Seattle Schools Community Forum

The State Board of Education is holding a board meeting July 7-9 in Seattle . Please join board members for an open discussion July 8 at the Rainier Community Center on important topics such as strategies for closing the achievement gap, standards, and assessment. Please note that the regular meeting will be held at the Museum of Flight. Rainier Community Center, Seattle, WA 4600 38th Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 From 6:30-8:00 pm    Might want to come and give them a cheerful earful on Common Core and SBAC. From the Times: The forum is part of the board’s regular meeting, which begins today at the Museum of Flight. The three-day  agenda includes a review of of experiences districts had giving the new Smarter Balanced state math and reading tests this spring on July 9 from 10-11:30 a.m. The meetings on July 8 and July 9 both have times scheduled for publi...

Reader N provided this news about Amplify's tablet division via Diane Ravitch's blog. Bloomberg News reports that Rupert Murdoch’s effort to cash in on education is “riddled with failures.”  “The education effort has been riddled with technology failures, fragile equipment, a disconnect between tablet marketers and content developers, and an underestimation of how difficult it would be to win market share from entrenched rivals such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. in the kindergarten to high school education market. “Amplify’s experience shows how even the most deep-pocketed new players find it challenging to change the way children are taught. Billionaires such as Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and real estate and insurance investor Eli Broad have expressed frustration their philanthropy hasn’t done more to improve student achievement. Murdoch is discovering his own challenges as he seeks to make a profit from overhauling education — as have other educat...