Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Times is creating a new, Gates-sponsored conversation "The Homeroom." That’s why The Seattle Times’ Education Lab is trying something new: bringing together parents (and guardians) with K-12 educators (including paraeducators) — two groups that care deeply about students, but don’t often talk together.  We’re eager to hear the frustrations, ideas, victories and barriers both have faced in securing the best education for their students and children. Participants will get the chance to talk at length with other teachers and parents across the state about how to tackle problems. And together, jointly explore possible solutions. They are using a group - Spaceship Media - to facilitate these meetings. About them: We work with media companies across all platforms to support them in deepening their relationships with the communities they serve. In partnership, we design dialogue journalism engagements — Conversation Experiences — that start with listening and lea...

I've written about "personalized learning" before and I will continue as this becomes an ever-growing story.  There is absolutely every reason to consider new and better ways to use technology to increase academic outcomes and hopefully that drills down to each and every student's learning style.  But there are many factors to consider like:

Here's an event you might consider attending: Parents Across America Presents Alison McDowell  " Future Ready Schools: How Silicon Valley is Reshaping Our Schools" Saturday, March 25th from 10:30 am to noon at the Lake City library branch., 12501 28th Avenue, NE This talk is free and open to the public.

When thinking of the Gates Foundation's work in the public education arena, there are not many wins to point to except for Common Core.  Of course, that's quite a large win even though many publications either don't know Gates funded that whole mission or they just leave it out of their writing about Common Core. I may have printed this editorial that appeared in June of last year in the Los Angeles Times   before but it bears repeating because of what the Gates Foundation says about itself.  About Common Core: The Gates Foundation strongly supported the proposed Common Core curriculum standards, helping to bankroll not just their development, but the political effort to have them quickly adopted and implemented by states.

You'll notice I didn't say "looking forward" because honestly, I don't see much hope for public education for all students in this country, state and city.  Let's start with nationally. Trump won the Electoral College and is therefore elected president.  However, that win is clearly not a mandate when you consider that he received nearly 63 million votes to Hillary Clinton's nearly 66 million votes.  Add into her votes the ballots cast for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and others and you get to about 74 million people who voted against Trump. He has not even been sworn in and already there are many warning signs.  His background and actions tell us three important things.

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...

N.J. school gave students the wrong PARCC test Students in the gifted program knew they do well in math but thought this test was way too easy. That's because the algebra test they were supposed to take wasn't what they got.  Among the other tidbits of info from this story. Christiana said he doesn't think it's fair to the students that they wasted an afternoon on the wrong test. "Now they are told their test was nonsense and they have to take another one," Christiana said. "I am frustrated, and they are not giving us any answers." Less than a week earlier, students were locked out of PARCC testing because of an error by an employee at Pearson, the company that provides the exams. Teachers are instructed not to look at student's computer screens during PARCC testing, even if a student has a question, said Matthew Stagliano, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers union. So the kids can tell s...

Update: some common sense from one of my favorite education writers, Jersey Jazzman, and his "The PARCC Silly Season. end of update It's just hard to know where to start. First, the new thought from ed reformers is that parents just don't understand what they are doing when they opt their children out.  Thanks for patronizing them as if they are not thinking adults.  There are also new pro-testing groups springing up and many of them are funded by the Gates Foundation.  It's the same thing, over and over, with the Foundation. Create faux parent groups, data use groups and even media groups. 

It's a funny thing, this public education advocacy.  There are many of us, locally, and nationwide, representing all kinds of issues and viewpoints.  But, with the advent of corporate ed reform, there are now new players, most of the funded by the big fish (people like Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Alice Walton, etc.)  They create these faux groups that just pop up as if they have existed forever and yet they can only point to a few - seemingly token - parents or teachers. But regular advocates forge on without that kind of financial backing or big name firepower.  Our coin of the realm is that biggest, widest picture on issues.  Many in corporate ed reform hate it.  They need to get something done and so, put their side in a pretty frame where the frame covers half the picture.  Since most of us regular advocates traffic in the truth with real data and real outcomes (just as the other side does sometimes), well, the truth has the ability to get people ...

Nonprofit Quarterly, a journal on "innovative thinking for the nonprofit sector" has always been a  lately favorite of mine.  They are generally very straightforward in their thinking.  This particular article, Charitable Plutocracy: Bill Gates, Washington State, and the Nuisance of Democracy, by Joanne Barken, is much more harsh than their usual writing but, on this topic, I don't mind. Joanne Barkan is a writer based in New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. For the past six years, her work has focused on the relationship between “big philanthropy” and democracy, and the intervention of private foundations in public-education policy. (Barkan also has another excellent article, They (Not We) Shall Overcome: Private Largesse and Public Education, that I hope to write about in context of what I see happening in Seattle around discourse on public education reform.)

Public disclosure requests can sometimes yield the oddest things (seemingly not related to your request, no matter how narrowly you tailor it.)  Such is the case with my public disclosure request from OSPI around charter schools. One e-mail in one batch was from sent in late Nov to various people in education from several districts including SPS about a meeting to discuss how to get attract more people of color to  teaching.  The e-mail was from the Gates Foundation's Edie Harding, Senior Program Officer, Pacific NW Initiative about their "DEW" work (Diversify the Educator Workforce.) The one SPS invitee was Karen Harris who is an assistant principal at Beacon Hill Elementary.  (Ms Harris appears to have worked for the Martinez Foundation whose principal mission is to support teachers of color.  The Martinez Foundation has been moved to the Technology Access Foundation.)  I did ask the district if they knew about this effort but no one has answered bac...

