Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Seattle Times reported today on Seattle Public Schools' updated number on the number of students who have the credits required by public universities in Washington. It's 63%. That's a whole lot more than the 17% initially reported and the 46% reported later. The Times story has links to additional documents including a memo from Mark Teoh to the Board and a table of the adjusted numbers by school. Still no word on when the District will correct the other misleading or simply mistaken data reported on School Reports.

As I previously reported, I attended the Town Hall last night on the legislative session coming up and what impacts it might have for public education. The speakers were Rep. Scott White (who becomes Senator on Monday when he gets sworn in) and Directors Sherry Carr and Peter Maier. It was hosted by Principal John Miner of Thorton Creek who told the crowd he had been had TC for 25 years. Wow. I would say there were about 50 people in attendance including Seattle Council PTSA reps, Stand for Children reps, and SEA reps. There were several handouts. They had the letter that MGJ sent to the Seattle delegation. There were some interesting sentences that I'll put in here: "Thus, while we began this year with a balanced budget for 2010-2011, we must now find an additional $5.24 million to end the year balanced." Now initially I thought, "How did this happen?" but I know that at least $2M of that is because of the Auditor's finding over the Small Business w...

Sorry this took so long. As I stated previously, I did not stay for the budget portion of the Work Session so this is only about the Strategic Plan. Here is a link to the presentation . Betty Patu was not there and so they recorded the meeting (both audio and video) so it should be available somewhere. Michael DeBell stated that this was to listen to the information but not to set any priorities. What ended up happening was that there were 88 slides to cover and yet for some reason they let the Family Engagement section go on for about 35 minutes. It was interesting info from each of the schools with a FEAT team (Family Engagement Action Team) but I didn't feel it was the right time to present it. So by the time Dr. Goodloe-Johnson got started, she really whipped through the slides. (I've stated in the past that I think the staff presentations are too long and I still believe that is true.) I stepped out as they went into 2010-2011 Governance Priorities starting on slide ...

There will be some statement about two of the misleading statistics on the school reports (students making gains and advanced learners) at the quarterly Strategic Plan Update tomorrow. For some reason, my hopes are not high. Let's review the language from the superintendent's [cough] apology [cough]. Do you see anything here that suggests that they will: Ensure Definitions Are Clear ‐ We need to be crystal clear around the definitions of the performance measures in our district scorecard and school reports and make adjustments in language as necessary. But they are in no hurry to make those changes. They can wait until Wednesday. Proactively Communicate with Stakeholders – It is our responsibility to ensure the community understands our district scorecard and school reports. Again, this can wait. There's no hurry. We are responding to community feedback and sharing what we learn together about how to improve the way we measure and report on our progress. Examples inclu...

Yesterday Dr. Goodloe-Johnson gave her unapologetic apology for the false statistic about Seattle Public School graduates who met the entrance requirements for a four-year college. She only did it because the Board Executive Committee forced her to do it. It wasn't much of an apology - sort of "we should have told more people that we were changing the number" instead of what it should have been: "sorry we were deceptive". Here's her fake apology . Look hard. If you can find the word "sorry" or "apologize" in there, let me know. I couldn't find it. This is not, in fact an apology at all. If anything, she seems angry at the people who quoted the number for not attending a Board work session in which the change in the number was mentioned. She continues to pretend that the number was poorly explained instead of an intentional effort to mislead. In these ancillary notes to the official "apology" we finally see an actual...

As most of you may know, Linda Shaw is the education reporter for the Seattle Times. She and I have a good working relationship. She has had students in SPS so she knows the district from the parent's side of the lens. I asked her, during the break at the last Work Session, what had tipped her off to investigate the 17% college readiness claim for the Times' Truth Needle story. She just smiled and told me that the figure had never seemed right to her. That's one more person who, like Ramona Hattendorf of the SCPTSA and Michael DeBell, knew something was off. Both Michael and Ramona had asked and been told someone would get back to them and no one ever did. For months and then years. But it stuck in the back of a lot of people's minds and we are fortunate that Linda decided to follow-thru. She's a reporter and staff were not going to be able to shake her off. We complain her sometimes about the Times' work, both editorially and in their articles. Given so...

Onward. On January 12th the Board will have their annual Legislative luncheon. It was interesting because (1) they are all very worried about the state budget and (2) Michael asked about evaluating the district's lobbyist (we have one of those). It was agreed that it was a good idea but I think it surprised some staff. This would be done at a Board Executive Session. Michael said he had met with Rep. Carlyle about curriculum adoptions at the community college level and how it affects SPS. He said there was a group of teachers interested in piloting it and Dr. G-J said the district would have to pay the teachers. Michael countered that they had to do professional development anyway and the other Board members agreed. So on the agenda for this meeting was Community Engagement . The time came for this topic and the Superintendent said there was nothing new and she can't do more. It was somewhat awkward because she seemed defensive but said nothing. I was a little surpr...

Ever notice in Seattle how quiet it gets when it snows especially within a neighborhood? Few cars and just the sound of your feet stomping through the snow? I really like that. But see, there's also another kind of quiet. The calm before the storm. I recognize this void, this lack of sound. I recognize this because, deja vu, I've been through it before. Does anyone remember Joseph Olchefske? He was full of hot air (although admittedly he could be charming). He had a Board that was wrapped around his little finger with the notable exception of Mary Bass. They were an upright Board, professionals and solid citizens. They didn't listen to Mary and even ostracized Mary on the Board. It was painful to watch but the powers that be just tisk-tisked about how Mary didn't "work" with the rest of the Board. And indeed, she voted no on Olchefske's last budget even though she couldn't quite explain what the problem was. (It was buried.) But i...