Seattle Schools Community Forum

Monday, Oct. 12th Board Curriculum&Instruction meeting from 4:30-630 pm at JSCEE.   Agenda Highlights: - there's a Race to the Top grant for the Seattle Teacher Residency.  The Board should reject this.  Why?  Because the relationship with one partner for the STR, the Alliance for Education, is tenuous and the district may be left holding the bag for this project.  I think that the district had the right idea but, like most district initiatives, did not have the long-term planning or backing to fulfill the mission. - Did you know our district has NO "Instructional Philosophy?"  Apparently not, as a new Board Policy A.01.00, has been written.  Sigh. Yes, that's the most important thing to get done. - High School Credit for World Languages (this is for both students who have taken a language as a second language and those whose first language isn't English and can receive credit for what they know in that second language). - Special Ed program...

As I had previously posted, there is a Work Session today with the Board.  The topic had been "Alternative Calendar" (along with a closed Executive Session) but the topic is now "Closing Opportunity Gaps."    The topic part of the Work Session is from 4:30-6:00 pm with the Executive Session after that. Looking at the presentation, it has the district-wide SBAC results on page 4. Good news - SPS did better than the state-wide results - across both ELA and Math - in every grade level, many times with a 10-point gap.   For 7th grade math, the gap was 12.4%.  Most of the scores were in the high 50s to low 60s. This is quite a difference with the MTSS scores from previous years.  Staff says it's because of "leadership," "teaming and collaboration," and "data/analytics."  They don't explain if this is at the district level or school level. But to the subgroups, there a slide...but no data.  Then, the presentation goes from a ...

The reporting on the School Board meeting will be in two parts as there was major discussion around the Gates grant for a preschool at Bailey-Gatzert and discussion around funding a downtown school building. Part One. It was an evening of back-and-forth about the Gates Foundation grant for a preschool at SPS, curious claims on room at that school (for preschool AND for downtown kids) and not one, but two, mariachi performances.  Director Blanford was not present for the majority of the meeting (but came in later).

 Update:  there was this new comment at the West Seattle blog: As a HP resident and a parent who sends her kids elsewhere I’d just like to point out that the creation of neighborhood schools and the lack of available busing to get away from failing schools has only further segregated poorer kids and families. Segregation by income is just as wrong as segregation by race.. The district needs to change the policies that only exasperated the income inequality issues at HPE. If not, parents with the financial means to make other choices will just continue to do so. Actually, parents at failing schools always did have the ability (with busing) to get away.  Under NCLB, parents were supposed to be notified of this option (along with tutoring options).  I would be fairly sure the district did send those letters but many parents may not have realized what it meant. If your child was enrolled at a "failing" school, you could request being moved to another no...

This meeting could be interesting for a number of reasons. One, it is likely the last one where we will see Superintendent Banda up there on the dais with the Board.  (The Sacramento School Board is scheduled to vote July 17th and this Seattle School Board meeting is the last until August 20th.)  It may be awkward (to say the least) as the Superintendent is now the lamest of lame ducks.  Does the Board say farewell publicly or throw him a quick party after he makes the final announcement on his departure? Two, as usual, the agenda has got some items that stand out. 

I reported previously on the discussion of the issue of NW Center and Cascade as discussed at the Board meeting on Wednesday, March 5th.  That, along with later start time advocates, was the bulk of public testimony.  I note that it seems that a call seems to have gone out that at every Board meeting, there needs to be two non-profit groups working with Seattle schools that come and tell the Board how much they need student data and how careful they are with it.  They also come with an "example."  There were two people at the Board meeting that night. I think I mentioned previously how one of these providers came to a meeting and practically outed a middle school student (with a lot of personal description about the student).   Coincidentally, the district is having a Work Session on how they take care of student data just this coming Wednesday but I'll write separately on that.  I'll just say this the district does NOT have everything in place...

