Seattle Schools Community Forum

From Soup for Teachers' Facebook page: Seattle public schools just lost an appeal by a student who sued after he was injured in an incident where another student assaulted him at Aki Kurose. New trial ordered. The case is from an incident in 2006.  Wow. The crux of the matter seems to be an instruction to the jury:

Franklin High ranks #1 in Seattle high schools in sending students to UW and 6th in the state. (I'm assuming the #1 ranking is for public schools and the 6th is includes private schools.)  From a letter from UW President Ana Mari Cauce about the incoming class of freshman (partial): For example, last year Seattle’s Franklin High School ranked sixth among all high schools for sending graduates to the UW, which I imagine is a point of pride for Principal Jennifer Wiley, who herself earned two UW degrees. Her students have faced challenges throughout their lives, with 70 percent qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches and an unknown number having faced discrimination, whether because of their race, their nationality or their language. As someone who knows from personal experience how access to education can change a life, I’m thrilled that we’ll be welcoming students like those from Franklin and beyond who are eager to learn with you. Let's see - positive academic outco...

This is beyond sad. Here's the story from KIRO-tv .  (They get one thing wrong - the Aki student killed, Anahlia Cowherd, was not a "fifth grader" at Aki because it's a middle school.  I have been unable to reach Communications but it was reported she was 11 so I would think a 6th grader). Anahlia reported at an online site that her grandfather had been inappropriately touching her.  She wrote:

From SPS Communications: Ingraham High hosting Seattle Unified Soccer League kickoff Saturday On Saturday, March 29 , Ingraham High School will host opening ceremonies to officially kick off the 2014 Unified Soccer Seattle season . Unified Soccer is an inclusive sports program for ages 8-21 that combines athletes (individuals with intellectual disabilities) and partners (those without intellectual disabilities) on the same team for training and competition. Schedule: 7:30 a.m. – Arrive and team check-in 8:15 a.m. – Spirit Rally in the gymnasium 8:45 a.m. – Opening Ceremonies (see speaker schedule below) 9:20 a.m. – March to the Match on the outdoor field 9:30 a.m. – Warm-ups and youth soccer clinic 9:45 a.m. – Unified Soccer games  Ingraham High School, 1819 N. 135th, Seattle (Festivities begin in the gymnasium and move to the outdoor field)

Almost a year ago I did a thread on South Shore and compared it to the other K-8s.  I found in reading, SS is about the same as most K-8s but the math is worse.  So I did a comparison today with South Shore, Roxhill and Maple from 2009 to today and there seems to be two issues.  One, something seems amiss from 3rd to 4th grade at South Shore .  The children in third grade do really well only to see those scores drop (and I mean drop) by 4th and into 5th.  Two, there is a bit of a mystery about South Shore.  No one mentions the long-time partnership that started South Shore (with the New School Foundation and now LEV).  Not at their school website and barely in the district's own pages.  You'd think this would be some shining example of (1) what you can do with smaller class sizes and (2) public/private partnerships.   Why doesn't the district talk about SS more when confronting legislators over funding?  I note the district d...

KOMO TV is reporting that two 15-year old boys were arrested at Aki Kurose early this morning after the boys tripped alarms and police found the boys in possession of several laptops. Hold your child close today.  One of the three victims who died during yesterday's horrific bombings in Boston was an eight-year old boy.   His sister has lost a leg and their mom has severe head injuries.  What's on your mind?

The Alliance for Education, by giving Mia Williams the Thomas B. Foster Award for Excellence, has put a spotlight on Aki Kurose. Let's take a look. Aki Kurose was in Step 5 of No Child Left Behind when Ms Williams was installed as the principal there for the 2008-2009 school year. In Step 5 schools are supposed to either be closed (then re-invented and re-opened) or be "transformed". This transformation must include, at a minimum, the replacement of the principal. It can include replacement of all of the staff. It must, at a minimum, consists of a radical change in the school's operation. The only thing changed at Aki Kurose was the appointment of Ms Williams as principal and the extension of the school day by about fifteen minutes. So how is that transformation coming along? It's not.

 Update:  Cleveland has an orchestra class and will be adding a second one thanks to the efforts of one student, Robert Babs, and yet another dedicated SPS music teacher, Michelle Maury.  Thanks to a reader for this tip; here's the story from KING-5. Some news items first: Congrats to Aki Kurose for winning the City's competition for best middle school attendance.  They got Mollie Moon ice cream for the whole school.  This is the second competition they have won (the other was a national attendance competition). SPS has won a grant for $241k for fresh fruit and veggies for our food program.   This continues a program for a fruit or veggie snack for students and will go to 13 elementary schools where their F/RL rate is 80% or more. One of my favorite little bookshops, Ada's Technical Books , is having a good program this Thursday the 12th at 7 p.m. with author, Jessica Sklar.  She will be discussing her book, Mathematics in Popular Cul...

