Seattle Schools Community Forum

Linda Shaw's final article in the Seattle Times was printed this morning.   She writes about the various "education advocacy groups" that are heavily funded by Gates including League of Education Voters, the Partnership for Learning and Stand for Children.  From her article: Here at home, as well as nationally, the Seattle-based foundation is a powerful player in public education. It underwrites groups pushing for change, bankrolls projects and helps out-of-state organizations establish themselves here. With that backing, Washington state now has a broader, stronger group of voices clamoring to bring much of the national education reform agenda here. Some consider that progress, saying the foundation is helping bring Washington out of the backwater when it comes to education policy. But others disagree, saying the foundation's deep pockets buy more influence than it deserves.

Interesting article in the New York Times about what's happening in K-12 education in Massachusetts. It kind of gives me hope for teachers even in a time of turmoil. From the article: Earlier this year Massachusetts enacted a law that allowed districts to remove at least half the teachers and the principal at their lowest-performing schools. The school turnaround legislation aligned the state with the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program incentives and a chance to collect a piece of the $3.4 billion in federal grant money. From Washington this makes abundant good sense, a way to galvanize rapid and substantial change in schools for children who need it most. In practice, on the ground, it is messy for the people most necessary for turning a school around — the teachers — and not always fair. They point out that principals often make the decision and when you have a new principal, he or she may not know the staff well or their dynamics. This also gets pointed...