tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post3840582031658398937..comments2024-03-28T02:21:17.452-07:00Comments on Seattle Schools Community Forum: Friday Open ThreadMelissa Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-33276956328879495662012-02-29T12:39:16.208-08:002012-02-29T12:39:16.208-08:00SD, not sure if you are still reading, but Option ...SD, not sure if you are still reading, but Option school middle schoolers can generally get onto the yellow buses that pick up the K-5 kids (they may say you get a Metro card, but if there is a nearby yellow bus that has room you can ask to put your kid on it.)<br /><br />Also, my 8th grader started taking Metro to TOPS from Greenlake in 7th grade and it really has been fine, plus she has gained really useful bus skills. We did get her a cell phone and that really helps how we feel about it. <br /><br />Also, you can ask to have your kid picked up at a stop that is not close to your house, but easier for you to get to (work? friends house?). You can have a kid dropped off at an activity or community center (but not at a random address that is not close to your house/work/daycare). I heard about parent of Salmon Bay kids from the north east trying to set up a community stop yellow bus (maybe just for a.m. or p.m.?) for this year. You may want to check in with the SB PTSA (or other Option school) to see what families there are doing. Goodluck!Maureenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18444916440000921599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-11764359250176569022012-02-27T16:31:22.916-08:002012-02-27T16:31:22.916-08:00SD,
If you do the "address look up" on t...SD,<br />If you do the "address look up" on the SPS website it will tell you which option school with transportation is available to you. I hope you find a middle school that works for your child and your family.Janenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-1854818639278281492012-02-27T15:04:28.554-08:002012-02-27T15:04:28.554-08:00Jane,
Thank you for post about the other option s...Jane,<br /><br />Thank you for post about the other option schools. I did not realize that and will look into it. Really appreciate your response. Thanks again!<br /><br />-Still disappointed, but I apprecate the help!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-40191173456955858192012-02-27T14:49:59.172-08:002012-02-27T14:49:59.172-08:00Still disappointed, there is an option middle scho...Still disappointed, there is an option middle school with transportation for almost all of the service areas. I agree that it is disappointing the all city transportation was dropped for Salmon Bay, but there are several option schools with middle school programs. Depending on where you live, you can get transportation to Jane Addams, Orca, Pathfinder, TOPS, etc. If you live on Queen Anne you seem to be out of luck though, which is ridiculous. Not sure if QA gets transportation to Blaine?Janenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-55999143935132866982012-02-27T14:15:04.429-08:002012-02-27T14:15:04.429-08:00Clarifiation: I did NOT ask for door to door serv...Clarifiation: I did NOT ask for door to door service. <br /><br />-Call me STILL disappointed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-17222956470717002202012-02-27T14:14:11.535-08:002012-02-27T14:14:11.535-08:00dw. I cannot agree with you, sorry. I did ask fo...dw. I cannot agree with you, sorry. I did ask for door to door service. Your response to an issue of equity, makes me seem unreasonable. <br /><br />How about letting us walk to a local school and catch a bus there. The community stops? Remember that?<br /><br />How about offering equal access to options programs to families that maybe cannot go part time? Do we really think that most people can just make a work schedule happen? How about that? Is this what we expect of families in order to have equal access? Really?<br /><br />Options schools are becoming to me much like immerson schools. They provide uneqal access to those who are lucky enough to live close by. <br /><br />-Call me STILL disappointed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-92093246442880905002012-02-27T12:10:28.707-08:002012-02-27T12:10:28.707-08:00Disappointed,
