Seattle Schools Community Forum

Lynne Varner of the Seattle Times wrote an editorial,  Moving education theory from the lab to the classroom , in which she got it mostly right. She now seems to support making education reforms based on research. This is a big change from her previous support for education reforms that had no research to support them or reforms that were discredited by the research. If you can get past the one ridiculous and self-serving claim "I’ve written about education long enough to have a sense of what works." the rest of the column is pretty good. And here's the interesting thing: the researching did not support mandated retention for third graders who don't pass a state proficiency test. They didn't support giving schools letter grades. They didn't support granting unaccountable hire/fire authority to principals, and they didn't support the dismantling and privatization of our public school system. No. They didn't support any of the things that Ms Varn...

Man, the Seattle Times is pulling out all the stops in the days before retreating behind a paywall. There are several inflammatory articles and columns about education on the Times web site right now. You would think it was just before an election instead of just after one. Feds probing Seattle schools’ treatment of black students This story is about a U.S. Department of Education investigation into whether black students in Seattle schools are punished more frequently and more harshly than white students for the same behavior. The comments section reveals some really horrible racist remarks and, more than anything, a gross misunderstanding of the purported problem. The feds are not investigating whether black students are punished more frequently (they are) but whether they are punished differently from other students for similar infractions. Senate GOP scales back education agenda This story is a good one. Brian Rosenthal writes about how the Republican Majority Coalition is s...

Today, the Seattle Times ran an editorial by Lynne Varner (" Adding color to the education reform debate ") which is, without a doubt, the worst statement in support of charters yet to appear. Ms Varner proudly quotes a study which reports: "60% of the charter schools performed with similar or better success than the traditional public schools in reading and 53 percnet (sic) of charter schools performed with similar or better success in math compared to traditional schools." Those of us with math skills instantly recognize that this means that 40% of charters had WORSE results than traditional public schools in reading and 47% of them had WORSE results than traditional public schools in math. Rather than using this data to support the creation of charter schools, I would use these results to oppose them. Note that we don't know what share of the charter schools showed performance that was similar to that of traditional public schools, but, if this study...

First we have the story in Crosscut about the survey results that not only mis-reported the results (seriously, how do you get the numbers wrong in a story about the numbers?), but also grossly mis-interpreted them. The numbers in the story have been corrected but the editorial content remains mis-directed. The Crosscut story suggests that Dr. Enfield's 37% favorable rating in the survey suggests that the City loves her but that the Board's 33% favorable rating suggests that the City thinks they stink. Let's remember that the survey has a margin of error of five percentage points so these two results are, statistically, the same. Let's also note that Dr. Enfield got a 56% neutral rating. So way more people responded "Susan Who?" than proclaimed their love. And if a 37% favorable rating means love, then what does the teachers' 81% favorable rating suggest? Adoration, I suppose. Dr. Enfield, despite the focus of the story, actually finished a distant fifth ...

I am repeating my offer to Lynne Varner. I invite her to join me in a reasonable and respectful conversation about public education. This thread is for that conversation. It will be for just her and me. I will delete comments from anyone else, so don't bother posting them. Here is her invitation, posted to the comments of her most recent column : Ms Varner, if you want a calm, nuanced, reasoned and reality-based conversation about Education Reform, I will be delighted to give you one. I'll host. You can meet me at the saveseattleschools blog. I will make a space for you there. Don't be afraid; it will be just you and me. We can cover any topic you like: testing, charters, unions, the Gates Foundation, Teach for America, the Seattle School Board, math curricula, the opportunity gap, whatever you like. More, I will honor your wish to keep away from any topic you don't want to discuss. No cheap shots. No debating points. No gotcha. I will show you courtesy and r...