Seattle Schools Community Forum

Kind of a ying/yang reaction from Opt-Out Oregon : Today, Oregon Governor Kate Brown sent out a media release announcing she has signed House Bill 2655 into law . This is welcome news, and expands the rights of students & parents to opt-out of high-stakes testing. Some elements here have us concerned, though. The statement wrings its hand over the possible loss of federal funding if the opt-out rate gets too high. Additionally, there are elements that point to an ongoing effort to intimidate parents & students from opting out.  Frankly, if educators and administrators don't have a good case to make that parents understand and believe, all the talking in the world on the subject of assessments will mean nothing. 

Earthfix and Investigate West had an excellent series , with data and graphics, on the use of school portables in Oregon and Washington State. InvestigateWest sent a survey to the 20 largest school districts in Oregon and Washington about its portable classroom use, policies and perspective. The survey asked each district how many portable classrooms it has and what percent of its total classrooms are portables. The survey also asked how many portable classrooms were newer than five years, how many were older than 20 years, and how many had been retrofitted with new heating, ventilation and air conditioning units, as well as a full inventory of all portable units. All districts responded but with varying levels of detail. Numbers are estimates in some cases. Part One: The Price of a Quick Fix - environmental and health costs Part Two: The System Part Three: Rethinking Classrooms Graphics Data There's also a link to this report - Washington Sustainable Schoo...