Seattle Schools Community Forum

From UW's Computer Science and Engineering department: UW CSE’s DawgBytes offers elementary school students “a taste of CSE” in Scratch Adventures summer camp UW CSE is thrilled to announce that we will once again offer elementary school students the opportunity to learn about computer science in a fun and inclusive environment as part of our DawgBytes summer camp lineup . Scratch Adventures is a day camp open to students entering grades 3, 4 or 5 who have no previous experience using the visual programming language Scratch . During the sessions, which will take place June 29-July 2 on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus , participants will learn how to design and program their own interactive stories, games and art projects while practicing critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration skills. Campers will share their creations with friends and family on the final day of camp. The priority registration period for Scratch Adventures op...

From  UW 's  School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, a unit within the College of the Environment:

Via Mirmac 1, there is this public disclosure e-mail that is quite telling but of no surprise to anyone who reads this blog.  We asked these questions from the start.  From the e-mail (italics Dr. Ginsberg's, bold mine): 1) Whose interests are we serving and, related to this questions, how are we serving the interests of our most historically under-served K-12 students? 2) How are we serving the interests of TFA teachers? of our students and graduates who are working as instructors in the program? 3) How are we serving the effectiveness and morale of state-funded and fee-based funded full time CoE faculty when TFA instructors teach a class with as few as 2 students , while other CoE faculty are currently teaching unprecedented numbers of students.  (Some of our EDLPS colleagues are teaching 60 students in very complex disciplines .) 4) How are we serving the interests of the CoE when faculty have not had a chance to actively and collectively probe the implications an...

1) So how is TFA doing in our region?  From what I can see, not so great.  There are about 17 TFA teachers in the region.  Now as you may recall, a UW Vice-Provost, Dave Szatmary, had closely questioned the dean of the College of Education, Tom Stritikus, about the costs to UW. Szatmary: What assurances does UW have that the enrollments in TFA will increase to 50 in year 2?  How long would we be willing to run the program at a loss if the increased enrollments do not occur? Stritikus: This is TFA's growth plan,  They have hit their growth plans in virtually every district nationally.  If I were a betting man (which I am), I'd say they'll hit it." Well, this is coming into year three and they still don't even have 20.  So yes, folks, as tuition rises and the number of spots open in the freshman class get ever competitive, yes, UW has the money to lose on a program that apparently most districts in our state do NOT want.  I am still unclear ...

I ran across some items about science and public education and wanted to share them. An article from the NY Times caught my eye about ADHD and sleep .  For some people — especially children — sleep deprivation does not necessarily cause lethargy; instead they become hyperactive and unfocused. Researchers and reporters are increasingly seeing connections between dysfunctional sleep and what looks like A.D.H.D ., but those links are taking a long time to be understood by parents and doctors. This article appeared in the journal Science about an interview with Ed Lazowska in UW's department of Computer Science and Engineering about the future of computer science.   (Public disclosure; I know Ed and the department very well.)  Some highlights:

There's a shortage of teachers at SPS , according to this report , that was attached to the UW's revised Form 2 A for their application for alternative certification for TFA. (Thanks to Stop TFA for this info.) Here's something else fun about it (from the Oompah's comment): I love the report, page 2 of Appendix B under the title "Teacher Vacancies". The opening sentence reads as follows: "In the 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 352 vacancies in Seattle Public Schools.(4)" And then footnote 4 reads as follows: 4. The 352 positions included 1.0 FTE as well as partial FTE positions; there were not 352 total FTE vacancies. So though "there were a total of 352 vacancies", in fact "there were not 352 total FTE vacancies." The way this report is set up looks as if it intends to show the reader that SPS needed 352 additional teachers to fill positions in the district. One must wonder who it was that r...

The dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington, Tom Stritikus, writes about the University's role in support of Teach for America in Crosscut . First, Mr. Stritikus blames the legislature. Last year, the Legislature required all public colleges and universities that prepare teachers in the state to begin providing alternative programs that take less time while keeping high standards for teacher candidates. But he remains un-apologetic about UW's role. He tries to shift the focus to an abstract question about teacher effectiveness. In short, he wants to teach the controversy. A couple points. 1) Mr. Stritikus fails to disclose his affiliation with Teach for America. He is a former corps member. This failure to disclose stinks and the stink clings to Crosscut. 2) The law may require colleges of education to develop alternative certification paths, but none of the other ones locally felt driven to partner with Teach for America. He attempt to shift bl...

