Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Yes votes still trail as the gap goes from between .90% to .75%.  It's that close. Snohomish county had been barely Yes and now is barely No. Here's where we stand: - there are just over 501K ballots left to count - the three biggest counties have these number of ballots left: King, 130,742; Snohomish 99,000; Spokane 42,000 - Snohomish and Spokane have been extremely close in the votes with the No vote just edging Yes.  In King County, there has been a comfortable 53% lead. So certainly, it is possible 1351 could pull it out. But the trending, like in the charter school vote, is not going towards Yes so I suspect it may be just a very close No. This is another WEA loss (despite those poll numbers just weeks ago).  I was asked about why I thought this measure is as close as it is with those poll numbers showing a comfortable lead.  I didn't see how the questions were phrased in the poll but I suspect that people "like" the idea of lower class size...

The WEA did a survey of schools that field tested the Smarter Balanced assessments .  The highest score - on a 1-4 scale - was "alignment with Common Core."  That came in at 2.65. The lowest was a 1.72 for "Overall Impact of SBAC Practice and Administration on the School Day." 50% (!) of member respondents said it 11-20+ hours for student to take the test. Also SB had an estimate of how long it would take students to complete tests in various subjects.  Most respondents said it was about one hour more than estimated.  (Learning curve?) But when asked what were challenges to students in taking the LA test, the biggest one was "keyboarding skills" followed by " test screen - split screen, navigation, scrolling." For math, the biggest student issues were "test tools - fractions, calculator, graphs, formulas), followed by "difficult, above grade level." The biggest concern for teachers was "Schedule disruptions, ...

Sorry to pick on the Times but their publisher (and fearless leader), Frank Blethen, put up a speech that he gave recently to a Rotary Club.  He makes a lot of claims without backing up his stats or explaining his thinking. To whit,  

I had heard about this vote this past weekend but couldn't find info on it at the WEA website.  From KUOW : The state’s largest teachers’ union has passed a motion to support parents and students who opt out of statewide standardized tests. The union also promotes opting out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium state test coming next school year to align with the new Common Core State Standards.

Let's review the Times coverage of the Washington charter school law this week. On the charter law court ruling, they manage to confuse readers with two different headlines but settled on one that makes it sound like it was upheld but " questions remain."    Then, they only quote the pro-charter side  (going to their go-to source, Lisa Macfarlane).   They do quote the plaintiffs' lawyer but that's not the same as going to sources who oppose charters (like some of the actual plaintiffs). Next comes Lynne Varner and other mistake-ridden education opinion along with her usual shot at the teachers' union. First, she hilariously says that Judge Rietschel's opinion is "antiquated" because it comes from our "constitutional framers."  (I'm guessing that she would never agree with Supreme Court justice Scalia who is a strict constitutionalist.)  The problem is that we have the Constitution that exists and until that is changed, she...

Honestly, they have some of the most entertaining posts over at the WPC.  Omit details, pump up (to the point of near explosion) any point they feel they must - it's all good fun. So they have one post about how a Highline School Board director, Susan Goding,  wrote - on her education blog how she thinks charter schools will hurt districts.  I can only say that she is entitled to her own professional opinion (indeed the state directors association came out against 1240).   She also explains how Highline has many of the programs that Spokane addresses in their application (and so does Seattle).  Almost seems like Spokane is too lazy to do any of this development of programs on their own. But the WPC?  Not buying it. This article is a clear attempt to discourage implementation of the new charter school law. This statement shows an elected school board director actively campaigning to influence school districts to deny their students access to char...

Well, look what happens when you step away for a couple of days - apparently a lot. First up, the Muni League released its ratings of School Board candidates.  Only Suzanne Dale Estey (in Michael DeBell's district) got "outstanding."  In the same race the two candidates, Sue Peters and Dean McCoglan, received a "very good" which is the next level below "outstanding."   In Kay Smith-Blum race, Stefan Blanford received "very good", LaCrese Green received "not qualified" and Ulu Thomas was not interviewed. I was unable to access the Muni League's second page of ratings to check Director Betty Patu's rating. Charlie and I just about finished our interviews and will write up a thread before you receive your primary ballots.  The early assessment is that (clearly) Patu will retain her seat, Blanford will face off against Green but is really the only candidate in that race.  So the real race is in DeBell's district ...