What do you suggest? Providing ded...Disappointed,<br /><br />What do you suggest? Providing dedicated door-to-door transportation for all option schools from all parts of town? It's just unrealistic.<br /><br />Many, many families with 2 working parents manage to make it work. You need to figure out how to make it work according to your own situation and what you're willing to sacrifice for your kids. And yes, it does take sacrifice if neither of you are willing to compromise your full-time work schedules. <br /><br />One parent might choose to work a slightly earlier or later shift, if that's possible. Carpools are great if you can arrange them (and many people are eager to do so at non-neighborhood schools, because you're all in the same boat!).<br /><br />If nothing else, Salmon Bay offers child care before and after school for elementary kids, and FREE (!) after school programs for middle schoolers, funded by the 2005 Families and Education Levy.<br /><br />What more do you want? If none of the above work for you, perhaps an alternative program just isn't that important to your family. There's nothing wrong with that. But for many families, it <i>is</i> worth the sacrifice, and therefore I'm very happy programs like Salmon Bay exist.dwnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-26448103996743740142012-02-27T11:33:35.646-08:002012-02-27T11:33:35.646-08:00My option school rant above was about trying to at...My option school rant above was about trying to attend an option school for middle school.<br /><br />Signed,<br />-Call me disappointed again.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-50703137986073361252012-02-27T11:31:27.263-08:002012-02-27T11:31:27.263-08:00How is an option school really an option for peopl...How is an option school really an option for people with two parents working? For example, there is no transportation available to Salmon Bay so if you want to attend you have to put your kid on a metro bus (or two for most people) in the dark (a great deal of the year) or work part time. Or find a carpool (cross your fingers there is one that goes to your neighborhood).<br /><br />How is this really an option?<br /><br />What does this mean for option schools in terms of sustaining enrollment? <br /><br />I fully understand that transporation is expensive, but I really don't understand how option schools can are really an "option" to families that have both parents working. Or families that don't really believe 11 year olds are ready to do the multiple bus in the dark thing.<br /><br /><br />Signed,<br />-Call me disappointed again.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-78579158087111332722012-02-27T10:03:17.657-08:002012-02-27T10:03:17.657-08:00Sped Watcher,
Families were updated on the "...Sped Watcher,<br /><br />Families were updated on the "search" for the Exec Dir of SpEd. Too bad nobody downtown noticed that the top finalist had NO SpEd background. Oops. Enfield KNEW we wouldn't be happy about that. Besides they had a juicier assignment, K-5 STEM. So what if SpEd families are left twisting in the wind another year.SeattleSpedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13705544363458155912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-89768044962907064392012-02-26T20:52:30.913-08:002012-02-26T20:52:30.913-08:00What are you talking about SeattleSped???? If Ensf...What are you talking about SeattleSped???? If Ensfield wanted somebody in particular for executive director of special education, or for any other directorship - she would have just hired them. She wouldn't even need to have interviews at all. I can't think of ANY manager or director of special ed in SPS that has EVER been hired to SPS with a "round of interviews". Can you? Which of all the special ed directors, managers, or supervisors can you think of... that was ever hired as a result of an "interview process". It simply doesn't happen. Or, hasn't happened yet.<br /><br />If she, McKinney, "made it" to the final interviews.... because Ensfield wanted that... then it makes no sense for Ensfiled NOT to hire her, as it was her decision alone to make.<br /><br />-sped watcherAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-24735332476695560882012-02-26T15:56:02.703-08:002012-02-26T15:56:02.703-08:00Speaking of bathering through interviews, watched ...Speaking of bathering through interviews, watched a bit of Enfield in Highline.<br /><br />Interesting to hear what she would do as a super and compare to what she did as CAO and interim super in Seattle.<br /><br />I am pretty sure Highline will see through her, especially the closing remarks about wanting to plant roots in the community for five, no wait, ten years. Yeah 10 years sounds great!Po3noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-15636622131874237552012-02-26T14:32:43.743-08:002012-02-26T14:32:43.743-08:00I have a strong suspicion McKinney applied for the...I have a strong suspicion McKinney applied for the SpEd Exec Dir position, for which she has NO qualifications except maybe she thinks she does because there were lots of minority students in her school.<br /><br />The fact she made it to the final interview then got passed over by Enfield tells you: 1) HR does a bang-up job vetting candidates; 2) SPS ignored parents that said they wanted a leader with SpEd background; 3) McKinney must have known the writing was on wall in Ariz and 4) talk the "transformational" blather and you'll breeze through interviews.SeattleSpedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13705544363458155912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-39059041677021302682012-02-26T12:52:34.970-08:002012-02-26T12:52:34.970-08:00n....