The Alliance For Education released their own strategic plan today.  On the plus side, not so much ed jargon.  Good job.  On the down side, well, there's a lot. - Their foundational beliefs statement doesn't include teachers.  Seems like something of a "whoops."  (Unless they are calling teachers "leadership" which is not exactly where most people's thoughts would go when you were talking about district/school leadership.) - The work they did on their planning process didn't include teachers or parents.  Seems like if your "singular purpose" is "promoting excellence in public education" those might be some people to ask.  (Oh wait, Alliance head Sara Morris is an SPS parent so maybe that input was enough.) - The Alliance is taking credit for "gains" in academic progress over the last five years.  I'd like to see the data on that one. - Still using that disrespectful "human capital" phrase.  W...

Wednesday, Sept 4th It's the start of a brand-new year.  Welcome back, kids. School Board Meeting , 4:15 pm.  Agenda . Several items got held over from the last Board meeting.

I attended the Executive Committee meeting last week. The minutes from the previous meeting on June 12th were somewhat telling.  They reflect some discussion of the new Seattle Teacher Residency program.  Michael Tolley noted that it had been assigned to the Audit and Finance Committee and not the Curriculum and Instruction Committee.  That's interesting because I would think training teachers would be C&I but there was not an explanation in the minutes. As well, Duggan Harman said that "costs have not been finalized."  Remember that for the future because the STR program may well cost much more than we suspect and the money has to come from somewhere.  As well, this item WAS to be on the August 21st Board agenda and the Superintendent pulled it.  I suspect it is because the Board was not going to vote for a program with no budget attached.  Rightly so. I note that Directors were updated on conditional certifications for TFA teachers and ...

In advanced of tonight's School Board meeting , a few updates: - packed speakers list.    Unfortunately, Mr. Garrett, who is one of the leaders of the groups at the Horace Mann building, is on the list.  He generally is not the most graceful and tactful of speakers so I expect that to be an unpleasant two minutes. As well, there are plenty of TFA people, including three of the four new ones up for conditional certification, on the speakers list.  This baffles me (as it has in the past).  Are they speaking to do a pep talk to the Board about themselves?  And, their fearless Seattle leader is speaking as well.  Unless charters come on-line soon (and I don't see this happening), TFA is going to be in trouble.  They are still running the UW program in the red as their numbers stagnate.  Most districts just don't seem interested.  And, with the new Seattle Teacher Residency program, I wonder how both UW and SPS can afford to invest in...

 Updated for Thursday the 22nd - see below for details of Charter Commission meeting and Audit and Finance Committee meeting. One update before I start.  When I check the agendas for various District meetings, I generally only check once for committee meetings.  I check more often for Board meetings because (1) things change quickly and (2) there is notification embedded in those Board agendas to alert me to changes. Sadly, this did not happen for the Operations Committee meeting last Thursday.  When I put up last week's list of meetings, the agenda for that meeting was available and I duly noted important items.  But then I find out that they added an item that several of us had been asking for and yet didn't show the agenda to be amended. It's sad to continually ask the district to be transparent.  Unless, of course, you don't want people to know what you are discussing and when.  This particular agenda item was about student data privacy....

So we all know that the district signed a memo of agreement with the Alliance, UW's College of Education and the SEA to form the program, Seattle Teacher Residency.   The fact that this was done very quietly did raise some eyebrows but if the district wants to try to home-grow more teachers to serve low-income students, then it's a lot better than hiring TFA kids. But I happened to take a gander over at the Alliance's website and saw something odd. They are advertising for the Field Director for the program.  This is fine since the Alliance is, according to the MOA, the organizer for such program elements.   But the resume and cover letter go to...the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.  Now I know that technically the Alliance staff works for the Chamber but this person is as well? It says at the bottom:  "The Chamber is an equal opportunity employer." Who hired the Chamber and who is overseeing THEIR work?  Will someone from the district be p...

Update Two: I attended the Board meeting.  I pointed out that the Advanced Learning grant application was not attached to the agenda but no problem says the Board as they roll along.  Ms. Heath comes forward to explain there was an "error" in thinking that the AL Taskforce has anything to do with it.  It was the "advisory committee."  I'm thinking it was the APP Advisory Committee as that's the only one that currently exists. This is fine because the grant only covers APP. I just don't want anyone thinking that anything has been done on Spectrum or ALOs. What is interesting - ALERT - is that Director Carr, after listening to the public testimony where a parent said the survey done during the AL Taskforce work could be useful, stated that she thought it might be useful going forward.  (The parent pointed out the high rate of approval for APP - at about 90% - and Spectrum (about 73%) and ALOs (about 65%). So write her and encourage this thinking. ...

