This and That, October 18, 2026
Update - if you cannot follow the blog rules - which have been stated over and over - I will not print your comment. Give yourself a name/moniker.
There was a story in the South Seattle Emerald about the Community Passageways Safe Passage Program. Beyond the updates on a program that SPS uses, I read some good questions.
One,
At the most recent meeting, parents asked about shelter-in-place and lockdown drills, in the wake of a shooting on Sept. 24 that left a man wounded on 42nd Avenue South. One parent expressed concerns about reunification sites and the possibility of a shelter-in-place order occurring when children were outside while the shooter was inside.
"I know that [with] shelter in place, if kids are on the playground at lunchtime, they do the drill there, but what happens if a bunch of kids are on the bus? And if the lockdown situation is happening because there's a call for a firearm inside the building, is it the best plan to go into the building?" the parent asked.
Jesse O'Quinn, emergency management specialist at Seattle Public Schools, said he would review the school's campus to provide an answer. "You can reach out to your staff at the school, and they will also help you know where, in case something happens, we are going to reunify. And we even have secondary reunification sites," said O'Quinn.
I do recall a situation at Roosevelt HS where something occurred around lunch, the building was locked down and kids were streaming back to the school from lunch. The kids didn't know where to go and for how long.
Two,
At the start of the school year, every school must provide a site plan for reunification sites.
You might ask to see the site plan at your student's school.
The bus contract issues were settled at the beginning of October so those buses will keep rolling.
I will have a separate post on this topic but there is chatter on Reddit from Portland where the specter of school closures is looming. Last week, hundreds of parents stormed a school board meeting.
From the Oregonian: "The room typically holds about 300 people, but the crowd forced its way inside to hear hours of testimony from parents, students and teachers.
Portland Public Schools on Monday unveiled two potential scenarios for a wave of school closures, boundary changes and program shifts that would fundamentally reshape the district, directly impacting students, teachers, staff and families at up to 42 of its 81 schools."
One parent brought up some intriguing ideas:
- prioritizing keeping school communities together.
- giving families in closing school multiple options for school enrollment.
- offering popular option school programs (dual language, highly capable, ESTEM, etc) at some of the newer large elementary schools.
Also, many studies show districts don't save much AND closing schools is harmful to kids.
Still another issue - Brent Jones kinda kicked the can to Shuldiner on redrawing school boundaries. That needs to be addressed soon.
Superintendent Ben Shuldiner had a lengthy interview with the rightwing Washington Policy Center. I have not yet listened to it but here you are.
The Board has a "special" meeting this Wednesday, the 21st at 4:30 pm in the JSCEE Auditorium. It is on "Academics and Goals."
Looking at the presentation I see that middle schools and K-8s will share a math coach among other schools in their region.
There is also a "Graduation" versus "Graduation Plus" definition.
"On-time graduation is the baseline expectation. Graduation Plus ensures that students have demonstrated that they are ready to succeed after they graduate."
Seattle Public Schools is transitioning from Naviance to SchooLinks in 2026-27 to make high school and beyond planning more meaningful for students.
There are quotes from some adults and one was:
"This is so much better than Naviance. I am so glad we made the switch."
– Ingraham High School
Remote Access:
The meeting will be live streamed on SPSTV and broadcast on television on Comcast 26 (standard-def) and 319 (hi-def), Wave 26 (standard-def) and 695 (hi-def), and Century Link 8008 (standard-def) and 8508 (hi-def). To listen by phone, dial 206-800-4125 and use Conference ID 734 207 653#.
Portland Public Schools on Monday unveiled two potential scenarios for a wave of school closures, boundary changes and program shifts that would fundamentally reshape the district, directly impacting students, teachers, staff and families at up to 42 of its 81 schools."
One parent brought up some intriguing ideas:
- prioritizing keeping school communities together.
- giving families in closing school multiple options for school enrollment.
- offering popular option school programs (dual language, highly capable, ESTEM, etc) at some of the newer large elementary schools.
Also, many studies show districts don't save much AND closing schools is harmful to kids.
Still another issue - Brent Jones kinda kicked the can to Shuldiner on redrawing school boundaries. That needs to be addressed soon.
Superintendent Ben Shuldiner had a lengthy interview with the rightwing Washington Policy Center. I have not yet listened to it but here you are.
The Board has a "special" meeting this Wednesday, the 21st at 4:30 pm in the JSCEE Auditorium. It is on "Academics and Goals."
Looking at the presentation I see that middle schools and K-8s will share a math coach among other schools in their region.
There is also a "Graduation" versus "Graduation Plus" definition.
"On-time graduation is the baseline expectation. Graduation Plus ensures that students have demonstrated that they are ready to succeed after they graduate."
