Seattle Schools Community Forum

OSPI had (seemingly) been rushing to submit its plan to the US Department of Education for the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which is the NCLB replacement.  They announced yesterday that they are allowing 60 more days for public comment.  From Superintendent Dorn: After consultation with Superintendent-elect Chris Reykdal, Deputy Superintendent Gil Mendoza, Gov. Jay Inslee and various stakeholder groups, I am delaying the submission of the Every Student Succeeds Act Consolidated Plan to the U.S. Department of Education. Here's a link to OSPI's ESSA page including a summary document in seven languages and a link so you can make your comment.  OSPI did have a listening tour but that happened last week. In something of an oddity , there is this call for volunteers at Garfield to go over report cards with students.  I'll have to ask the district about this because it would seem to me there are privacy issues here especially if parents don't know that thei...

There have been a number of hugely important ed reform stories from around the country in the last couple of weeks.  But naturally, my focus was on the strike and the charter law ruling. Update: some good national stories about the Seattle strike: Washington Post The surprising things Seattle teachers won for students by striking   NY Educator   What Seattle had that we don't end of update Here's what has been happening in Florida and California. Two big stories out of Florida; one is about the Gates Foundation leaving one district holding the financial bag on a huge project, the other is about Florida superintendents' letter of no confidence in their state testing.

A fairly amazing week in national ed reform news.  Common Core. - the Chicago Teachers Union issued a resolution against Common Core that was brilliant. - in NY state, a former Regent spoke out against Common Core, mostly because of the work that had gone into developing NY State standards (only to see them tossed aside).   - from the right, came Peggy Noonan (formerly President Reagan's speechwriter) with a piece in the Wall Street Journal .  It's a good piece that didn't come from Tea Party people but true conservatives.  That law exists because the people who pushed for it fell in love with an abstract notion and gave not a thought to what the law would actually do and how it would work. - yet another prominent, non-Tea Party conservative, George Will , broke down CC in under two minutes.   From Diane Ravitch: Pearson , the British publisher, plans to launch a new PR offensive to push back against the anti-testing and anti-Common Core grou...

A reader asked a simple question - who are the ed reformers?  That's a more complicated question than it seems.  But let's break it down by who's who nationally, at the state level and in our city.  Let me just say that there are education bloggers out there who have done the lion's share of work to compile this information so credit goes to them.  The real top gun is, of course, the Gates Foundation .   Nearly every single ed reform flows from their money in one way or another.  They even help fund the also-wealthy Broad Foundation (another major player).  The third member of this trifecta would be Alice Walton of the Walton Foundation (but I think she gets her guidance from Gates).  (The Gates Foundation just got a brand-new CEO and most of her qualifications seem to be on the health-care end - at least that how the Times touted her - but she seems to have some background in education.  No matter - she's not going to be directing an...

Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasy told his district's top leadership that he would be leaving in a few months.  He came from the Gates Foundation and is yet another Broad superintendent to get exited or who left a job.  He has been on the job since 2011.  Into this issue wades Robin Lake of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (basically a local think-tank for ed reform).  She lauds Deasy for leaving "a comfortable job at the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation."  Then she goes all in: In nearly any other sector, a man like Deasy—who is able to articulate a strong vision of change and pursue it relentlessly—would be able to get people to follow him and accomplish most anything. But this was LAUSD, where for decades strong leaders were eaten alive by the politics of race and unions and poverty and rampant district dysfunction.  Note that ed reform jargon: dysfunction (again), politics of race and unions and poverty.  Then she expla...

I'm not actually sure who wrote this letter but Senator Tom Harkin is being urged to ask Sec. of Education Arne Duncan these questions.  You can too by e-mailing the Secretary at arne . duncan @ed.gov "How many of your staffers have worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? Who are they, and why did you hire them? "What role did these staffers and Bill Gates have on the formulation of the RTTT mandates? "How much classroom teaching experience do the principal authors of the RTTT mandates have, individually, and as a group? "Why are these individuals qualified to make decisions about education policy? "Were you, or anyone who works within the Department of Education in contact with any representative or lobbyist representing Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill, or InBloom before or during the writing of the RTTT mandates? "What is the Broad Foundation? What is your connection to the Broad Foundation? What education policies does the Broa...

