Seattle Schools Community Forum

I missed this but in June, the US Department of Education released data on disparities in education resources and opportunities for U.S. public ed students.   It is called the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and covers about 7,000 school districts.  There are two parts.   Part 1 was released in June and covered primarily enrollment data and part 2, which will be released this fall, collected cumulative and end-of-year data.  Part 1 covers: access to the rigorous sequence of college and career-ready math and science courses,  the number of first and second-year teachers in schools,  the number of high school counselors in schools,  availability of pre-K and kindergarten programs,  districts operating under desegregation orders or plans, and  whether districts have written policies prohibiting harassment and bullying on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or disability. Part 2 will cover; numbers of stude...

The Board Directors are busy attending high school graduations this week so the district is fairly light on meetings. There will be a Work Session with the topic "Strategic Plan Refresh" on Wednesday before the Board meeting . The Work Session is from 4-5:30 p.m. with the Board meeting starting at 6 p.m. There are no presentation materials yet available.

What the word? First up, the hacked grades story in the Times.  Right now it looks like it's at Chief Sealth, Ballard and Ingraham (all corners of the city).  Apparently some kids are blabbing about this and I'm sure someone is going to get caught.  (I love when kids think they will never get caught and then go tell someone what they did.  Kids, loose lips sink ships.)  The Times also reported that the City signed a deal with the Space Needle Corp for a  Chihuly glass exhibition hall.  This includes a $1M for a children's playground (yay for kids) and again, some kind of educational tie-in with SPS. The deal was sweetened with the addition of the playground, as well as arts-education programs at the Chihuly museum in partnership with Seattle Public Schools and other arts organizations. The New York Times had a story about rigor in high school classes.  This idea is taking on Supreme Court visions akin to what the definition is of pornogr...

(I'm having trouble posting tonight so I'm going to break this into a couple of threads.) Several interesting national stories (one with a familiar focus). First up, the folks at the College Board, who create and run the Advanced Placement courses , have finally followed through on some long needed reforms of their tests. This article was in the NY Times. (Thanks to Ann for this tip.) Thirty years ago, Advanced Placement Biology was 36 chapters, 870 pages. Today it is a staggering 56 chapters and 1400 pages. Here's what one teacher in Massachusetts had to say: “Some of the students look at the book and say, ‘My gosh, it’s just like an encyclopedia,’ ” Mrs. Carlson says. And when new A.P. teachers encounter it, “they almost want to start sobbing.” But many of the courses, particularly in the sciences and history, have also been criticized for overwhelming students with facts to memorize and then rushing through important topics. Students and educators alike...

Did anyone attend either Director Smith-Blum's meeting or Director Patu's meeting yesterday? I heard from one attendee to Smith-Blum's that there were about 40 people (including KIRO tv, interesting). Tracy Libros from Enrollment and Nancy Coogan the Central Regional Executive Director were also there. Two-thirds of the discussion was around issues at Garfield. Kay and Tracy apparently said there could be some future redrawing of boundaries. Why aren't their comparable quality AP classes at all high schools? (Interesting question but I'm not sure what they mean? Better teachers? Better AP course topics?) Teacher from Schmitz Park came and noted how well they were doing using Singapore math and that he felt all elementaries should be free to choose their materials. Good for him. Science curriculum at Garfield was also a topic (and needs a separate thread). Lack of college counseling at Garfield (Kay said she had to work with her own kids.) Nancy Coogan spok...

Look, I get that most of you don't have the time or inclination to fact-check as Charlie and I do (and we still get it wrong sometimes). But please, please do NOT say something as fact unless you can give actual valid numbers. There was a great discussion going at the thread about Garfield being overcrowded and whether this means the high school APP cohort should be split and where they might go if they had a two-high school cohort or even just shoot them off to their area high school. I think there were some great ideas/analysis (and I hope the district/Board reads it and considers it). However, there were a couple of places where I read things stated as fact (without real numbers backing it up) and assumptions (without explanation of why that assumption could be true). To whit, there was this: "Splitting up APP at the high school level would make many more AP classes available in different high schools." Of course it would be a plus if more high schools had more A...

In the Advanced Learning work session there was a slide that showed the growth of AP and IB in the District. It is true that many more students are taking AP classes than ever before. But it doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means. Take, for example, Roosevelt High School. At Roosevelt about half of the 10th grade students used to take AP European History. This is typically the first AP available to students, one of the few open to 10th grade students on the typical pathway. The class is challenging for 10th grade students and the fact that about half of the students took it is a testament to Roosevelt's academic strength. The other half of the students took a history class similar to the one that students all across district and the state take in the 10th grade. Some folks at Roosevelt didn't like that. They didn't like the fact that about half of the students were self-selecting to take on the challenge and rigor of AP European History. Even more, they didn...

I missed the start of this but there is still time to access a ton of good education articles at Education Week , the online education news website, during their free Open House week. It started March 17 but goes thru Wednesday, the 24th. Most of the time you have to pay to read articles there. Here's some good ones that I found: STEM - a lot of good articles. STEM Defection Seen to Occur After High School - Schools produce a strong supply of STEM candidates but many go into other fields once they graduate from high school, a study says. STEM as a Curriculum - "We must first recognize STEM as a unitary idea, not simply a grouping of 4 disciplines in a convenient, pronounceable acronym," write Jan Morrison & Raymond V. Barlett. This is written by the woman who runs the institute, TIES (Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM) which I had hoped the district might use to create the program at Cleveland. Going from STEM to STEAM - interesting article about additi...

