Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS Communications: We have students from over 70 different elementary school classrooms that meet at least one criteria for Algebra 1 Readiness Testing. Given this wide variety of classrooms, we opted to select a central location for testing. The Stanford Center and the dates/times were selected because: · The Stanford Center is close to the center of our large city. · It offers desks and chairs for students and waiting spaces for families. · As opposed to using a school, it means we do not have to burden a school staff with staying late for   the testing. · The afternoon times prevent students from missing school. · The variety of dates allow families to select one that they can make work. The Stanford Center was the location used for testing last year and many families dropped students off for testing and walked up to Starbucks for an hour; others dropped students off and waited in the common spaces. To my knowledge we had ...

Contract talks march on.  Diane Ravitch endorses Sue Peters for School Board. Addicted to your computer (or is your child)?  Here's an article from the NY Times with a couple of book suggestions. Speaking of algebra, I came across this website recently - The Algebra Project .  What's on your mind?

I don't do this often but because I saw this huge number of hits with a fairly large number of comments on one post, I wanted to put this out there. This week's Tuesday Open Thread has been one of the most read and commented posts we have had in a long time.  The number of hits is so hit as to preclude it being the same 20 people coming back, again and again. The post is mostly a math discussion about readiness, equity, resources and implementation for an idea at one middle school to drop the entire 8th grade into algebra. There was a comment or two that were not worthy (and one got deleted for that reason) but everyone seems to be trying to flesh out what this means to drop an entire grade of students into an advanced math class (and mind you, without much notice to either students or parents).  I appreciate the idea of "having faith" in the teachers, the principal and, most of all, the kids, to embrace this idea and get it right.  But again, like many things ha...

Heard that the waitlists were running late - input from Tracy Libros in Enrollment: Our student information system is currently being replaced, so the most recent update of assignment and waiting list information was in mid-July. New information will be updated as soon as possible, which is likely to be at the end of August or beginning of September. We understand the importance of waiting list status and information as your family plans for the start of school and apologize for the delay. Of course, we will move waiting lists as soon as we possibly can. The technology folks are working diligently to get systems up and running as soon as possible.  That's the reason for the lateness of this information.  I know it must feel frustrating but summer is the best time to work on systems within the district. Hearing that 8th graders may all be enrolled in algebra (at least at some schools) and about the need for finger-printing for all chaperones for school trips ( no...

I know that the most important thing going on right now is all of the day lighting of the incompetent and criminal behavior going on at the John Stanford Center for Education Excellence. Please don't let up on this until every rock has been overturned. However, Cliff Mass wrote an Op-Ed in the Seattle Times that was published on Friday about the possibility that Washington may adopt the Common Core national standards. This would be a major tragedy for our students, especially in mathematics. Now I freely admit that I do not like the books that I have been saddled with to teach Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, but I do have to say that the new standards are excellent and I see no reason to do anything to them. To adopt the Common Core would be a step backward, as they are not as rigorous as out current standards and are hard to understand. Please remember as we send the current top administration down the road, the idea is to educate children and prepare them for the future. Please do...