Seattle Schools Community Forum

I think we know the answer - it's still civil rights protections for all citizens of our country but especially for those whose rights appear to be violated every single day. (Note: this is a very long thread but I think worthwhile for the discussion.) I will say right upfront - the only thing standing between us and the bad guys?  Cops.  These are people who go out every day not knowing if they will come home at night because of the job they have chosen.  It is a horrible, difficult job.  Everyone is always happy to see firefighters but police?  Not so much.  No one likes to be told what to do.  But with that kind of danger also comes responsibility.  That responsibility is to be true to the goal "to protect and serve."  We can't have police officers having different standards of interaction for one community versus another.  We can't have police officers escalating conflict rather than deescalating it.  Most of all, we c...

That teacher would be 5th grade teacher Rafe Esquith from Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles.  He has taught for nearly 30 years and written several books.   But I'll let Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post's Answer Sheet tell you more: *When he goes to China he is so popular he needs security guards to protect him from the crush of the crowds. *He is the only K-12 teacher to be awarded the president’s National Medal of the Arts. *A documentary, “ The Atticus Finch of Hobart Elementary ,” was made about the famous Shakespeare program he has run for years at Hobart, where all of his students appear in at least one full-length production a year. The English actor Ian McKellen actually noticed some of Esquith’s young students mouthing the words to a Shakespearean play in which he was performing in Los Angeles. *He has been given the Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award, and Disney’s National Outst...

I will be attending several of the charter school applicant forums this week.  I am slowly making my way thru some of the applications and it makes for interesting reading (but what a slog - very long applications - one was 238 pages!). I don't want to give too much away because I do hope to make a public comment on several of them.  But here are a few highlights: no KIPP ? Not to worry, there's a KIPP-look-alike in the bunch.  Uniforms? Check.  Middle school handshake with administrator with scripted responses? Check?  Lots of TFA?  Check.  Very structured? Check.  Working with the Washington State Charter Schools Association? Check.  Punitive discipline over the small stuff? Check. Another one - Coral Academy - is a no-sale for me.  It appears to be aligned to Gulen and that's just not a group to trust.  There is way too much evidence - from multiple states who have their charters - that the overall answer should be no....

I ended Part One explaining that there had been two large issues that arose during the meeting.  One is the rabbit hole I mentioned and the other is the funding of the Commission's work. Here's the rabbit hole explained. To get a charter from the state two things have to happen.  A charter applicant has to apply to just one authorizer and, after getting the authorizer's approval, then that approved application has to get to the State Board of Education for certification.  However, as you may recall, 1240 is quite vague on the timing of turning in approved charters to the State Board of Education.  Many of us who opposed this measure called this section out, asking "what does this mean?"  It's actually much worse than I thought.  Here's the original text: 3) Upon the receipt of notice from an authorizer that a charter school has been approved, the state board of education shall certify whether the approval is in compliance with the limits on th...

A very nifty flowchart from our friends at the Seattle Education blog (Sue Peters and Dora Taylor) showing the "lines of influence" both nationally and locally.  They created this awhile back and admit it needs updating like the line between Gates and the Alliance, that Goodloe-Johnson is gone, and there are even more connections than ever in 2013.

Do you hear that sound echoing across the country? It's the sound of parents saying "Enough."  And it is spreading throughout the country and I believe if parents stay strong and united, it will defeat this tide of ed reform and testing craziness that is really the problem with making strong academic outcomes for all students. In Missouri , from the Fired Up! website, a story of Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst group trying to create "grassroots" interest in her initiatives.  Last Wednesday they held a luncheon.  The invite went like this:  Do you want get involved in the effort to improve Missouri schools? Come down to The Fig Tree Café and Bakery to share some good food with other Missourians who care about education. Find out more about how we can keep great Missouri teachers in the classroom and increase the number of quality public schools in our state.  Fired Up! says this: The funny part? No one showed up.  Not one grassroots activist came.  ...

