Seattle Schools Community Forum

A reader sent me this and said there were 2-3 of these around signage at Thurgood Marshall.  I am told the Board knows about this. I was kind of surprised to hear an HCC parent at Soup for Teachers say this: I agree with the sentiment (and I'm an HCC parent) but I wouldn't do it this way. Let's not shame kids. Okay, HCC parents, do you think your child is enrolled in a "apartheid" program?  Here's what the dictionary says (after explained it means "a state of being apart," an Afrikaans word. "Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation..." There is no enforced separate in HCC.  The program is open to anyone.   The program is not just one race, there are many, many Asian students (despite attempts to make that sound like it does count which baffles me.)  Of course, there is underrepresentation by black, Native American and Latino students and that needs to change.  But apartheid?  

The Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee has a lot on their plate last month. Among the items for discussion: Changes in the Program Evaluation policy 2090 Changes in the Supports and Interventions policy 2163 Changes in the Superintendent's Procedures for Highly Capable Services & Advanced Learning Programs Nearly all of these changes are deeply flawed.

Advanced Learning Opportunities have never been very well defined. The discontinuation of self-contained Spectrum classes at all elementary schools and some middle schools has muddled that program's definition. Now, with the "de-tracking" and the introduction of "Honors for All" in 9th grade ELA and Social Studies at Garfield, questions are arising about the definition of Highly Capable Services and the Highly Capable Cohort. So let's explore how these programs and services are defined by Board Policy and Superintendent Procedures and compare that language with the actual situations we find in schools.

This week the School Board will conduct its required management oversight of Teaching and Learning. The agenda for the oversight meeting can be found here . In this session, the staff will share information with the Board about Curriculum Assessment & Instruction and Advanced Learning. Some of the information they are sharing does not ring true.

The public is invited to comment on draft updates to Highly Capable Services and Advanced Learning Programs policies and procedures. The drafts are Policy No. 2190 and Superintendent Procedure 2190SP . The documents will be discussed at the Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee meeting Monday, October 13. Any public comments submitted by the afternoon of October 13 will inform that discussion. Community members who would like to submit a comment should email it to  advlearn@seattleschools.org and be sure to include POLICY – in all caps – in the subject line.

The agenda for the October 13 Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee has been posted and it's a lulu. It includes: A motion to amend Policy 3201, Disciplinary Appeal Council The motion for the annual approval of schools A motion in support of the City's pre-K initiative A draft Policy for advanced learning The annual approval of the Alternative Learning Experience Plan as well as a review of the Alternative Learning Experience policy An update on the Special Education revised C-CAP An update on MTSS An item labeled "Garfield High School Post" An assessment update Something to do with the attendance policy The quarterly report on Equitable Access And something to do with the policy on Research Activity and Test Administration

I now have a copy of the Advanced Learning policy brought forward by staff. It is essentially identical to the proposed policy that was roundly rejected by the Board about a year ago. It hasn't gotten better with time. The proposed policy is little different from the WSSDA model policy, which is crap. The policy fails to fulfill the minimum requirements in that it does not say what kind of students HC services are for, it does not say why they need HC services, and it does not address the requirements of policy 2090 : The Board requires efficiency and effectiveness in all facets of its operations. In order to achieve this goal, the Board shall provide: A. A clear statement of expectations for the district's instructional programs, B. Staff, resources and support to achieve the stated expectations; and C. A plan for evaluating instructional programs and services to determine how well expectations are being met.  The full text of the proposed policy is after the jump.

Seattle Public Schools has re-defined the word "curriculum" no fewer than six times in the past four years. It seems to change with each new Chief Academic Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, or Executive Director of Curriculum. It also changes anytime the District needs to weasel or make other people (the Board or members of the public) appear ignorant.

Eligibility testing begins in October for accelerated learning programs Seattle Public Schools provides opportunities for academically advanced students in grades K-8 to qualify for accelerated learning programs. Additional information and application forms for eligibility testing can be found here . Applications are also be available in school offices and in the lobby of the John Stanford Center, 2445 3rd Ave. S. Eligibility testing for the 2014-2015 school year begins in October. Applications are due by Thursday, Oct. 3.

The District will appoint a Task Force this fall to answer the question: What service delivery model should we use for Advanced Learning? It's a question that can have only one answer. There can be only one answer because there is a bigger question that takes precedence: Will we deliver service or not? Students and families don't care if they get no service from a small group instruction model or whether they get no service from a "walk to" model. Either way they are getting no service. We can't know what decisions the District will make about the future of advanced learning, but we do know that the actual service will have to be delivered in the schools, not in the JSCEE. We also know that no one in the JSCEE can - or will - guarantee the quality and efficacy of the service. In fact, they cannot even guarantee the existence of that service. They never have guaranteed service delivery and they never will. Do they give any assurance of the quality or effi...

The attendance area boundary work is scheduled out and will end in a motion before the Board introduced in October and approved in November. There is also work scheduled out for discussion and decision about the re-vision of Advanced Learning and Special Education. The timetable for that work should have it finish up some time around January of 2014. There is no current timetable set for the Equitable Access Framework. It was supposed to be done by April, but it has hardly been started. This represents work getting done out of sequence.

This was requested as finally some Spectrum parents are understanding that Spectrum is very much on the chopping block.  Who knows?  As we speak Shauna Heath and Michael Tolley may have already done away with it (it seems they will be creating whatever Advanced Learning will be).  If the district had allowed the Advanced Learning Taskforce to continue its work, we might have gotten to Spectrum and ALOs.  But maybe that was the point of NOT continuing on. It may be too late and trying to organize and get any attention in the summer is a big lift.  But I would do it if I cared about Spectrum (no matter what its form at your school).