Seattle Schools Community Forum

I have always been an action-oriented person who believes that there are solutions to problems.  But, as it was stated in the Moss-Adams report (from the Olchefske scandal in 2004), i f you don't change the culture of a bureaucracy, you will change nothing . The things that have been wrong with this district since 2004 are the same things. Which makes trying to track and follow the inner workings of the district tiring, frustrating and frankly, at this point, useless. Charlie calls the problem "a culture of lawlessness" which is true but I would be more inclined to say it's a silo culture of hunkering down at headquarters and a near-complete lack of understanding about how to run a school district properly.  The leadership at the top that refuses to see/acknowledge problems, no matter how many red flags get thrown up, how many scandals occur or how many finding come from auditors, either internal or at the state level is also troubling. I have met many goo...

I just read the Teaching and Learning update from the Friday Memo for June 24, 2016  and it makes the District's problem with accountability perfectly clear. While these problems are examined in Advanced Learning, the truth is that these failures are repeated all across the district in every school, program, and classroom. The problem is that no one checks to confirm that the work is getting done.

I know that I harp on this every couple months, but it has been another couple of months. Board Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment, requires an annual report from the Superintendent. The policy was adopted over four years ago, in December of 2011, but there has yet to be even one annual report submitted. In 2014, following a reported rape on a school field trip, the Board and the Superintendent tearfully expressed how gravely they are concerned about sexual harassment and how deeply committed they are to compliance with all of the various policies, rules, laws, and regulations that deal with it. Yet, despite their grave concern and their deep commitment, the Superintendent has yet to produce the required report. The Board did wake up and ask for the report. In June of 2015 the Board directed the Superintendent to deliver the report in August of 2015. That was six months ago. The superintendent did not provide the report at that time. When confronted about the failure in December, he cl...

I wouldn't exactly call this hell freezing over but maybe it's a bit of a frosting over.  I cover two views about accountability and NCLB. From The Hill (a blog about Congress) comes this op-ed from two different leaders of ed reform - corporate and reality-based.  The authors are: Linda Darling-Hammond is professor of Education at Stanford University and faculty director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Paul T. Hill is research professor at the University of Washington and founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. (Disclaimer: I think Darling-Hammond is brilliant and should have been Obama's pick for Secretary of Education.  On the other hand, I have very little appreciation for Dr. Hill's thoughts on public education.)

Update One comes from the Charter Commission which, according to the Times , has rejected the plan that First Place charter school, created in light of issues discovered in the management and running of the school. The plan from First Place, which has floundered  since opening in September , was deficient in some key areas and not submitted on time, said Joshua Halsey, the commission’s executive director. As a result, Halsey said he didn’t have enough time to review it. Now begins a round of stricter negotiations, where Halsey will detail what changes First Place must complete or face losing its charter. “The next step is to go over (the corrective action plan),” Halsey said. “It will become more prescriptive, as opposed to the school having the ability to pick the plan and how they’re going to go about that.” Update Two is that the district has hired a handwriting expert to uncovered who may have altered many test booklets at Beacon Hill International School last ...

Over and over again we see that the problem is not inadequate policies or procedures but the absence of any enforcement and the absence of any accountability for those who violate the policies and procedures. And who has the job of enforcing policy and holding staff accountable? The Board.

People frequently ask me "What fuels your activist energy?" and I tell them "Outrage." "But how," they ask,"can you stay outraged for fourteen years?" "I can't." I tell them. "I'm newly outraged every couple days. And you would be too if you watched the District closely. There is something new that crops up - generally twice a week - that is a source of new outrage." This story, of the rape on a Garfield field trip in November of 2012, is setting off outrage like a string of firecrackers. The more I look into it, the more horrible it is. As I follow up on every statement and review every action, there is source of outrage. Seriously. I know that if I turn over some rocks I will find bad things, but in this case every single rock I flip over reveals something horrible. Every time I look into any aspect of this case I am outraged anew.

Please forgive me, but I'm old, and old people like to natter on about the past. It's just what we do. We like to imagine that our experience has value. We see things and we think "Hey, I've seen this before!" That's bad enough, but then we feel compelled to tell you about it. Back in 2000 Seattle Public Schools was on fire with a revolutionary idea. It was a change in perspective that would reform public education. We were going to become a Standards-Based Learning System. Once implemented, Standards would fix all our woes. It would get all struggling students to learn at grade level. It would support advanced learners without those politically disturbing self-contained programs. It would integrate our students with disabilities and our English Language Learners. Once we became a Standards-based Learning System we would enter a new education paradise. The District headquarters spoke of little else. They did pilot projects with big announcements and then mad...

The Board will conduct a work session to discuss the District Scorecard on Wednesday, the 13th, starting at 4:30pm. Here is a link to the scorecard . You will notice that while the district made positive annual change on 20 of the 23 measures for Academic Growth and Student Outcomes, and has seen positive change over the baseline on 21 of the 23 measures, the District has met  only 1 of the 23 targets for 2013. Let me say that again. Of the 23 measures of academic progress on the District Scorecard, the District has met the 2013 targets on one  of them. Oddly, the scorecard reports having met none of them. The goal that the District met was 60% of 6th graders passing all classes, and the result for 2013 was 61%. That goal was reached. Funny that they didn't notice. This data is supposed to be used to hold District staff accountable. We will see, on Wednesday, what accountability looks like in Seattle Public Schools.

There's a lot of talk about accountability and why we can't seem to be able to hold anyone accountable in culture of public K-12 education. I think the lack of accountability is built into the system - at every level.

