Seattle Schools Community Forum

A reader recently referenced the high PISA-like scores for students in Bellevue School District; I read about it in the Times via this article: If the Bellevue School District were a nation, its high-school students would rank among the top of the world’s developed nations on an influential international exam.

A very wonderful letter from a mom with a special needs child after "social skills" training in her child's school that forgot that there are many types of people in the world that we should all be kind to and show respect for.  In case you didn't know, as of Feb. 2, 2016, OSPI reports that there are 35, 511 homeless students in Washington State.  That's 3.3% of the P-12 population.  It's an over 9% increase from 2013-2014 and a 62.7% increase from 2009-2010. 

So says, Jack Schneider, an assistant professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross, who studies public education history.  This from Vox . It's funny because this morning as I listened to the City Council briefing with the Superintendent, there was a thread from Jean Godden to Sally Bagshaw to Kshama Sawant about girls and math and science education. Then Sally Clark chimed in saying that she hadn't really followed math and science in school but now she goes in and sees what's being offered and wishes she could go to school now. I can't tell you how many times over the years that I thought the same exact thing.  I had good teachers when I went to school but there was nowhere near the effort to be culturally competent, help all students (no matter their challenge) and this outreach to girls (and that "you go, girl" attitude).  I have to agree with several of Professor Schneider's major premises like "People think schools are in decli...