Seattle Schools Community Forum

Break out those crayons/colored pencils/markers this weekend and work on your Color of Money McCleary coloring sheet.  It's a great way to get the attention of legislators (see previous thread for sheet.) Want to give input on what happens to the Roosevelt Reservoir (just down the street from Roosevelt High)?  There's a survey out about that.   Some of us in the neighborhood think best use might be a new elementary school while others think playfields would serve more people and there's even one person who wants a ice skating rink. Yet another petition - via NEA - on high stakes testing - if that's your concern, sign it.

Some irony in the story in the Times recently about teaching math in colleges/universities .  The story is about how a Central Washington professor, Dominic Klyve, has been given a grant (shared with six other higher ed institutions) to study using "primary sources" to help students grasp math concepts. What primary sources?  People like Euclid and Archimedes.  The idea is that students understand not just how to solve an equation but how the method to solve the problem was developed. I do like this "back to basics" idea (at least in trying to help students see math as a journey and not just a single endpoint of solving problems) but it's a bit of a clash with what K-12 students are learning via Common Core math.  My understanding of how Common Core math is taught does not match up with what this professor (and others) are trying to find out for how college students should be taught math.

Alex Trebek doesn't explain it but there was a category on Kids Week called "Non-Common Core Math."  The young man who took it on didn't do so well but I think the lack of parens may have made it harder for him to do in his head. 

Thanks to S Parent for bringing this to our attention.  From the Wall Street Journal and UC Berkeley math professor, Marina Ratner, I think it is one swell piece of writing that - in a straight-forward manner - explains why Common Core is deeply flawed.  Ms. Ratner is professor emerita of mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. She was awarded the international Ostrowski Prize in 1993 and received the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences, of which she is a member, in 1994.  I loved this part at the beginning of the article: As a mathematician I was intrigued, thinking that there must be something rea...

There have been many stories about parents - famous (like Louis C.K., a certified public school parent in NYC who spoke about Common Core homework NOT in a routine but as a parent) and not-so-famous - and their struggle to help their children with their CC homework, particularly in math. The latest article comes from the NY Times.  Some of the comments are off discussing whether CCSS are valid, implementation, etc. and miss the main point.  (I have to laugh at the number of comments saying "go look up on YouTube how to do it."  Really?  And what parent has time for that?  And all parents have computer access at how and can understand it themselves?) Kids come to parents for help with their homework.  When the homework, especially in math, is significantly different than how the parent learned, and the student needs help at home, then it is up to the school, the system to give parents that help. I've seen one article telling parents to quit helping th...

Here's the latest that I have gleaned from various sources: - Michael Tolley did indeed, in front of Director McLaren, say that "in effect there is a dual adoption."   This is stunning.  I believe now that if this push to have schools - in effect vote on which math curriculum they want - blows up in staff's collective faces, they will then say, "Oh, we interpreted the Board vote as dual because we have a math waivers policy."  That may have been why the Superintendent repeatedly told me yesterday that the math waivers policy was important in this discussion. I'm not sure that CYA will work but good luck.  At the worst, someone may be out of a job and at the least, a very bitter wind will continue to blow through this district.