Let's start with pro arguments: - on speaker was yet another ex-TFAer, Timothy Schlosser who is now a TFA teaching coach.   (I asked one SPS teacher about being a coach after maybe 3-5 years in the classroom and he laughed.  That does seem a short period of time to become a coach.  But maybe not a TFA coach.) But he was also the former TFAer that I quoted in my testimony and here's what he said in 2008 to an LA Times columnist about his first year of teaching: "My students deserved more than I was able to deliver.  That's a year lost they can't recoup. I still feel bad that I wasn't better." Take that in. 

Two heartwarming stories about rivals, Aki Kurose and Mercer Middle Schools, and a meeting of the minds (and bodies) over Ultimate Frisbee.  I heard the the KUOW story myself and had to smile and a reader (thanks!) sent me the PI story.   From the PI: Four years ago, the kids from Aki Kurose and Asa Mercer middle schools – both in Seattle's South End – were bitter rivals. Mercer students would bus to Aki on half days to jump those who lingered after school. Aki students threw rocks at Mercer school buses. Gangs grew out of each middle school, and violence gripped the area. So Terry and Rex Gaoaen of the Union Gospel Mission decided to take over the fledging ultimate program (at Mercer). Ultimate, they reasoned, was a peaceful sport. But the North End kids didn't bother them as much as a nearer opponent: Aki Kurose. Tugade said that after losing to Aki in seventh grade, the players wondered, "Why be mad at them? They made good throws and good points. These guys aren...

The agenda looks fairly light on Wednesday but with a few notable items.   (I note that today - Saturday the 13th - the agenda is not accessible at the SPS website but I had already downloaded it yesterday.  I'll post it when it comes back up.) Update: here's the link . The agenda was reviewed at the Executive Committee meeting held earlier in the week (which no School Board candidates attended which is unfortunate as it's where you see the real work done).

Good news from The Road Map Project.  One of their efforts is to make sure that as many eligible students as possible sign up for the College Bound Scholarships .  Looks like it paid off as a record 91% of eligible students signed up (as compared with 74% lat year).  Thank you to everyone who reminded a kid or their PTA. The scholarship will cover students who pledge to graduate from high school, demonstrate good citizenship and seek admission to a college. The area covered includes South Seattle, Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Renton, and Tukwila.  Tukwila signs up 100% of all eligible students while Auburn climbed from 38% to 67%.  Over 3900 student signed-up.  The Seattle schools covered are Secondary BOC, Merce, Aki Kurose, Orca, South Shore, Washington and Denny.  Secondary BOC, Mercer, and Aki Kurose enrolled 100% of their eligible students.  South Seattle schools overall went from 91% to 95%.

SPS reports: An Aki Kurose teacher has been selected for a Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange.  Math teacher Suzanne Mayer was the only Washington State teacher selected for this honor.  She will travel to India in August and stay until January 2012.  A teacher from India will take her place during that time period at Aki Kurose.  Robert Ettinger, a teacher at Mercer Middle School , received the Amgen Award for Teaching Science Excellence.  He receives $5,000 and Mercer receives $5,000 towards science development there.  Ettinger was chosen to receive the award because of his creative teaching methods and effectiveness in the classroom, according to Carol Pawlak of Amgen Washington. Center School students Tara Conley, Riley Moffitt, Jasiah Ruby, Sophie Mitchell and Sam Wolk won the 48-Hour Film Off at the  National Film Festival for Talented Youth. Their film, Jam the Jam, was both the audience and judges' favorite.  Center...

Didn't want these good news items to get lost in the Open Thread section. Lafayette is putting on the musical The Music Man.   Here's an article (and cute-as-a-button photo) from the West Seattle Herald. From the Times , Denny International Middle School principal, Jeff Clark, has won the Thomas B. Foster Award for outstanding leadership.  This comes from the Alliance for Education and he will receive a $50k grant.   Clark said he plans to use the $50,000 prize to buy one book for every student to recognize their hard work, to purchase musical instruments, and to start an endowment fund that can be used to help pay field-trip or other fees. I heard Clark speak the other night at the 34th District Democrats meeting.  He said, "I have my dream job."  It got a big round of applause.  He was there to explain how important the Families and Education levy is to his school.  He is one of the best principals this district has and he des...