Seattle Public Schools is transitioning from Naviance to SchooLinks in 2026-27 to make high school and beyond planning more meaningful for students.
There are quotes from some adults and one was:
"This is so much better than Naviance. I am so glad we made the switch."
– Ingraham High School
Remote Access:
The meeting will be live streamed on SPSTV and broadcast on television on Comcast 26 (standard-def) and 319 (hi-def), Wave 26 (standard-def) and 695 (hi-def), and Century Link 8008 (standard-def) and 8508 (hi-def). To listen by phone, dial 206-800-4125 and use Conference ID 734 207 653#.
Comments
* 435 White 8th graders failed the state math test—and the Board's 5-year goal is to reduce that number from 435 to 433.
* The School Board now claims Asian students—who currently score slightly below White students in math—have the largest math deficit in the district and should be scoring 86%.
* 313 Hispanic 8th graders failed math, more than double the 143 Asian 8th graders who failed—yet the Board says Hispanic students need less than half the improvement of Asian students.
* More than 1 in 5 Native American seniors don't graduate on time each year—and the Board set their 5-year improvement plan to be more than 1 in 5 Native American seniors still not graduating.
* 379 disabled 8th graders (76% of those tested) failed the state math test and 432 disabled 3rd graders failed the state reading test—and the Board's 5-year goal is for just 2 more disabled 8th graders to pass math and 1 more disabled 3rd grader to pass reading across the entire city by 2031.
* 429 English-learner 3rd graders (70% of those tested) failed the state reading test—and the Board's 5-year goal is for just 2 more English-learner 3rd graders across the entire city to pass reading by 2031.
* Seattle's "urban" benchmark for Black 8th-grade math comes from Glendale, California—where 18 Black 8th graders took the test and 7 passed.
* The District's racial targets make zero adjustment for socioeconomic status, disability, language, or family circumstances.
* Under federal ESSA law, Washington State sets the same 90% standard for all racial groups—instead, the Seattle School Board set a different standard for each race.
* The Board's policy report states these racial targets are used to determine "where additional supports are needed," the plan directs schools to turn them into "priority student groups" and "adult actions," and the District's 2026–27 Gold Book budget instructions direct principals to allocate staffing, books, and intervention materials to achieve "racial equity goals" for "targeted student groups."
* Under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, prioritizing or treating students differently based on race is illegal—a failing Black student, a failing White student, a failing Hispanic student, a failing Asian student, and a failing Native American student must be prioritized and treated no differently based on race.
* This plan was presented by Superintendent Ben Shuldiner and approved 7–0 by School Board members Gina Topp, Evan Briggs, Joe Mizrahi, Liza Rankin, Kathleen Smith, Vivian Song, and Jen LaVallee.
Can you please share the URL?
And are these bullet points or your summaries or your interpretations?
Thanks,
SP
Working Dad
You wrote: "Can you please share the URL? And are these bullet points or your summaries or your interpretations?"
My analysis is based directly on the numbers and data included in the District's Board Action Report, "Approval of Revisions to Board Policy No. 0020, Goals for the District," which was approved 7–0 at the August 26, 2026 Regular Board Meeting:
https://seattlepublicschools.community.diligentoneplatform.com/document/c2bda6e0-2085-43e9-9c6b-818bdbc6612d/
It is also based on the October 21, 2026 presentation titled "Academics & Goals." The staff listed on the presentation are Ben Shuldiner, Superintendent; Dr. Mike Starosky, Assistant Superintendent of Academics; Cashel Toner, Executive Director, Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction; Dr. Caleb Perkins, Executive Director, College and Career Readiness; and Dr. Aira Jackson, Director, Assessment and Instructional Improvement:
https://seattlepublicschools.community.diligentoneplatform.com/document/0833511a-6b8e-46e2-8926-b40c17827c85/
My comment was prompted by the original blog post above, which states: "The Board has a 'special' meeting this Wednesday, the 21st at 4:30 pm in the JSCEE Auditorium. It is on 'Academics and Goals.'" My bullets above are not the District's bullet points—they are my summaries applying simple math directly to the tables in the District's documents and the public state test files.
For example, in the August 26 Board Action Report (PDF page 8, Policy 0020 page 3) and Slide 62 of the October 21 presentation, the District states the SPS Graduation Baseline (2025) for American Indian/Alaska Native is 78.4% On-Time Graduation (meaning 21.6%—more than 1 in 5—do not graduate on time). It then states the target for 2030–31 is On-Time Graduation of 78.5% (meaning 21.5%—still more than 1 in 5—do not graduate on time). Using simple subtraction, this is a 0.1 percentage point improvement over the next 5 years.