I'll start with what I think is coming next.  A big fat fight in the legislature - one that will take time and energy away from the work of McCleary.  (Despite what Republicans think, a one-pager to the Supreme Court with some dates and thoughts on funding are unlikely to change minds on the court.)  The legislature starts its short two-month session on Monday, Jan. 11th. I think there will be at least one charter school bill in the legislature (I'm hearing there may be two which would make it interesting.  I'm also betting one of them will have Rep. Eric Pettigrew's name on it.)  Now, there are three major issues with the current law that would need to be fixed, two of them constitutional, and I think those two come with so much baggage, that a bill can't be created, vetted by both legislators and the public, amended and then passed.   It could happen but I think that's not likely. I think the charter schools will be opening their doors after the ho...

Update; these are some choice comments made by the Gates as reported in the Washington Post today. Gates on Common Core: “The early days almost went too well for us,” Gates said. “There was adoption, everything seemed to be on track. ...We didn’t realize the issue would be confounded with what is the appropriate role of the federal and state government, we didn’t think it would be confounded with questions about are there too many tests, confounded with if you’re raising the bar, what is the right set of things to help teachers be ready for that? Mrs Gates on testing: “In a few states, they went too quickly, rolling out the standards and the assessments went too fast and parents rightfully said, ‘Oh my gosh, a new test,’ ” Melinda Gates said.   OH, blame it on the states.  You'll note there is no admission that they might have been wrong.  Not one single word. End of update.

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.

Update :  here's a very good opt-out form from World Privacy Forum to use to opt your child out of some or all directory information in SPS.  Look for that FERPA form in your first-day packet and include this one as well.  (I am checking on the issue of if not allowing directory information will opt your child out of yearbooks.  I do not believe so.) end of update. A good article appeared in yesterday's NY Times that "the email addresses and search queries of the nation’s schoolchildren are a hot commodity."   States are starting to get hip to this fact - with conservatives and liberals both having concerns, not to mention parents.  Unfortunately, tech companies and companies that make public education technology their business are as well and are rushing to create "Parents Bill of Rights" that basically are a lot of hot air and not much else. I would like to get such a bill in front of the Washington Legislature but I hesitate because of M...

I thought it might be a good idea to review who's out there and what they have been doing.

From the Washington Post's Answer Sheet (partial): Along with the Common Core, the big winners in terms of issue were charter schools — especially in Washington state (where Gates helps finance a campaign to win voter approval of charters) — and online and technology-based learning initiatives.

A reader points out an interesting issue to the Nyland version of the early signing of the Gates Foundation grant. "I was checking out the agenda for the board mtg on Wed. and went to the technology document that was added.  It was sent from Nyland  on Sept. 18 , and section II clearly states that board action is necessary because the amount of money being addressed exceeds 250K. Kinda weird that the Gates grant flew through afterwards, with no board approval beforehand.  If Nyland wrote the memo himself there is just no excuse." So Nyland knew (or whoever wrote that BAR under his name) on Sep. 18th that any spending over $250K needed Board approval.  And yet, on September 26th, he signed the Gates Foundation grant for $750K and seemingly did not know this.   Hmmm. Looks like National PTA is getting in deeper with Gates/Microsoft - this is a tweet from one of the national heads: "Great day with  @ NationalPTA  advocates at...

Despite Cashel Toner's "this is how it's done," actually NO, this is not how grant agreements over $250K are done in SPS.  Why anyone on the Board took her word for it is beyond me. From the Superintendent's Friday Memo: At the board meeting on Wednesday you approved the $750,000 Gates grant for a Gatzert pre-school. Thank you, that will allow us to move forward on providing much needed and appreciated services for high need students at Gatzert.    Following the board meeting, you noted that the support materials for that agenda item included a copy of the contract between the Gates Foundation and the District. It was noted that I, as superintendent, had signed the grant in September which is much earlier than approved by the board.    In following up, I have confirmed that we did in fact receive the money from the Gates Foundation in October however, those funds were held and would not have been spent until Board approval was obtained. ...

Finally sat down to listen to the Gates Foundation preschool grant discussion from last Wednesday Board meeting.  Many adjectives come to mind; disingenuous (Cashel Toner), tardy for the party (Director McLaren), integrity (Director Patu), rationality (Director Peters) and dumbfounded (for Directors Carr and Peaslee). Folks, our Board not only okayed a grant that had been signed off months before by the Superintendent (and more on that in a moment) but most agreed it lacked clarity in one key issue.  Astonishing. It seems that staff was able, somehow, to negate to the Board that going into Years 2 and 3 of this grant, it is completely unclear what will happen.  Both Sue Peters and Betty Patu asked, over and over, and yet no real answer. Here's the crux of the problem as both Patu and Peters pointed out. The district is doing this backwards.   The MOU with the City should come FIRST and then any agreements.  Because what IF an MOU with the City is n...