From the Seattle Times, a story about a former Olympic rower, Portia McGee, who is helping students in three SPS middle schools learn how to row. It's the first year of the program which is a partnership with the George Pocock Rowing Foundation and the school district. It currently runs in 3 schools - Eckstein, Washington, and Aki Kurose - and is going to expand to 3 more next year with the program at nine middle schools by 2013. Not for me but a state legislator is sponsoring a bill to allow parents to teach drivers ed to their children under 18. This came as a surprise to me because I thought the main reason to take driver's ed is to perhaps receive lower insurance rates. Driver's ed is expensive so I can see why this could make a difference to parents (although the stress and the possible damage to your car are also off-putting). The Times has the details in this story. I think the Alliance for Education has a new look for its blog (I doubt they answer comme...

(Did anyone attend Tuesday's? I think Dorothy said she did. I looked at the PowerPoint and there is a lot of stuff that I wish I had heard presented. I'll have to tease it out in another thread. Here are my notes from the PowerPoint of the 2nd of last week's "integrated" work sessions (a mash-up of budget and transition plan). I did not stay until the end so help me out if you did. All the Directors were in attendance as was Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. They started at page 45 of the previous day's work session. They started talking about program placement and the new possible Accelerated IB program in response to the overcrowding at Garfield. It would be modeled after the program at Interlake over in Bellevue. (I'll just say here that I think it's done. The community would have to rise up, en masse, to prevent it. I just think there's way too much work already done for this to be just a "possibility." The question is whe...

There has been some discussion of Rainier Beach High School on the NSAP thread and it has been along the lines of "What can be done to make Rainier Beach a school of choice for the families living in that neighborhood?" The fact that we are asking this question after three years of the Southeast Education Initiative is conclusive proof that the Initiative was an abject failure. The primary purpose of the project was to make Rainier Beach, Cleveland, and Aki Kurose schools of choice. Neither Rainier Beach nor Aki Kurose are schools of choice and Cleveland is closed. STEM has moved into the building. Bird asked: So what would fix Rainier Beach so that families and students would choose to attend it? What could the district do to make it attractive? Isn't it to some extent a case of it not being well attended because it's not well attended? Rabbit wrote: Since most of the families living in the RBHS attendance area choose not to send their kids to RBHS, the first...

Wish I had known about this event sooner. There was a run/walk Sunday to raise PE funds for SPS as reported in the Times today. From the story: "In a city that has been said to have more cats than children, the annual walk and run is an important fundraiser that allows PE teachers to buy new sports equipment or replace equipment that's become battered and worn with use. Students from roughly 60 of the city's 93 elementary, middle and high schools participated, marching around the stadium in a show of school pride, walking or running through the University of Washington campus, and gathering on the field at Husky Stadium for a variety of activities." "On Sunday, the biggest student turnout was from Aki Kurose Middle School in Seattle's Rainier Valley, with about 100 kids raising $4,000 for their school."

Southmom asked for a posting about the middle schools in the South. I've been writing for some time about how it is unreasonable for us to expect Rainier Beach High School to show strong academic achievement among its students when they arrive at the school working below grade level. Many of those students are coming from Aki Kurose middle school. Aki Kurose is the middle school in the Southeast Education Initiative. Academically it is in terrible shape. The WASL pass rates are abysmal. Aki Kurose WASL pass rates, 2009: 6th Grade Math: 30.8% 6th Grade Reading: 61.9% District Average 6th Grade Math (comprehensive middle schools): 60.6% District Average 6th Grade Reading(comprehensive middle schools): 76.1% 7th Grade Math: 22.5% 7th Grade Reading: 45.8% District Average 7th Grade Math (comprehensive middle schools): 59.6% District Average 7th Grade Reading(comprehensive middle schools): 64.4% 8th Grade Math: 38.6% 8th Grade Reading: 63.7% District Average 8th Grade Math (comprehensi...

Unlike the last round of closures that had lots of South and Southeast schools involved in the proposals, this round has relatively few. The Rainier Beach / Aki Kurose proposal for co-location I believe has merit. There is some research that 6-12 schools can be good for helping students otherwise at risk of dropping out reach graduation. Rainier Beach staff and teachers seem to be working very hard to improve the academics and keep a small community-school environment where the teachers know everybody. I believe a 6-12 configuration would address the concerns about the building capacity and allow those teachers to continue their good work, while also bringing Aki Kurose, a school that needs to be restructured according to NCLB, into a school that is on the upswing. I'm surprised that the African American Academy closure proposal is not receiving more opposition than it is. We may still hear more, but from what I have read and heard from south end parents and activists, some peop...