Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the Seattle Math Coalition: FYI,  the district has changed their math adoption plan based on budget concerns.   The proposed K-8 adoption which was supposed to be in classrooms in Fall of 2014 is now only a K-5 adoption, with 6-8 to be delayed for another year!   This files in the face of common sense:   1)  CMP2 is a train wreck for families without stellar teachers or family/tutor support   2)  Despite a goal of a 7-year adoption cycle, the CMP2 materials are already at year 7.  They are a year older than EDM, yet the district feels more pressure to replace EDM.   3)  Citing poverty, $1.5M is budgetwd for K-5 adoption, however $2M additional is budgeted for Common Core training.  Will they train with old books and then replace them a year later?    4)  The big elephant in the room:  In 2014-15 academic year, state assessments will be based on Common Core.  If Seattle ...

Fair warning. This is going to be a rant. Those of you who come to this blog for news and information should just do yourselves a favor and not read it. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've concluded that I need to write rants like this from time to time. I just need to keep them separate from the news - like the newspaper separates the news from the editorials - so the folks who want to read the news aren't offended by having to read an opinion from outside their bubble. This is going to be a math rant, and they can be among the worst. So, if you want to skip the rants, stop reading now.

I attended the Denny/Sealth press conference and ribbon-cutting for Denny today.  The Superintendent had a press conference and I was glad I attended.  (Can I just say that boy I miss Linda Shaw and Phyllis Fletcher when they aren't there?  Most of these reporters are clueless.) The Superintendent had a lot of pep rally points that we've heard from her focus for this school year.   But there was some more up-to-date info on certain subjects. Highlights: She was asked about capacity management in West Seattle.  She said that they had a team of staff and community working to help work on this issue (she didn't say but I assumed she meant the Demographics Taskforce).  She said that the district wanted to be "prepared in advance and not just reacting to enrollment changes." She also said capacity management also includes related programs needs and I was grateful that she acknowledged that issue. Again on capacity managment, she said that they had he...

Not a complete bust but not a great interview with these candidates on The Conversation this afternoon.  First, KUOW should make up its mind on the format.  For District 2, the candidates were interviewed individually and for a longer period of time.  (There were three of them.) For District 6, they had them all in the studio and interviewed each for a much shorter period of time but did allow them to interact.   I think it would be better to have the interaction among candidates AFTER the primary and allow people more time to get to know these candidates now.  Steve was first.  He was asked about Pottergate and the sale of the MLK,Jr. building.   His answer will now set the tone for his campaign.  He says they acted promptly when they had the State Auditor's investigation report.  What!?   If he is saying he had no idea anything was wrong until that point, he was simply not paying attention.  He stated that the...

The West Seattle Herald ran an interview with Director Steve Sundquist where he says some pretty interesting things.   (They will be running interviews with challengers Marty McLaren, Joy Anderson and Nick Esparza soon.)   The Herald made one mistake (I believe) which was to only list the other incumbents running and not their challengers. 

I attended last week's Metropolitan Democrats meeting.  It wasn't an endorsement event but rather, one for their members to get a first look (and listen) to candidates ranging from King County Council to School Board Directors.  It was a good chance to hear from the School Board candidates (although not all were present).

You'll have to read it to believe it.  KUOW has fired/let go UW professor Cliff Mass.   If you're not familiar with Professor Mass (he of the perfect radio voice), he did a regular feature on Friday mornings about the upcoming weather in the Puget Sound.  He usually added some kind of science feature to his work and it was usually related to the weather/science.  I actually didn't hear him do this all that much.  He was usually on between 3-5 minutes. But I guess sometimes he talked about fuzzy math.  (He was part of a small group that successfully sued the district over the math curriculum only to later have it reversed on appeal.)  And I guess that made some people (like UW which owns KUOW) mad.  Read about it at his blog and how he matches it to the firing of Principal Floe.  He makes some very strong points about how other "regulars," who are on much longer also provide commentary.  If you like Professor Mass' work on KUO...

Not much happening this week in SPS meetings but many education events this month.

The Court of Appeals for Washington State has ruled that the School Board's adoption of Discovery math was not " arbitrary capricious or contrary to law ."  From the ruling: Those challenging the Board decision bear a heavy burden, particularly because it was based on complex and technical factual matters at the heart of the Board's Arbitrary and capricious agency action is "wilful and unreasoning action, action without consideration and in disregard of the facts and circumstances of the case. Action is not arbitrary or capricious when exercised honestly and upon due consideration where there is room for two opinions, however much it may be believed that an erroneous conclusion was reached. The Court found that the Board did not fail to give honest consideration to the " alleged deficiencies of the Discovering series" . It went through, item by item, of the plaintiffs issues with the decision. One interesting item: The challengers believe th...