The answer to that headline is - not really.  Are they getting more money?  Yes.  Enough money? No.  Can the Supreme Court really do anything?  Doubtful. So really, it's a lot of legislators blowing smoke about education.  (And no legislator should pat themself on the back for finally getting a budget.  That said, I know many districts are relieved to finally have some answers so they can finish their own budgets.) The Times reports that half the money would go to fund "student transportation, school supplies and building utilities" (things districts now pay for that the Supreme Court - go figure - said the state should pay for). The rest would go toward expanding state-funded all-day kindergarten and class-size reduction in kindergarten/1st grade in high-povery schools. This is all great but not enough.  (I believe the class-size reduction is about two students per class.  I don't know if the kindergarten funding means no more pay-fo...

State Superintendent Randy Dorn throws down on half-days/waivers for school districts, according to a report from KING-5 tv. Washington State’s school superintendent says he opposes the expansion of half-days on school calendars and wants lawmakers to act next year to give his office the authority to curb them. “Just because the adults have the problem of not having enough money does not mean we should take away kids' instructional time,” Randy Dorn told KING 5. “So they moved to this partial-day thing,” said Dorn. “I think it’s a burden on parents, working parents that have to do all the arrangements.” “I don’t like the idea of waivers. I don’t like the idea of half-days for professional development,” said Dorn. “Especially the kids that struggle the most, it hurts them the most if we’re not in the classroom teaching.” “The lack of adequate time for professional development, collaboration and planning is just one of the problems caused by underfunding,” WEA sp...

I do plan on doing a thread on the latest Charter Commission meeting but there is some other charter news. From the Everett Herald, there's a story about Jim Spady and his efforts, over the last 20 years, to bring charters to Washington State.  As an activist, I can only admire their drive and tenacity (even if I don't really support the outcome).   The article does bring up two issues I had wanted to call out. One, the lawsuit against 1240 is very much alive, according to Rich Wood of the WEA.  According to the article, it's "in the works" but the WEA is concentrating on McCleary first.  (Good call.) Two, Mr. Spady is to be part of the new Washington State Charter School Association .  This association is a line-up of the usual suspects.  Funded by Gates Foundation ($800k)?  Check.  Chris Korsmo of LEV, spokesperson for the group? Check (but let's hope they make her more camera-ready than she has been in the past).  More LEV ...

Over at the Times, they are doing these short video pieces with those who work in education.  (They list upcoming videos and one including Mary Lindquist of the WEA.   I am quite surprised that Mary would consent to do this if only because the Times has been like a pitbull to her organization.  A recent editorial title was Does the WEA stand for Washington Education Association or We Eviscerate Anyone?  That'll make for an interesting conversation. First up is an interview Susan Enfield.  I find this piece unintentionally funny.  Not that Dr. Enfield doesn't have serious things to say but the Times made some editing decisions that brought a smile to my face.  The music is one of them; when I heard it I could only think of the Henri the Cat series (and that doesn't exactly engender serious thought).  Heard over on KUOW that (1) Silas Potter is to testify against his co-conspirator, David Johnson, at Johnson's trial and (2) Potter has to p...

 Update:  City Hall will be open to the public tomorrow from 10 am to 2 pm.  They will have performances (acrobats, dance crew) as well as food trucks and adoptable dogs/cats.  You can tour the Mayor's office as well as the City Council offices.  It's a fun activity for kids and you get a little face time with the Mayor and City Council members. The Times has a couple of interesting headlines.  One is a feature story about Governor Inslee stating that while he likes the concept of "grading" schools, he thinks it needs further study.  Apparently the Republicans had been counting on his early comments of support for the concept as support for their bill.  I talked to the Governor's office weeks ago and they very clearly told me he did NOT support Senate Bill 5328 and, in fact, were not happy that some media outlets were linking that support to the bill. I am pretty happy at his up-front stance because I don't believe a one-letter grade represen...

I have received word that the WEA Board of Directors has decided to fight I-1240 in court. From their statement:  “Though our candidates won, we are disappointed that corporate interests with their $11 million were able to pass the charter school initiative. Looking forward, your board of directors has decided to fund a legal challenge against the new charters law and, as we did with McCleary, are seeking partners and developing an approach and timeline for this effort.  More details about this will come.”  Please note: the WEA has NOT filed anything but this was a statement made to their membership last month.  Naturally, these kinds of efforts take time and money and the WEA is making all due consideration about their next steps. The Washington Policy Center is itself already on the attack against this action.    From their statement;  The union faces a costly, uphill battle. A lot of information about successful charter schools in...