First up , Thank You for your support of the No On 1240 Money Blast!   It  was a great success and will allow more outreach to voters.  Next, will you look at this?  After only 17 months in Chicago, yet-another ex-Broadie bites the education dust.  This would be Chicago Schools' "CEO" Jean-Claude Brizard.  Also, two Director Community Meetings tomorrow: Carr - 8:30-10 am at Bethany Community Church , 8023 Green Lake Dr. (access at N 81st by playground) Martin-Morris - 9:30 am -11:30 am at Diva Espresso at 80th and Lake City Way And will you look at that?  It's wet stuff on the ground.  Perfect time to go see a movie.  If you have teens (well, actually there is nothing really objectionable to this movie but teens might like it best) or like a story of the triumph of the human spirit, go see the documentary, Searching for Sugar Man at the Varsity.  (I'm going to see the lead play tonight at the Showbox.) It's the story of a ...

Of possible interest to our readers: From Education Week - an article about "a new breed of national education advocacy organizations " and the debate "about whether they can play a grassroots 'ground game' comparable to that of labor. Another article on these groups, this one from Education Next, about Fight Club for ERAOs (Education reform advocacy organizations) in D.C.  You remember the first rule of Fight Club?  There is NO Fight Club.  Why this emergence of these groups?  This article links it to charter operation frustration.  This is possibly the best article I have read in summing up these groups, how they interact and their growing influence. Many of the groups talk to one another frequently,, through a regular conference call organized by the Education Trust, at meetings organized by funders such as the Walton Family Foundation, and at conferences convened by groups such as the NewSchools Venture Fund.   The 34 organizations in the...

I read these two articles and thought, "What are we doing?" and "How did we get here?" The first is a blog entry from the Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet, by Valerie Strauss who, in turn, had a guest blogger, Marion Brady.   It's called, Revealed: The School Board Member Who Took a Standardized Test.    The board member failed the test.  But that's not really the story.  Here's what he had to say:

It was pointed out in the Crosscut thread on UW and TFA that our new Manager of Recruiting, Nathan Fitzpatrick, is a former TFA alum.  Actually he has quite a long association with TFA from his Linked-In page: Current: Manager, Recruitment at Seattle Public Schools Past: Manager, Non-Profit Alliances at Teach For America Recruitment Director at Teach For America Corps Member at Teach For America   Now by my count we have but one Broad person left in the person of Jessica de Barros.   (The district just recently bid farewell to Cordell Carter. I only know of two TFA SPS staff (there are a couple of teachers but I wouldn't count them): Nathan Fitzpatrick  (he did testify in favor of TFA at the November Board meeting but this was before he wa...

Rahm Emanuel, the mayor-elect of Chicago, just appointed a new head of schools.  Jean-Claude Brizard comes from Rochester, NY schools and is a Broad superintendent.   From the Huffington Post: Brizard, a native of Haiti, embodies two types of urban superintendents. On the one hand, he’s a former principal with masters' degrees in school administration and science education. He’s a product of the classroom who went on to follow a traditional path of school management, serving as a regional superintendent of New York City schools. On the other hand, he’s a graduate of the Broad Foundation’s Superintendents Academy -- a program that stresses the corporate-tinged, charter-school championing policies emphasized by the Obama administration -- that is much maligned by teachers unions. His tenure saw improved graduation rates and higher test scores in math and English, but was also marked by clashes with teachers' unions over a push for increased charter schools ...

When we last left the discussion of District Administration magazine, they had published an article by former Boston schools' superintendent, Tom Payzant, about how urban superintendents are not being given a long enough tenure to see real results.  Professor Payzant used our district as an example and wrote a revisionist history of Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's stay here in Seattle.  (And mind you, there are more than a few Board members who agreed that the article was off the mark.  They, too, do not want to see themselves painted as being bullied and weak.)  Charlie and I (and at least a few other readers) wrote to the editor to complain.  One of our main complaints was that Professor Payzant did not disclose in his article that (1) he knows Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, (2) was brought out to conduct her Board evaluation and (3) that he and Dr. Goodloe-Johnson are both professionally affiliated with the Broad Foundation.  That might have given some readers pause had ...

From the New York Times: an op-ed about asking students what THEY want in a high school .  The author, Susan Engel, followed a group of 8 high school students as they " designed and ran their own school within a school. "  Interesting reading.  Here's a connecting lesson plan .  A couple of thoughtful parts: An Independence Project student who had once considered dropping out of school found he couldn’t bear to stop focusing on his current history question but didn’t want to miss out on exploring a new one. When he asked the group if it would be O.K. to pursue both, another student answered, “Yeah, I think that’s what they call learning.”  The students in the Independent Project are remarkable but not because they are exceptionally motivated or unusually talented. They are remarkable because they demonstrate the kinds of learning and personal growth that are possible when teenagers feel ownership of their high school experience, when they learn thin...

