Seattle Schools Community Forum

On Tuesday, April 12, the OSPI sent Dr. Nyland an eMail reminding him of the requirement that districts and school achieve a participation rate of 95 percent on the state proficiency assessments. The message included a table naming the 49 schools in our district that did not meet the 95 percent participation rate on one or both tests.

The vote on the next version of No Child Left Behind is coming up for a vote this week, first in the Senate and then, next week, in the House.   There are several issues that have come to my attention via Diane Ravitch and the Network of Public Education. Here's a link to all the Washington State representatives and senators.  E-mail is great but there is also great value in calling their offices and registering your vote.  (I interned for an Arizona senator once and my job was taking phone calls from constituents on issues of the day.  They registered every single call.) However you do it, PLEASE contact our congressional reps on this vote.  When you do, please note to them that this is a much better bill than the original.

From Senator Patty Murray's office: TOMORROW - Floor Debate Begins on Sen. Murray’s  Bill to Fix “No Child Left Behind”

1)  Ask the School Board to write a letter like this one from the Palm Beach County School Board and tell them to send it to Governor Inslee and State Superintendent Dorn.  Write to them at : schoolboard@seattleschools.org. Partial (full letter in link):

I am a member of the Network for Public Education, a group started by elder education statesperson, Diane Ravitch.  One of our members sent this message today; I ask you to consider helping with input to elected officials on an issue around student data privacy for higher education. What we are asking for is an e-mail to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee.  The deadline was last Friday but it has been extended to the end of the day (EST) tomorrow, Monday the 27th.  Sample e-mail at the end of this thread. Send them to  consumerinformation@help. senate.gov Synopsis:

I wouldn't exactly call this hell freezing over but maybe it's a bit of a frosting over.  I cover two views about accountability and NCLB. From The Hill (a blog about Congress) comes this op-ed from two different leaders of ed reform - corporate and reality-based.  The authors are: Linda Darling-Hammond is professor of Education at Stanford University and faculty director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Paul T. Hill is research professor at the University of Washington and founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. (Disclaimer: I think Darling-Hammond is brilliant and should have been Obama's pick for Secretary of Education.  On the other hand, I have very little appreciation for Dr. Hill's thoughts on public education.)