Seattle Schools Community Forum

I neglected to mention Director Patu has a Community Meeting from 10 am to noon today at Cafe Vita. I read thru the g eneral letter from SPS to families about NCLB.    As I previously noted, the Washington Policy Center is claiming 33 letters went out about different schools (I need to get confirmation from the district on this) but they also claim there isn't info on tutoring and/or changing schools. Under NCLB, students at "failing" schools are offered free tutoring and/or the ability to change to another non-failing school.  The district has always made this option available as their legal obligation. In addition to the notification, SPS Title I schools that did not meet AYP now must offer to move students to school that made AYP or is not in one of the Steps of Improvement required by the law. This is called Public School Choice. The law also includes free tutoring services in reading, language arts and/or math at schools that do not meet AYP.  This ...

The AP is reporting that the State Supreme Court will announced on Friday that it would consider if the charter law of Washington State violates our state's constitution. I would say that's a rather large piece of news as I have been repeatedly told that it was "highly unlikely" this would happen.  Oral arguments are scheduled for Oct. 28th.  I just might have to go and listen. A King County judge had earlier ruled that parts of the law were unconstitutional and both sides asked to skip the appeals and go straight to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issue centers around our Constitution's wording about "common schools" and whether charters meet that specific definition (and therefore are entitled to be funded in that manner). NCLB letters are reaching mailboxes soon.  (SPS is holding back to see if their individual district waiver comes thru based on the district's belief that the CBA covers using test scores for teacher evaluation.)  Her...