Fair warning. This is going to be a rant. Those of you who come to this blog for news and information should just do yourselves a favor and not read it. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I've concluded that I need to write rants like this from time to time. I just need to keep them separate from the news - like the newspaper separates the news from the editorials - so the folks who want to read the news aren't offended by having to read an opinion from outside their bubble. This is going to be a math rant, and they can be among the worst. So, if you want to skip the rants, stop reading now.

I have been an education activist for about eleven years now. I have clashed with the district about two hundred times. I have never won. People wonder how I can keep doing this. Don't I get burned out? Don't I get tired? What the hell is wrong with me? Is it some kind of neurosis? There are two secrets to my endurance.

Today in Crosscut Dick Lilly wrote a pretty good piece, Seattle Schools' report card: faltering progress on academic goals , in which he credited the Board for " surprising and refreshingly candid language about where the district stands " in their annual assessment of the superintendent and themselves.

Dorothy and Dora have raised a topic for discussion. First, the Board has increased the number and the quality of their questions to staff. They are still a long way from the sort of vigorous inquiry and critical reasoning that they should aspire to, but they have gotten better. Second, the Board has also gotten better at insisting on answers to their questions. Again, not where they should be, but definitely improving. Third, the staff has not shown any evidence of getting better at answering the Board's questions. They continue to provide mushy answers or no answers or the over-used "I don't have that data. I'll have to get back to you with that." Fourth, in the event of a promise of an answer later there is often no timeline set for the answer and there is a lot of doubt about whether the answer is ever actually provided. Some times we know that it isn't. The Board has not been diligent about following up on these promises of future answers. Even if...

This morning I attended the joint press conference between City representatives and district representatives who announced that the district will now be using Seattle's Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) services for complaints of violations of SPS ethics policy as well as retaliation complaints for those who do speak out. Good lineup;  for the City, the Mayor, Tim Burgess, Wayne Barnett, Executive Director of SEEC, Robert Mahon, SEEC Chair.  For the district, Susan Enfield, Noel Treat and Steve Sundquist.   There were folks from all the tv stations as well as print/radio reporters.   The two state auditors assigned to SPS were also there. There were brief remarks from Enfield, the Mayor, Burgess and Sundquist.   Enfield stated that the City had "expert" services and their program is highly regarded.  She said it was not all they were doing to restore accountability but that it was a "keystone" step.   Sundquist said that th...

Update:   according to the Seattle Times , it looks like this is about a report that SPS and the City are working on a deal where the City's own watchdog in charge of ethics/whistleblower investigations would monitor SPS employee complaints and any retaliation complaints for whistleblowing.  This would only be for those cases, the district would still set its own ethics policy, determine outcomes for violations and handle complaints about job performance.  The district would pay the City for the services but no amount has been announced and the district hopes it will be less than hiring outside investigators.   (Maybe I should ask how much the Board's own investigation cost.)  There was one odd line in the Times article.  It was stated that Councilman Burgess is worried the scandal will hurt the Families and Education Levy.  The Times article then said: The council will decide in the next two weeks whether to put the levy on the November ba...

This is late but if you want to be on speakers list for this week's School Board meeting, call the Board office tomorrow morning starting at 8 a.m. at 252-0040 or e-mail boardagenda@seattleschools.org. Calendar This Week Monday Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee - 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Tuesday Executive Session from 4-6 p.m. (not for the public but I'd love to be a fly on the wall) and (oh no) Diversity Speaker Series: Dr. Barbara J. Love "Bending the Arc of the Universe; How Young People Change the World - 6-8 p.m. at the Stanford Center Wednesday Board Meeting from 6-9 p.m. I hope the room is full of watchful eyes and ears. I don't think going down there with pitchforks and burning torches will help. I think good signage can send a message. Thursday Another Executive Session - this one is labeled " complaint against public employee " and reading that I can only ask, "Only one"? As I mentioned there are no community meetings for Saturda...

I have a message for the Board regarding my ethics complaints. The Board will soon have to make a decision about two ethics complaints that I made about a District employee. This District employee has seats on the boards of two non-profit corporations but did not properly disclose those relationships and, in violation of state law and the District Ethics Policy, participated in the discussion and decision to enter into contracts with those non-profit corporations. The question before the Board will not be one of fact. It is an indisputable fact that the employee has the seats on the non-profit boards. It is an indisputable fact that the employee did not properly disclose those relationships. It is an indisputable fact that the employee did not include them on the annual disclosure and statement of financial interest. It is an indisputable fact that the employee participated in the decision to enter into contracts with these non-profit corporations. In short, there is no question that...

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. really lets teachers have it with his column printed in the Sunday Times, Teachers and teachers unions: Get on board or get out of the way. Basically he asks why teachers are so firmly against being accountable. He tells the story of receiving an e-mail from a teacher who said the union protects teachers or "she'd be at the mercy of some boss who decided one day to fire her." He continues: In other words, she'd be just like the rest of us. The lady's detachment from the reality most workers live with struck me as a telling clue as to why our education system frequently fails to educate. When you can't get fired for doing bad work, what's your impetus for doing good? Many of us seem to be wondering the same thing. I see the direction he is going in and I actually agree. Teachers need to be evaluated just like any other job or profession. He goes on to say that it is really the teachers unions that are ...

I had this idea this morning. The State Auditor had an extraordinary number of findings in his audit of Seattle Public Schools. More, the findings were significant and disturbing, reflecting notable deriliction of duty. We also have some folks in town looking to recall some Board members. The audit bolsters their cause. The State is VERY interested in beefing up the "accountability" in our public schools. They have added even more accountability for teachers and, in the last session, passed a law that applies only to Seattle Public Schools that made it incrementally easier for the District to fire principals. I believe that accountability should be applied from the top down, instead of from the bottom up (as it has been done in Washington State public education). After all of the talk about holding schools and districts accountable, the first people who faced consequences were the students - the people with the least power in the whole system. The next people being held accou...