Update on Highly Capable Program
The Multidisciplinary Selection Committee (MSC) is reviewing the data from over 31,000 students K-8.
Families will receive an e-mail or slow mail letter this week, letting them know when they will receive their eligibility decisions. We have divided the groups so that our students of color – many with IEP/504s, FRL/MKV and multilingual – are in the first group, receiving decision by April 19 (appeals due by May 3).
All other students, including additional students with IEP/504s, FRL/MKV and multilingual will be in the second group, receiving their letters by May 2 (appeals due by May 20).The following Eligibility Decisions will be made:
HC – Highly Capable
AL – Advanced Learner
CAL – Continued Advanced Learner
NE – Not Eligible
It appears that principals will receive the eligibility decisions when parents do. I'm not sure I love this idea because many principals would tend to discourage their advanced learners from leaving a school. Of course that's all short-term because in a few short years, ALL advanced learners will be remaining at their home schools for K-8.
Question? Are families required to identify their race/ethnicity to apply to HCC? I thought that was optional.
Question? Are families required to identify their race/ethnicity to apply to HCC? I thought that was optional.
Also, "MKV" stands for McKinney-Vento which are federal regulations around homeless students.
Comments
Yes. I think parents of color should take note that the second SPS decided to change their racist way of identifying highly capable students and let more students of color in, that's the second they stopped offering any highly capable services at all. They claim otherwise, but but they're not offering anything different now actually.
Expansive Reduction
* Third year of Foreign Langauge (ENDED)
* French (Rumor is, 2021-2022 is the last year - ENDING)
* Algebra 2 (ENDED)
* Advanced Social Studies (ENDED) and as far as I can tell, there is no differentiation in the general education classes.
* 7th Grade: High School Physical Science with High School Credit (ENDED)
* 8th Grade: High School Biology with High School Credit (ENDED)
* Advanced English Language (ENDED) It's unclear if there is any differentiation in the general education classes.
Here is what Advanced Learning had to say on April 4, 2022.
"Dear SPS family, We know many families have questions about the new Advanced Learning service delivery model and the way their students will receive these services. If your student attends one of our cohort pathway schools, there are no changes to that program. At SPS, we’re focused on honoring and supporting the brilliance of every student, particularly those who are furthest from educational justice. "
Brent Jones, Superintendent (African American)
Keisha Scarlett (African American)
-Reader
Yes, I think segregating sports teams and music groups does injure others as well. When will you advocate for the end of that?
Reader
"Look at the incredible damage HCC has done to the district and the unbridled entitlement bestowed on just a few."
Then you list:
- jazz band - open to all
- name one school that had foreign language only for HCC students
- what "special trips" only for HCC and what school
- what history course was only for HCC and what school
- what science only for HCC and what school
You make many claims with no supporting evidence.
Private testing was/is available for appeal for free for low-income parents.
"Limited to outliers who are actually exceptional." How do you test for that?
That meme of ALL the district's problems at the feet of HCC will not fly. "incredible damage?" Please.
I do agree that there should be retesting at different levels.
Wealthier kids out of neighborhood schools? I know schools in the NE who kept those kids because they had good all-around programs.
Reader
The same district leaders who have effectively ended Advanced Learning also limited total daily class time to 20 minutes a day during COVID because of equity, didn't require students to turn on their computer cameras during COVID because of equity, counted students that logged in to Schoology once a day to be counted as in attendance because of equity, handed out As to everyone during COVID because of equity, and have disallowed homework because of equity. Seattle Public Schools now has a high school where 90% of the students are failing state math standards while the district spends nearly $20K per year per student at the school.
Does the fact that everyone is failing together in a school mean the achievement gap has been closed? Does the fact that Advanced Learning has been ended in Seattle, even though it is still offered in neighboring suburban districts like Bellevue, Mercer Island, and Shoreline mean there is now equity? Does the fact that many district administrators send their kids to suburban schools and local private schools that still offer Advanced Learning like University Prep, Lakeside, and Seattle Country Day mean there is equity? Does the fact that thousands of families have left the district costing the district tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue mean there is equity?
I recently spoke with an African immigrant whose son had attended our neighborhood school's walk to math program before it was canceled. His son later received a scholarship to an area private high school and then graduated with an engineering degree from the University of Washington. I also know three current UW students none of whom could get a STEM degree because of their lack of math backgrounds. All three recently graduated from Seattle Public Schools.