The judge in Superior Court heard the challenge to Initiative 1240 yesterday and rejected most of WEA's reasoning (with a few tweaks).    Stand for Children issued a statement saying all the changes from the WEA had been rejected but apparently they don't bother to keep up with what actually happens in court.  They say they will use a combination of volunteer and paid signature gatherers (but there is no legal way to find out how many of each but I suspect an ARMY of paid).  They need about 250,000 signatures to be on the ballot but it would be good to get at least 300,000 for safety's sake. The title now says "Initiative Measure No. 1240 concerns creation of a public charter school system." I totally agree with this as voters need to know this is a system and not just a few schools. The concise description is still over by 3 words but the WEA missed that. Bill Gates has given $200k to the cause and Nick Hanauer has kicked in money as well.  It ...

If the charter school initiative actually gains the signatures needed to make the ballot, and if it collects a majority of the votes in the election - two pretty big "if"s - it will become the law and we could see up to eight charter schools authorized for Washington State. We don't know what consequences this charter school law could have for Washington State or for Seattle Public Schools. Maybe some school districts will seek to become authorizers, maybe none, maybe all. It's a wild card that could lead to some seriously uncoordinated charter school authorization. It's pretty likely that some charter school management companies, like KIPP, Green Dot, and RocketShip, will seek to establish charter schools in the state, but there's no telling if they will or not, how many schools they will seek to create, where they will seek to place them, and whether they will seek conversions. The conversion option - making a public school into a charter school - creates ...

Over at Publicola, they report that WEA president, Mary Lindquist, wrote an open letter based on what Nick Hanauer had to say about public education in the state of Washington. You can read the whole thing there but she says several things I find I can agree with her on: And yet, in a single email, he has managed to align himself with a politician who is antithetical to all of those progressive values. First, it must be clearly understood that it is the voters of Washington – not the WEA – that have rejected charter schools on three separate occasions in recent years.  Voters know that for charter schools to be imposed, advocates like Hanauer would need to poach funding from local neighborhood schools and districts. In the 2010 legislative session, WEA pushed the adoption of SB 6696. Now we are engaged in a collaborative process with districts across the state to pilot new evaluation systems. We see signs this system will make a real difference for students. We look f...

In more breaking news, today LEV joined a lawsuit challenging I-1053 which requires a supermajority vote in the Legislature to raise revenues. From the press release: The plaintiffs believe the statute in question, established through the passage of I-1053, unconstitutionally impairs the ability of state lawmakers to fund public schools, which is the paramount duty of the state. Representative Jamie Pedersen is one of the legislators challenging the measure: “Our state constitution is the ultimate expression of the will of the people. Making sure our laws – whether passed by the legislature or by citizens through the initiative process – abide by the constitution is critical to protecting democracy and the rule of law,” said state Representative Jamie Pedersen, chair of the House Judiciary committee. “The question of whether a super-majority requirement to approve legislation is constitutional has gone unanswered for many years. It’s time to get a decision, once and for all.”...

Here we go. Is it inevitable that we will be RIFing teachers? Good question. In SPS, maybe. In other districts, probably. In this morning's Seattle Times is a story about Rep. Rodney Tom who is sponsoring a bill that would make teacher effectiveness the main factor in RIFs. Okay, so first of all, someone who is a lawyer, help me out. If they pass this law, it overcomes the teachers contracts that have already been signed? That seems wrong to me. What is weird to me is that we know the SEA contract has a new evaluation process in it so the district is getting there. We also know that the district and Board negotiated the contract WITH seniority being the main criteria. So they knew very well what they were signing even though parents told them they didn't like seniority as the first criteria. From the article: Mary Lindquist of the Washington Education Association said lawmakers started last year to move toward a new teacher-evaluation system. About 17 school district...

The state legislature cut the funding for paid "Learning Improvement Day"s from two days to one. With that cut in funding, Seattle Public Schools apparently decided to eliminate the paid day for teachers, librarians, counselors and other certificated staff. That reduces their working year from 182 paid days to 181 paid days. Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson sent a letter to the affected staff about the reduction. In their usual unfortunate communications style, the District communicated directly with the teachers on contract issues. They aren't supposed to do that. They are supposed to negotiate with the union, not individual teachers. In addition, the letter essentially threatened every teacher with the nonrenewal of their contract if they do not accept the reduction in the work year and the reduction in pay. There are a number of disputed facts involved in this. The union says some things that the District denies and vice versa. Here are the information sources I have fou...