For example, in the Board Action Report (PDF page 7, Policy 0020 page 2) and Slide 45 of the presentation, it states the Eighth Grade Mathematics (2025) Baseline for Students with Disabilities is 19.7%, where the measure is "The percentage of eighth graders demonstrating grade-level proficiency, as measured by the SBA." The BAR then states the target for 2030–31 is 20.0%. Using simple subtraction, this is a 0.3 percentage point improvement over the next 5 years for Students with Disabilities.
To calculate the incremental number of students the District is targeting to serve, simply multiply the percentage improvement by the number of Seattle students in that grade and group from the OSPI website (https://data.wa.gov/Education/Report-Card-Assessment-Data-2024-25-School-Year/x73g-mrqp).
The fact that the District is not controlling for socioeconomic status when setting racial targets is made clear in the District's documents.
I am going to post each of the calculations I made below so they can be challenged. Perhaps something may be off, as I didn't have the District's source files but instead just the PDFs and public state files, but the general math is pretty simple.
Today, out of 393 Asian 8th graders in Seattle (374 who took the test), 231 passed the state math test (58.8%) and 143 failed—meaning Asian 8th graders currently score 7.6 percentage points below White 8th graders (66.4%), more than double Hispanic 8th graders (26.2%), and nearly four times higher than Black 8th graders (15.3%). Yet because the Board measures "where additional supports are needed" by subtracting each racial group's score from an out-of-state racial benchmark (85.7% for Asian students), the Board's table declares that Asian 8th graders are 26.9 percentage points behind (58.8% minus 85.7%)—farther behind than Black students (23.6 percentage points) or Hispanic students (13.0 percentage points)—and gives Asian students the largest math target increase of any racial group: +27.2 percentage points (from 58.8% to 86.0%). By 2031, the Board's official goal is for Asian 8th graders to pass math at 86.0%—19.5 percentage points (29%) higher than White 8th graders (66.5%), and more than double Hispanic and Black 8th graders (39.5% and 39.0%).
In Seattle, out of 504 Hispanic 8th graders (445 who took the test), only 132 passed the state math test (26.2%) and 313 failed—more than double the 143 Asian 8th graders who failed. In 3rd-grade reading, out of 550 Hispanic 3rd graders (541 who took the test), only 209 passed (38.0%) and 332 failed. Yet because Hispanic students in other Washington, California, Oregon, and Nevada districts also score poorly (39.2% in math and 49.0% in reading), the Board subtracts 26.2% from 39.2% and says Seattle's Hispanic 8th graders are only 13.0 percentage points behind their racial benchmark—less than half the 26.9-percentage-point "gap" assigned to Asian 8th graders. As a result, the Board's five-year plan gives Hispanic 8th graders less than half the improvement target of Asian students (+13.3 percentage points vs. +27.2 percentage points), widening the Asian–Hispanic math gap from 32.6 percentage points today to 46.5 percentage points in 2031 (86.0% vs. 39.5%). Washington's state plan sets a 90% proficiency goal for Hispanic students and every other racial group by 2029; Seattle's 2031 targets for Hispanic students are only 39.5% in eighth-grade math and 49.5% in third-grade reading.
In the Board's on-time graduation table, Native American students in Seattle have a 2025 baseline graduation rate of 78.4%—meaning 21.6% (more than 1 in 5) do not graduate on time, trailing White students (90.8%) by 12.4 percentage points. Because Native American graduation rates in other Washington districts are even worse (74.0% benchmark), the Board marked Seattle's Native American students "In top 5" and set their 2030–31 graduation target at 78.5%—a five-year improvement of 0.1 percentage point (78.5% minus 78.4%), meaning 21.5% (more than 1 in 5) still won't graduate on time in 2031. Meanwhile, the Board raised the White graduation target by 4.2 percentage points (from 90.8% to 95.0%), which widens the graduation gap between White and Native American students from 12.4 percentage points today to 16.5 percentage points in 2031. Washington's state plan sets a 90% graduation and proficiency goal for Native American and Pacific Islander students by 2029; Seattle's 2031 targets are 78.5% for Native American graduation and only 32.0% and 33.5% for Pacific Islander and Native American eighth-grade math.
