.)
Comments
- how many service learning hours are required for graduation?
- will lunches be free for all students this year?
For the first, I hit 404 errors on every link that showed up in the search for 'service learning'. I also got a 404 error when I navigated through the menus to try to reach the 'graduation requirements' page.
For the second, no information about free meals on the 'nutrition services' or 'student meals' pages. (although I eventually found it when I clicked on a link inexplicably located in the Athletics section of the 'Fall 2021 Health and Safety Information' news update)
Deep sigh.
- anonymous
From the district's notification:
"The multilingual feature will go live in a second-phase launch in early fall after usability testing has been conducted with our families who prefer one of our top five languages (Amharic, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese). If you would like to participate in this study, please email us at webmaster@seattleschools.org."
1. The district lives in terror of being accused of ADA violations. This has the counterproductive result of banning many features for the websites that would actually make them more family friendly.
2. The tech department is chronically unresponsive to staff feedback and has little understanding of the actual skills of ordinary tech users.
3. Powerful people in the district make decisions about tech in light of connections and/or deals they have made with various commercial entities. Allegedly.
4. The district's obsession with equity has resulted in a desire to control site formatting across the district. They want the pages to basically look the same for all schools so that a school with a PTA full of software coders does not create a standout site that makes less advantaged schools look shabby. I am not disagreeing with this approach necessarily. However, it also allows the tech department to wallow in mediocrity.
Cassandra