This and That in Seattle Schools

Great news from the SPS website:

Cleveland (2A) and Lincoln (4A) high school’s volleyball teams were awarded the prestigious distinction of Academic State Champions in girls volleyball for the 2024 season by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA). 

These honors, presented as part of the Gesa Credit Union Scholastic Awards Program, recognize the teams for maintaining exceptional academic standards while excelling in their athletic endeavors.

The teams had the highest-grade point average of any team in Washington state in their division. To qualify for Academic State Champion, the teams’ GPAs were calculated by including all students who participated in the sport or activity at the varsity level. The volleyball teams at both schools exceeded the GPA requirements for this distinction, with an average GPA above 3.50.  

Great job, ladies!

School Board

They are having their Board Retreat today, Saturday, Jan. 11th. I had requested the agenda, never got it and it was put up sometime yesterday. I do wonder who the facilitator was. 

Looks like the activity they worked on to find out if directors are "north, south, east or west" in their thinking. The major work is "strategic planning." 

It will be interesting to see who is assigned what committee and if President Gina Topp brings back any previously ended committees. Reading more closely, I see there may be:

- Ad Hoc Policy Manual Review Committee

- Ad Hoc Student Safety Committee

- Ad Hoc Long Term Budget Review and Governance Committee 

Know what? Just bring back Operations which would cover much of this. 

The doc also says that Director Joe Mizrahi and President Topp are the BEX/BTA Oversight Committee liaisons. It's about time. 

Director Sarah Clark will be the rep to the City education programs as well as rep to King County. And rep to the Council of Great City Schools

Director Michele Sarju will be the rep for the Head Start program. She will also rep for the Tribal Nations group. 

Director Brandon Hersey will be rep for the "Progress Monitoring."

Director Liza Rankin will be rep for State and National WSSDA. 

This document also states that sometime in March the Superintendent "provides final interims for new Goals and Guardrails." Meaning, the strategic plan. But it also doesn't say anything about student safety until March. 

Community involvement in this huge task is scheduled for Feb-June 2025. They also talk about forming a "task force" for strategic planning.  

I did speak to President Topp and she said she hopes to introduce a Board work plan (which they didn't have last year). 

The Strategic Planning Process seems to include SSROI - Build System Strategy Return on Investment practices. They state "Support strategy development, monitoring, and improvement by building momentum and district practices around ERS'(Education Resource Strategies) unique SSROI approach." 

What is ERS you ask? Education Resource Strategies is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving urban school systems. 

They are part of a non-profit called Green River. 

Taking school budgeting beyond the spreadsheet and mind-dizzying statistical analyses, School Budget Hold ‘Em makes the “game” of balancing district spending concrete and accessible so that actual problem-solving can get underway faster.

How much is SPS paying for this?  

From the Seattle Special Education Facebook page

From The Arc of King County, their legislative priorities:

- Washington needs to work for all of us. Programs and services must be accessible and prioritize vulnerable individuals.

- Housing is critical.

- People need to be able to USE their services.

- Our education matters!

We're asking legislators to keep the promise and commit to building inclusive communities. 

On education, they mean inclusionary practices, ending isolation/seclusion in schools and reducing use of restraint. As well, they are advocating for the legislature to remove the cap in special education as well as  asking for better pre-school special education services.

From the Washington Autism Alliance (WAA):

Twice-exceptional (2e) students are gifted children who also have a learning or developmental disability:

Giftedness. They have exceptional intellectual, creative, or artistic abilities. They may excel in a specific academic field or have an unusual capacity for leadership.

Disabilities. They have a learning or developmental challenge, such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia.

Challenges. They may struggle with emotional, social, or academic issues due to the way they process information. They may also have behavioral problems due to stress, boredom, or lack of motivation.

[https://washingtonautismalliance.org/.../best.../...](https://washingtonautismalliance.org/.../best.../...)

WAA is doing a Zoom presentation on Feb. 10, 2025 from 5-7 pm on Best Practices Education Guidelines for Twice Exceptional Students

This presentation will include ways to support 2e students:

-How to develop an IEP to offer services to support their gifted abilities and interventions for their disabilities.

-How to create a 2e-friendly testing environment while ensuring that sensory stimuli doesn't interfere with concentration.

-How to involve family members: Family members can advocate for their educational needs and collaborate with teachers and school administrators.

-How to provide enriched learning opportunities: Provide opportunities to develop their interests and talents.

--2e resources for students residing in Washington State.**

On HCC Services

A parent at the HCC Elementary Facebook page put up this information; it's a response to her query. 

Thank you for reaching out via Let's Talk. 

In the 2024-25 school year, elementary pathway schools like Cascadia will serve grades 2-5;

 in the year 2025-26, grades 3-5 will be served, and so on. 

As of today, the phase-out of the elementary cohort model in favor of embedded classrooms is set to continue until the 2027-2028 school year. 

For students in grades 2-4 who participate in the annual Universal Screening (scheduled from Jan 21 to Feb 26), there will be an option to transfer to an elementary pathway school for next school year if they choose, with a transfer deadline of May 31, 2025.

Newly identified first-grade students for highly capable services will continue attending their neighborhood school, receiving services under the Neighborhood School Model. Families were notified about this change on September 18, 2024

 

Option Schools

The district has this article at their website: Dual Language Programs Empower Students with Bilingualism

In SPS, dual language immersion programs are transforming education by allowing students to spend half their day learning in a different language. This approach not only fosters bilingualism and biliteracy but also enhances cognitive skills and cultural awareness. The mission is to prepare students, in partnership with families and community, for global citizenship. 

Research supports the advantages of dual language programs, indicating that kids who are bilingual often exhibit stronger problem-solving skills and higher academic achievement. The program also prepares students for a global workforce, where being multilingual is an asset. 

It's a very "up" article and a bit of a surprise given how the Superintendent's initial plan was to close most Option Schools which would include dual language. I wonder what changed. 

Math

I heard from a reader that an education reporter at the Times was working on a story.

"....about SPS's switch to Illustrative Mathematics as their curriculum for Algebra 1 and 2 and Geometry classes."

"Illustrative Mathematics" refers to a problem-based math curriculum that can be used for high school Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 classes, where students primarily learn by actively solving problems in various contexts to develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts, rather than just memorizing procedures; it emphasizes reasoning, constructing arguments, and using precise language to solve problems."

 I have no idea if this new math is widely accepted nor what it costs. It seems to use a spiral curriculum. The guy who created it, Professor Bill McCallum is at the University of Arizona (my alma mater).

McCallum had been involved in mathematics education throughout his career and was a lead author of the recent national standards known as the Common Core. He started working on Illustrative Mathematics in 2011 as an initiative of the UA Institute for Mathematics & Education, which was funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“People wanted illustrations of the standards,” he remembered. “They wanted sample tasks to help students understand what they’d need to know to meet the standard.”

To that end, McCallum started a project within the university to create a free web resource for K-12 mathematics educators to create targeted, innovative ways of teaching mathematics concepts and skills as defined by the Common Core standards.

Working with Tech Launch Arizona, the commercialization arm of the UA, they developed a plan to move the project out of the university and into the world via a nonprofit startup, where it could have that impact. 

It's been hard to find an objective review of it. Anyone know anything or have experience with it?