Have you ever heard of NativityMiguel Network of Schools?  I hadn't until I read a blurb in the Central District News about a feasibility committee doing surveys in the Central region this Thursday and Saturday. They have been working on this initiative for at least a year.  NativityMiguel was started in July 2006 to create a network of Catholic schools throughout the country and specifically target low-income students in struggling neighborhoods.  They are a 5-8 model with 64 schools in 27 states.  Now normally, I would not be writing about a private (and religious to boot) school.  But this fascinates me because of how much it parallels KIPP (except for cost). Like KIPP: tries to reach mostly struggling low-income students; Kipp - 85% free/reduced lunch, NM 89% free/reduced lunch mostly a 5-8 model (although KIPP has a few high schools and elementary schools) KIPP is funded mostly through federal, state and local taxes as well as private donations (1...

The number of children in the US attending charter schools has passed the two million mark according to an AP article in the Seattle Times.   But read the article closely and you'll see all is not well. From the article: The growth represents the largest increase in enrollment over a single year since charter schools were founded nearly two decades ago. In all, more than 500 new charter schools were opened in the 2011-12 school year. And about 200,000 more students are enrolled now than a year before, an increase of 13 percent nationwide. Of course, the fact that in the article charter supporters and others attribute most of that growth to the RTTT money is telling.  We are Americans, after all.  Give us more choices and we will take them. They are helped by continued support from private foundations and the U.S. Department of Education, which announced $25 million in grants for high achieving charter schools in September. Sixteen states have lifte...

The district has announced another round of principal/assistant principal appointments.  (I'll list those below.)  But what about Rainier Beach HS ?  When we last left them, both of their current co-principals, Dr. Robert Gary and Lisa Escobar, were leaving to go to other posts (Interagency and Viewlands, respectively). Nearly every other school who has been searching for a principal as far back as RBHS has found one.  It's not for lacking of trying because they did form a search committee and did interviews starting back in early April.  But they still haven't announced a principal appointment. I've served on a principal search committee and it was very structured and, of course, that because you need to be completely fair to each applicant.  Same questions, from the same people, etc.  The district did an initial screening search to find candidates who would meet the criteria - both from their resume and the screening - to be a principal for SPS....

It was interesting to say the least and I can honestly say I learned something and walked away better informed. The auditorium at MOHAI was filled (and not just the usual suspects). I saw Councilman Tim Burgess as well as Board President Michael DeBell. (And Councilman Burgess was introduced as the brains behind this event. The Councilman has decided to step into Seattle education. Welcome, Tim.) So the moderator, Adam Porsch, works for the Gates Foundation and used to work in the D.C. district (but he didn't reference Rhee so I don't know if he worked with her). With him were Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation; Timothy Daly, President of the The New Teacher Project; and Steve Barr, Founder and Emeritus Chair, Green Dot Public Schools. The discussion was organized around the guests giving a overview of their group's work, a few central questions and then questions from the audience. (Just as an aside, and I don't mean this badly, but there they were, ju...

I hadn't posted about this before because,well, it fell off my radar at one point. But I'm going and while I'm pretty sure what I'll hear - a love fest for charters - I want to go and listen. Here's the info: On Monday, October 25 at 6 p.m., LEV will be hosting a panel discussion at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) . There are three speakers on the panel: Richard Barth, CEO of KIPP Foundation, Timothy Daly, President of The New Teacher Project, and Steve Barr, Founder of Green Dot Public Schools. The discussion will be moderated by Adam Porsch of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Who are these guys? Richard Barth runs KIPP (a charter system, Knowledge is Power Program. He is married to Wendy Kopp who runs and started Teach for America. There are 99 schools in 20 states. KIPP is considered one of the better charter school systems although it is a more difficult model in that the schools start early and run late and have a longer school y...

I found this article , from last year no less, on the Broad Foundation and LA public schools. (Let me just say I am a bit unclear of the source of the article - it isn't exactly neutral.) From the article: "The charter school movement in Los Angeles received a $23.3 million boost today from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation through new grants to three leading charter school organizations: KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), Aspire Public Schools and Pacific Charter School Development, Inc. These grants bring the total Broad Foundation investment in Los Angeles charters -- that will serve 25,000 total students -- to $56 million since 2000. " So in less than 10 years, the Broad Foundation has pumped $56M into charters in L.A. "High-quality public charter schools in Los Angeles are showing dramatic results in improving student achievement, and we need to do what we can to make sure the best models are available to as many students as possible," said Eli Broad, f...