Students Need Stable District Leadership is an article at the website, District Administration, about Dr. Goodloe-Johnson.  It was written by Tom Payzant, a professor "of practice" at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and the former head of Boston Public Schools and he is apparently someone who likes to talk about things he isn't well-versed in or he just likes to leave things out.

I was watching NBC news last night and they featured a story about Sal Khan.  He's a guy who was trying to help his cousin in another state with math.  He made a video lesson of himself teaching and got her through it and now's she's pre-med at Sarah Lawrence. He created the Khan Academy which is a warehouse of about 2100 10-20 minute  FREE video lessons from K-12 math (the original one) to biology, chemistry and physics with a little humanities (history and finance).  From the website : Each problem is randomly generated, so you never run out of practice material. If you need a hint, every single problem can be broken down, step-by-step, with one click. If you need more help, you can always watch a related video.  You can also get stats on how you are doing.  You can track your progress or, if you are a teacher, your class' progress.  Sal started doing this while his wife was doing her residency.  He had started to dip into his savin...

A good article at Crosscut by Anthony B. Robinson about the role poverty plays in education and is it being considered by ed reformers. To whit: Schools do a very good job with many kids who come prepared to learn. Does the big money behind education reform focus on schools' problems to the point of ignoring the societal issues of poverty that lie behind many of the challenges for schools? He references an article that many of you have recommended and I add my voice to that chorus because it clearly lays out the issues around philanthropy and its power to sway the course public education takes. It is from the on-line magazine, Dissent, by Joanne Barkin called, " Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule our Schools. " It should be required reading for every elected official who cares and/or has a role in public education. From the Crosscut article: One thing a good education teaches is to be skeptical of simple answers. Laying all blame for student failure (or credit f...

Word comes that Cordell Carter, one of the Broad residents who remained on as a hire at SPS, has resigned. For a time, he had been a special assistant to Don Kennedy, the COO, but recently was the director of School Services. He oversaw such areas of student transportation, child nutrition, etc. I don't know why he left or who will replace him. (I'm thinking that the heads of those departments could just report directly to Don Kennedy.) That leaves just one former Broad Resident, Jessica de Barros, as well as Dr. Goodloe-Johnson who went through the Broad Superintendent Academy.

Apparently the Broad Foundation has a concern. They are hiring Public Agenda to do research to figure out the following: "Understanding Community Opposition to Taking Bold Action on Failing Schools" In communities across the country, leadership reform efforts face serious opposition when they aim to implement bold actions to turn around failing schools. Public Agenda, with the support of the Broad Foundation, is embarking on a research project to explore why so many of these well-intentioned efforts misfire. We hope to learn more about what could be done to improve communication and build more trust and confidence between school leaders committed to reform and communities afflicted with persistently low-performing schools. Public Agenda is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is widely respected for its public policy research. Part of the Broad Foundation’s mission is to transform K–12 urban public education through better governance, management, ...

I started this to go over my notes from the Work Session but got lost in this slide about what other districts we would like to emulate are doing. I took the time to look these districts up because I want to know what it is that that they do that the Superintendent thinks we should be doing. It's a mixed bag without further input from her. There was a slide (#6) from the Work Session handout referencing other districts making changes but no discussion about it. So let's review them: Gwinnett County, GA - right on their home page - winner of the 2010 $1M Broad prize. (It goes to the urban school district that has the strongest student achievement and improvement narrowing of the achievement gap. The money goes for high school seniors for college scholarships.) That said, a pretty impressive district. They have some mighty small high school class sizes. Good for them but how do they do it? This district has about 161,000 students. Boston - what's interesting...

Meg Diaz pulled together a chart (which I will post later on) that shows some of the "foundation, institutions and private donor contributions to SPS for 2009-2010 "). It's quite interesting reading to see how much some PTAs raise. There are some schools that have real money going through them like McGilvra PTA, $252,558 for a staffing grant, Laurelhurst PTA with $161,000, JSIS PTA, $280,000, Salmon Bay PTA $101,000). New School Foundation gave South Shore $1.2M. Hey, bless all these people for raising this money and donating it. But a lot of this says "PTA Supplemental Staffing". Again, the PTA is not there to backfill staff or fix buildings and it is very sad that this is what is happening. (I know at least one school that does not allow this because of the worry of it being sustainable and I'm sure it is quite a heavy worry for parents to keep up this level of fundraising.) Given that this is happening, I'm a little surprised at how little en...