This whole thing is pretty bizarre .... My ...n....<br /><br /><b>This whole thing is pretty bizarre .... My PhD trumps yours etc.<br /><br />Anyone ever care about results?</b><br /><br />Enfield's selection of Dr. Shannon McKinney appears to have been yet another prime example of NO Research done by Enfield.<br /><br />The most wacko portion of this K-5 STEM principal selection is that Dr. McKinney's efforts produced results in math at Hohokum MS that were pathetic.<br /><br />I just found her PhD thesis <a href="http://gradworks.umi.com/3336698.pdf" rel="nofollow">HERE</a><br /><br />AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND AND ARIZONA LEARNS ON MIDDLE-SCHOOL PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS AND RESPONSIBILITIES<br /><br />completed in Dec 2008<br /><br />Check those scores at <a href="http://www.greatschools.org/modperl/achievement/az/1664#from..HeaderLink" rel="nofollow">Hohokam MS</a> in math for 2010 and 2011 ..... and Enfield picks her to be a k-5 STEM principal.<br /><br />Clearly resume Blah Blah trumps NO Positive RESULTS.<br /><br />==========<br />The big problem is clueless leadership and management at high levels in k-12 education.dan dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-27426345793872596052012-02-26T05:47:03.078-08:002012-02-26T05:47:03.078-08:00Washington State Democratic Party Chairman posted ...Washington State Democratic Party Chairman posted an open letter regarding education reform. You can read it at <a href="http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/washington-state-democratic-party-chairman-dwight-pelz-speaks-up-on-ed-reform/" rel="nofollow">Washington State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz speaks up on ed reform</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-62856077963332173932012-02-25T21:36:07.117-08:002012-02-25T21:36:07.117-08:00I signed the petition several days ago, Dan. How ...I signed the petition several days ago, Dan. How comical is Arne Duncan and who can take him seriously. What a dud.<br /><br />Now, the Highline Schools public meets for Engle, Garcia and Enfield are over. I wonder when we'll know. She was the only Harvard applicant. I like Garcia's resume best. He's got his doctorate from SU and Engle's is from SPU. That's pretty local.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.highlineschools.org/Pages/Home.aspx" rel="nofollow">Meet the Superintendent Candidates</a><br /><br />n...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-82113901731561676242012-02-25T20:24:33.354-08:002012-02-25T20:24:33.354-08:00Colorado has a bill designed to eliminate transfat...Colorado has a bill designed to eliminate transfats from its schools. Any bets?<br /><br />n...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-80576119720364839672012-02-25T11:25:48.708-08:002012-02-25T11:25:48.708-08:00‘Say I Threatened You Again, And You’ll Really Be ...‘<a href="http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/say-i-threatened-you-again-and-ill-mess-you-up/" rel="nofollow">Say I Threatened You Again, And You’ll Really Be Sorry!</a>’<br /><br /> by Neal McCluskey<br /><br />Apparently, if you try to undo something the feds want you to do, they’ll slap you around until you confess they’ve never threatened you. At least, that’s how Education Secretary Arne Duncan rolls when it comes to national curriculum standards.<br /><br />======<br />Petition to <a href="http://dumpduncan.org/" rel="nofollow">Dump Duncan</a><br /><br />Great idea.dan dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-43918042382190445502012-02-25T02:32:49.280-08:002012-02-25T02:32:49.280-08:00With Teacher Ratings Set to Be Released, Union Ope...<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/education/ratings-of-new-york-city-teachers-to-be-released-friday.html?src=recg" rel="nofollow">With Teacher Ratings Set to Be Released, Union Opens Campaign to Discredit Them</a><br /><br />The New York City Education Department will release the ratings of thousands of teachers on Friday, ending a nearly year-and-a-half-long legal battle by the teachers’ union to keep the names confidential. <br /><br />The ratings, known as Teacher Data Reports, grade nearly 18,000 of the city’s 75,000 public school teachers based on how much progress their students have made on standardized tests. <b>The city developed these so-called value-added ratings five years ago in a pilot program to improve instruction and has factored them into yearly teacher evaluations and tenure decisions.</b><br /><br />Even before their release, the ratings have been assailed by independent experts, school administrators and teachers who say there are <b>large margins of error</b> — because they are based on small amounts of data, <b>the test scores themselves were determined by the state to have been inflated, and there were factual errors or omissions, among other problems.</b>dan dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-83839454743026959332012-02-25T02:25:55.294-08:002012-02-25T02:25:55.294-08:002/ 24/ 2012 NY Times