Tuesday, June 18th Audit and Finance Ctm meeting (quarterly audit mtg) from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda . Includes: - exit conference from State Auditor on accountability - internal audits include Kimball Elementary, custodial services/grounds, and Denny - risk management - ethics update Wednesday, June 19th School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda . Includes: - academic calendar for 2013-2014.  There appear to be two Options, A and B (the difference being PD waiver days in A and not in B.) They want the Board to approve both as the BOE doesn't meet to discuss the district's request for PD waiver days until July 12th.  The other difference is 2 days of TRI but different dates for A and B.  There appear to be two snow days at the end of the year in June and one they could use for the Day between Semesters.  And yes, there continues to be a full-week of mid-winter break.  It's unclear to me if this is a final from SEA.   - the NWEA contr...

Following up on Charlie's thread to the new (waiting for Board approval) five-year Strategic Plan , here's what I heard from the Board retreat where the Board and senior staff discussed it.  For some reason, only the goals are at the communications page on this issue but there are links to the v ision/mission/core beliefs from the Intro item on the Board agenda page.  To note: that Saturday, June 1st, saw a packed room of staff (most of whom stayed from 10 am to 2 p.m. - a big commitment of time) and Board members. Everyone came prepared to work and was in good spirits.  There was a feeling of a shared unity to this work.  Once again the Alliance person sat at the table with Board and staff.  One funny aside is that I downloaded the agenda from the district's website.  It had only the district logo but when you got to the meeting, the agenda had both the district's and the Alliance's.  Just in case anyone thought the Alliance was just a helper at t...

At the Times, Lynne Varner continues her string of unintentionally funny editorial pieces .   She starts out right: If we’re going to talk about money, let’s talk about the future of teaching because nearly 80 percent of education spending goes toward salaries. Okay, BUT when 22% of American children (and that's about the same here in Washington State) live in poverty and you ignore that fact, then you are missing a HUGE piece of the puzzle. As well, most of the money may go to salaries but the Legislature is not funding schools enough to provide funds for other needs.  Your biggest and most primary need is always going to be a teacher. She then says: A recent Seattle Times front-page story pointed to a rapprochement between teachers and ed reformers at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Imagine if the two sides had been working together all along. Well, I 'm sure the teachers (and their unions) would have been more than happy to work with Gates b...

Sitting at the Executive Committee Meeting and wondering: - if the district is a partner in the new Seattle Teacher Residency program and the first year costs are $50k and escalate up to $1M by year 5 (it's part of Strategic Plan for teacher development), why do we need TFA at all?  Why complicate things if our district and its partners are creating home-grown talent from outside of schools of education? - wondering why, if Jane Addams has a planning principal and planning team, Wilson-Pacific doesn't have a team.  Apparently Chris Cronas, principal at Wedgwood, is the planning principal for W-P middle school but I haven't heard anything about outreach to parents. That middle school will open at John Marshall for 2014-20115.  Should parents with students assigned there get to give input just like JA parents?  (Note: just because Mr. Cronas is the planning principal doesn't mean he is leaving Wedgwood.) - I still need to do a write-up of the Board retreat but I ...

I have heard rumblings about this program and this press release does little to assuage them.  The Alliance for Education, Seattle Public Schools, and the University of Washington College of Education on Oct. 24 announced the addition of the Seattle Education Association as the fourth partner in launching the Seattle Teacher Residency.  Urban Teacher Residency United, ( http://www.utrunited.org/ ), based in Chicago, is the national network of the highest-performing residency programs. UTRU Executive Director Anissa Listak said, “This is the first time we’ve seen a residency launch with this set of players at the table. It bodes very well for the success and efficacy of the initiative.”  My first question is - why is the Alliance for Education involved?  This is NOT their area of expertise at all.  I have to wonder about their growing role in SPS which I find troubling.   Urban teacher residency programs, pioneered over the last decade in B...