The Superintendent and the Chief Academic Officer are both African American, as is a disproportionate percentage of district leadership.
Those are simply facts. Interpret them as you will.
What isn’t fair for SPS families is to have substandard math and reading curricula. If they do not teach phonetics or direct instruction math, then students are being shortchanged.
Guess that does not ring alarm bells with SPS administrators the way equity does.
Wow. Reader's comments are just viscerally unpalatable. This mentality is what is wrong with the district. And if Reader's opinion is truly "shared by many, many staff" we are indeed in trouble.
Pathetic mentality of knocking down folks for pure optics. The advocacy should be for 'let's get all kids and all schools access to foreign language, music, microscopes, advanced academic opportunities'. Instead we get this diatribe against advanced learning that promotes removing opportunities so that everyone has none. Some equity.
And what strange statements: 'no one needs a gifted high school', 'there is no gifted college.' Seems like Reader is unaware of advanced opportunities in high school ala AP classes. And yes, there are indeed more selective colleges that require more academic preparation. In other words, Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton. Yeah - these are the equivalent of advanced learning.
And it's very telling that such a large school district as SPS sends almost no one to these academically rigorous schools each year - compared to east side public schools, Seattle Schools perform abysmally.
SPS really is aiming towards the bottom of educational opportunities. Take things away from everyone so everyone equally has nothing.
Just sad. So sad for our kids who deserve so much more.
BLUE SKY
There are vast amounts of students that are not able to pass state standards. Teachers will work to bring-up the bottom.
1. state-wide pay scale
2. duty-free lunch period
3. "Pupil segregation according to ability, and special high schools for the extremely gifted if segregation by class in existing schools fails to take care of the problem. 'Effective and foolproof' testing to ensure proper segregation by ability." (quote from page 12 of the Seattle Daily Times, December 11, 1960)
Getting rid of dedicated hicap classrooms will make teachers demand dedicated hicap classrooms. Mark my words. It's cyclical. Just like after enrollment plummets, programs for advanced learners are introduced. Poof! It's like magic. The kids exist. That is the "problem" that needs to be taken care of. Obviously parents already really, really get this.
Educate Kids!
So this isn't really about all of the additional opportunities that HC kids get vs. non-HC. Kids should study things that work for their needs and capabilities, and as long as you aren't taking funds from one child in order to pay for another child's education, I don't see the issue.
I also find the entire "equity" angle poorly thought through in another way. We know that economic disparity exists along racial lines. Those w/ higher economic resources will be able to supplement the education that SPS provides through other means - eliminating HC programs will increase the pain and complexity and cost of educating a child, but for those with economic resources, these are merely inconveniences. But parents of HC children without those resources? They are being failed by the system, and shut out of the opportunity. Who are these parents? Well, based upon overall economic disparities, they will be over-represented amongst disadvantaged minorities.
When we saw that women were under-represented in STEM classes, we didn't cancel STEM classes. Instead, we developed all sorts of programs to increase women in STEM. Thus as a society we attempt to address gender disparities. Yet when the conversation becomes about race, instead of trying to address the disparity, what do we do? Try to eliminate the program itself.
Individual decisions in education should be made based upon the best interests of individual children. Policy decisions in education should be made in order to maximize effective use of public resources - the ROI if you will. SPS leadership isn't really doing either. And for some that will be an inconveniences. For others, it will be a real tragedy.
For example, if a history class is split 50/50 between advanced learners and gen ed, the teacher has twice as much time to help the gen-ed kids as the advanced learners can be “clustered together” and left to work on their own.
As another example, during COVID, at least for a while, there was no class on Wednesday, just independent work time. The teachers would use the time to work one-on-one with those kids that needed extra help.
Another thing the school had our students do was take “group math tests.” Each student had to complete their own test, but they were allowed to help each other, and the teacher would then choose a single test from the group, and everyone would get the same grade. This was a way to get the advanced learners to act as teachers.
You mention programs to target under-represented women in STEM. But the reality is that there are programs to help underrepresented minorities that are advanced learners, but those programs target getting them into private schools that still have advanced learning. In this city, it seems to be an acceptable solution because the rich and powerful frequently send their kids to private schools, and the rich are happy to fund scholarships so that the private schools are sufficiently diverse.