In Seattle, out of 605 disabled 8th graders (498 who took the test), only 119 passed the state math test (19.7%) and 379 failed (76.1% of those tested). In 3rd-grade reading, out of 818 disabled 3rd graders (758 who took the test), only 326 passed (39.9%) and 432 failed (57.0% of those tested). Because other districts also fail students with disabilities, the Board marked both groups "At Top 5 benchmark." For 8th-grade math, the Board set the five-year improvement goal at 0.3 percentage point—from 19.7% to 20.0%. Holding enrollment and test participation constant, multiplying 605 students by 20.0% is 121 students passing instead of 119 today—equivalent to 2 additional disabled 8th graders passing math across the entire city by 2031. For 3rd-grade reading, the Board set the five-year goal at 0.1 percentage point—from 39.9% to 40.0% (40.0% of 818 students = 327.2 students instead of 326 today)—equivalent to approximately 1 additional disabled 3rd grader passing reading across the entire city by 2031. Washington's state plan sets a 90% proficiency goal for students with disabilities by 2029; Seattle's 2031 targets are only 20.0% in eighth-grade math and 40.0% in third-grade reading.
The Board's tables compare racial groups across districts—and lump every child of the same race together inside Seattle—without controlling for family income, poverty, parent education, English-learner status, or disability. For example, in the District's #1-ranked#1-ranked Top 5 district for Asian 8th-grade math—Lake Washington School District (89.2% on the District's April 29 ranking slide)—U.S. Census data shows median Asian household income is $244,114 ($250,000+ for public-school households) and Asian school-age child poverty is 2.1%, compared to $138,782 ($145,908 for public-school households) and 9.5% child poverty in Seattle—more than four times higher poverty—and Seattle's overall low-income enrollment (34.3%) is nearly triple Lake Washington's (13.3%). And in the 5th-place benchmark district itself—William S. Hart (85.7%)—California's test data shows that socioeconomically disadvantaged Asian and Filipino 8th graders pass math at 58.2%, compared to 83.6% for more affluent students—a 25-percentage-point socioeconomic gap within the same racial category. Treating race alone as the measure of how a child should score ignores every real-world factor in a student's life.
In Washington's federally approved Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan (Tables 3 and 4), the state sets the exact same goal for every student group by 2029: 90% proficiency in math and reading and 90% on-time graduation. Instead, Board Policy 0020 (approved 7–0 on August 26, 2026) writes an explicit racial hierarchy into District policy for 2031—setting the 8th-grade math standard at 86.0% for Asian students, 69.0% for Multiracial students, and 66.5% for White students, compared to 39.5% for Hispanic students, 39.0% for Black students, 33.5% for Native American students, and 32.0% for Pacific Islander students, and setting the 3rd-grade reading standard at 78.5% for Asian, 76.5% for White, and 74.0% for Multiracial students, compared to 50.5% for Black, 49.5% for Hispanic, 46.0% for Pacific Islander, and 39.0% for Native American students.
These racial targets are not just numbers on a chart—the District's own documents state they are used to direct school priorities, supports, and budgets. Section 7 (Equity Analysis, page 3) of the August 26, 2026 Board Action Report adopting Policy 0020 states that these racial targets "will allow the District to determine progress and growth by student group, where additional supports are needed, and where strategies are working for students." Slide 8 of the October 21, 2026 Academics & Goals presentation states that "Each school translates the 5x5 outcomes into focused priorities, adult actions, and progress-monitoring routines" and directs schools to "Identify priority student groups and opportunity gaps." And the District's 2026–27 School Budget Development Instructions ("Gold Book," pages 8 and 18) require every principal to use the Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP) and Racial Equity Action Plan to achieve "racial equity goals" and to spend equity funds on "additional positions or staff time" and "books, intervention materials, etc. for targeted student groups." Under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 2000d) and Washington law (RCW 28A.642.010), prioritizing or treating students differently based on race is illegal—a failing Black student, a failing White student, a failing Hispanic student, a failing Asian student, and a failing Native American student must be prioritized and treated no differently based on race.
In Seattle, out of 1,587 White 8th graders (1,488 who took the test), 1,053 passed the state math test (66.4%) and 435 failed (more failing kids than in any other racial group), while 390 White 3rd graders failed the state reading test (also more than in any other racial group). Yet because White students as a racial average already beat the District's 5th-place benchmark (62.5%), the Board set the five-year improvement goal for White 8th-grade math at 0.1 percentage point—from 66.4% to 66.5%. Holding enrollment and test participation constant, multiplying 1,587 students by 0.1 percentage point is 1.6 students (or 1,055 passing at 66.5% instead of 1,053 today)—equivalent to reducing 435 failures to approximately 433 by 2031. In 3rd-grade reading, the Board's five-year goal is 0.2 percentage point (76.3% to 76.5% of 1,776 students = 3.6 students)—equivalent to reducing 390 failures to approximately 386 by 2031. Washington's state plan sets a 90% proficiency goal for White students and every other racial group by 2029; Seattle's targets for White students are only 66.5% in eighth-grade math and 76.5% in third-grade reading by 2031.
SP