Teacher Quality Widely Diffu...2/ 24/ 2012 NY Times<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/25/education/teacher-quality-widely-diffused-nyc-ratings-indicate.html?_r=1&hp" rel="nofollow">Teacher Quality Widely Diffused, Ratings Indicate</a><br /><br /><i>The ratings, known as teacher data reports, covered three school years ending in 2010, and are intended to show how much value individual teachers add by measuring how much their students’ test scores exceeded or fell short of expectations based on demographics and prior performance. Such “value-added assessments” are increasingly being used in teacher-evaluation systems, but they are an imprecise science. For example,<b> the margin of error is so wide that the average confidence interval around each rating spanned 35 percentiles in math and 53 in English,</b> the city said. <b>Some teachers were judged on as few as 10 students.</b><br /><br />Education officials cautioned against drawing conclusions from numbers that are meant to be part of a broader equation. </i><br /><br />----<br /><i>“<b>I believe the teachers will be right in feeling assaulted and compromised here,</b>” Merryl H. Tisch, the chancellor of the State Board of Regents, said in an interview. “And <b>I just think, from every perspective, it sets the wrong tone moving forward</b>.” </i><br /><br />In releasing the reports, New York became only the second city in the country where teachers’ names and ratings have been publicized. In 2010, The Los Angeles Times hired a statistician and published its own set of ratings, in spite of fierce opposition from the local teachers’ union. Many thousands of people visited the newspaper’s Web site to check the rankings, though, and <b>Arne Duncan, the federal education secretary, praised the effort, saying, “<i>Silence is not an option.</i>”</b><br /><br /><b>Whether or not they are made public, <i>such ratings have been gaining currency, in part because they are favored by the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative.</i></b> New York City principals have made them a part of tenure decisions. Houston gave bonuses based in part on value-added measures, though that program was reorganized. In Washington, poorly rated teachers have lost their jobs.dan dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-61667105870695039542012-02-24T21:58:03.143-08:002012-02-24T21:58:03.143-08:00The Seattle Times this week in the editorial page ...The Seattle Times this week in the editorial page said the legislature<br />ought to get rid of I-732 and I-728<br /><br />How about all the money which has been siphoned by the Boeing corporation from these dollars for education so the state can help the war machine.<br /><br />Why do we not fund education properly?<br /><br />Because our state is a war monger state.<br /><br />Think about it.KGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14120359550438503094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-27187979970610050442012-02-24T20:10:09.285-08:002012-02-24T20:10:09.285-08:00I've always voted against the mid-winter break...I've always voted against the mid-winter break but I have to confess that when it comes, I like it. I've spend the last three days in my classroom. When you teach six hours a day and have little planning time or paperwork-completion time, it is nice to have the free time to get those things caught up. There were three other teachers there with me all three days. I know because their classrooms are next to mine. <br /><br />I think you have to walk in our shoes to know how much we do at the elementary level.<br /><br />n...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-27741623512752862372012-02-24T19:40:17.268-08:002012-02-24T19:40:17.268-08:00Chris Eide is still calling himself a teacher (tho...Chris Eide is still calling himself a teacher (tho' he wuit after just a couple of years) over in a new op-ed at the Times, arguing to do away with seniority....<br /><a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2017590977_guest25eide.html" rel="nofollow"><br />Protect effective educators: rethink 'last in, first out'</a>seattle citizenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16724175257161649500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-45058346475019718792012-02-24T16:42:23.255-08:002012-02-24T16:42:23.255-08:00There is a change to mid-winter break:
Next year (...There is a change to mid-winter break:<br />Next year (2012-13) there will only be a four-day, extended weekend on President's Day weekend, rather than the nine-day week off that has been the norm since...since....way back.seattle citizenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16724175257161649500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-40193763261348385252012-02-24T13:54:27.837-08:002012-02-24T13:54:27.837-08:00I read this on the Washington Post's The Answe...I read this on the Washington Post's The Answer Sheet, then linked to the original. It is about the Education Equality and Excellence Commission, EdReform, and refers back to "A Nation At Risk" Great reading. <br /><br />http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=5595Reneehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07421961383911346559noreply@blogger.com