The Conversation on KUOW this afternoon (that's NOW 12:06 p.m.) is going to be about UW's admissions.  It looks like it will be on after 12:30 p.m. (they do about 12 minutes per segment).

From the Seattle Times news about Garfield Athletics and a story about UW admissions.

From the Seattle Times, a story about a former Olympic rower, Portia McGee, who is helping students in three SPS middle schools learn how to row. It's the first year of the program which is a partnership with the George Pocock Rowing Foundation and the school district. It currently runs in 3 schools - Eckstein, Washington, and Aki Kurose - and is going to expand to 3 more next year with the program at nine middle schools by 2013. Not for me but a state legislator is sponsoring a bill to allow parents to teach drivers ed to their children under 18. This came as a surprise to me because I thought the main reason to take driver's ed is to perhaps receive lower insurance rates. Driver's ed is expensive so I can see why this could make a difference to parents (although the stress and the possible damage to your car are also off-putting). The Times has the details in this story. I think the Alliance for Education has a new look for its blog (I doubt they answer comme...

From the UW, a complete (and I mean long) listing of all the preK-12 outreach programs they have. There is everything from accounting to music to Native American history/culture to geography, it just goes on. Most of it seems to be 6-12 but I saw some elementary items as well. For example: Description: Internships with the Homewaters Project are an excellent way to put your GIS skills to use in Seattle area schools. Homewaters is aneducational nonprofit organization in Seattle that works to connect people, especially K-12 students, to their home place through our school and community programs. Currently we are conducting two GIS-based programs in Seattle's schools. Our Water and Community GIS program works in middle schools to investigate water quality issues in Seattle each winter. Our high school Neighborhood Green Mapping program uses GIS to map the sustainable features in a school's neighborhood, and takes place during the spring. We are looking for reliab...

Once again, checking for one thing led to another. I went to Roosevelt's web page and there's info on their enrollment issues. From the principal: Starting next week, we will need to make some adjustments to some students schedules in order to accommodate an influx of new students to RHS as the result of the new assignment plan. We have several classes that are extremely full and closed to some students who need those classes. As a result, we have been provided with some additional staff to create new sections of classes and thus reduce the overcrowding in those classes. Starting on Monday, October 4, we will be making some adjustments to a few students who are currently enrolled in 9th Grade Science, Biology and/or Algebra 2 Honors. We are taking volunteers who may want to change their schedule. Please see your counselor if you would like to volunteer to change your schedule. In addition to the volunteers, we will need to randomly select other students ...

This article about AP classes appeared in this morning's Times. It's a longish article (for the Times) and has some interesting things to say on both sides. I think there is a both sides to this issue. Maybe sometime they can go more in-depth and talk about AP, IB, Running Start AND the new UW in the High Schools program. From the article: As Bellevue expanded its AP program, it developed a common set of curriculum guidelines, which start in kindergarten. The goal: to prepare all students to take at least one AP or IB class by the time they reach high school. Interesting because Dr. Goodloe-Johnson is laying the groundwork in the same way with curriculum alignment. She is expanding AP and IB programs, and has said she wants every student to take at least one AP course before graduation. Bellevue students were earning about 200 college credits through AP classes when Riley arrived; in 2009, the number reached 5,800. AP and the IB program are a kind of academic brand na...

Many of you may be aware of the advocacy work of UW Professor Cliff Mass who has worked tirelessly to try to get the powers that be and the public to understand the effects of discovery math (and, as UW professors are some of the end users of the students of SPS, he does have an interest). It appears that even though the vote has gone through for the math curriculum SPS will be using, he is continuing the fight and put out a bit of a smackdown to the UW School of Education which has been waging its own battle. (And Dan D., if you printed this elsewhere, I may have missed it; my apologies.) Here's a link to the UW School of Education Research page (it has links to the right on Where's the Math). It is headed by Pat Wasley whom I have heard speak several times. Here is her letter to her colleagues on the subject of math education. I have to say I don't agree with many of her views on education so I would tend to side with Professor Mass on this point. Professor Mass ...