This article about AP classes appeared in this morning's Times. It's a longish article (for the Times) and has some interesting things to say on both sides. I think there is a both sides to this issue. Maybe sometime they can go more in-depth and talk about AP, IB, Running Start AND the new UW in the High Schools program. From the article: As Bellevue expanded its AP program, it developed a common set of curriculum guidelines, which start in kindergarten. The goal: to prepare all students to take at least one AP or IB class by the time they reach high school. Interesting because Dr. Goodloe-Johnson is laying the groundwork in the same way with curriculum alignment. She is expanding AP and IB programs, and has said she wants every student to take at least one AP course before graduation. Bellevue students were earning about 200 college credits through AP classes when Riley arrived; in 2009, the number reached 5,800. AP and the IB program are a kind of academic brand na...

Eye-opening video from NY Times on AP and its pressure on students. Isn't AP supposed to get kids working hard and ready for college? Or is it a rush through too much content that no student can really master? It saves you money if you make a 4 or 5 on the test and you can skip some college classes. Or is it a rush to have the perfect college application? Is it a money machine? Have we been duped? This video is a little short and a little short-sighted. You could make a video of the opposite side as well. AP has real faults but yes, it does pace out at a college rate. There are colleges that don't want an SAT or ACT score but I've never heard of one that doesn't give a higher ranking if you took AP. I don't believe any high school here expects any "signed contract" as in the video. Some say you have to take the test but don't enforce it. (It does cost $83 and the free/reduced reduction isn't that much lower so it's not possible to make a...

I did some checking after our many discussions about helping Rainier Beach High School. I was sad to see that in a recent thread, MKD has pulled her sons out. She and I had a talk as well and she did like many things there including teachers. But I certainly stand by her decision as each of us has to make what we believe is the best choice for our children. I had discussions with both Mr. Gary and a couple of teachers. There is no issue with math books; they are all new and enough for all. Mr. Gary was going to get back to me on the U.S History books but I haven't heard from him. He said they could use books in 9th grade biology as they have more students than anticipated and the district doesn't give them extra books. Mr. Gary said they have an issue with students leaving their school (and they have a lot of movement going on) and not returning books. I believe the district has to reenroll a student in a different school whether or not they have paid fines. I will chec...

I hadn't heard much about how the first year of AP Human Geography at RHS (a required class for all sophomores) had gone. Here's a blurb from the Rider Record (parent newsletter) which I assume was written by a teacher: "RHS Social Studies teachers are proud to share that our first year of the 10th grade AP Human Geography course was a great success. Students were talking about, writingabout, and filming important issues in the world around them, near and far. ―235 students took the test with an average score of 3.234 (162 students scoring a 3 or higher). That is worth a major kudos to the staff and the students, said Principal Brian Vance. We are gearing up for another year of viewing the ever changing, complex world around us through the lenses of population, cultural, economic, environmental and political geography. Once again, we will host two evening family book seminars, one in fall and one in spring. Watch for the date of our first seminar on the book Three Cups ...

On the post about the assignment plan, we diverged off on high school. One post was this that I wanted to follow up on: "And...a friend just told me that her daughter, a junior in the fall, has already taken all of the AP classes Franklin has to offer. With many colleges using AP classes as admittance markers, we can't afford to have any student who wants to attend college unable to take AP classes at their school. People keep talking about running start...but, it is not free, nor am I ready to have my 16-17-yr-old sitting in a class with college-age young men. And, I'd like her to get to experience the social aspects of high school: dances, student clubs, etc." My son did Running Start (in the evenings rather than during the day) and it was a great experience. However, it is a challenge to work it in and I'd bet it's harder for kids who try to make classes during the day. (High schools lose money when these students leave campus so I think there are mixed...

This op-ed , by teacher Web Hutchins, appeared in today's Seattle Times. It's a mixed bag. He starts by saying: "Recent pages in the Times have been awash with stories about the resegregation of our schools and new Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's plan to add tougher, "standards based" programs at low-income schools as a way to attract more upper-income, white families back to their neighborhood schools." I'm not sure I ever heard Dr. Goodloe-Johnson say the Strategic Plan included standards-based programs at low-income schools to get back more private school parents. Did I miss something? He's pretty harsh on AP courses calling them "a gilded WASL". Ouch. He then says, "Let's keep it real Seattle. If we're going to talk about social justice and equity in education, let's walk the walk. If we truly believe that all kids deserve an equal opportunity to realize their potential and achieve their dreams then we...

Times' columnist, Danny Westneat, weighs in on the issue of two Seattle high schools (and others throughout the state) losing a $13M grant for AP classes because the collective bargaining law worked against it (and the WEA would not support teachers getting bonuses for students who passed AP exams). From his colum n: "That's what Jennifer Wiley concluded. She's the principal of Seattle's Franklin High School. Like in a lot of schools, the kids there no longer are cutting it in math and science. Last year 94 of Wiley's 300 sophomores passed the state's math test. Only 34 passed science. That means nearly 90 percent of Franklin's 10th-graders failed the science test or didn't bother to take it. Anyone can see that's a crisis. So Wiley jumped at a chance to shake Franklin up. The school was one of seven low-income Washington high schools to get a grant to dramatically expand its Advanced Placement program. The idea is to get all kids to try ...

This article appeared in today's Times. I had heard about this situation previous to the article; here's the problem in a nutshell from the article: "Two Seattle high schools are among seven statewide that will lose a chance to add and strengthen Advanced Placement courses in math and science because a $13.2 million grant that Washington state won last year has been scrapped. NMSI declined to give any specifics, but state Rep. Bill Fromhold, who resigned his legislative post as of next year so he could help administer Washington's grant, said it had to do with how teachers would be paid for the time they spent in training, and how they would receive incentives for how well students scored on AP exams. NMSI wanted to pay teachers directly, he said, while Washington's collective bargaining laws require that teacher pay be negotiated between teachers unions and school districts. "We worked hard to try to find middle ground," Fromhold said. But at the e...