Seattle Schools Community Forum

Great article in Crosscut about what is happening over on the Eastside with immigrant populations.  What draws immigrants to the Eastside and keeps them there, even when, like Tushara, they go to work in Seattle? Lee could be speaking for all of them when he answers, emphatically, with a single word: “School! I needed to raise kids, and Bellevue’s the place to do it.” It wasn’t just the Bellevue schools’ celebrated instructional quality (its average test scores place it among the top 10 districts statewide in math and science and the top 30 in reading and writing) or their ample tax base, which includes the wealthy lakeshore municipalities of Medina, Clyde Hill and the Points. It was the counter-intuitively congenial social environment of what was then an upscale, predominately white, monocultural community. In Bellevue and Newport, Pham found, he didn’t have to worry about his three kids being bullied or sticking with their own kind for protection. The frictio...

There was a thoughtful column about bilingual education in Sunday's Seattle Times by syndicated columnist, Esther Cepeda. From her column: Education policy has rarely garnered our collective attention as it does now. One aspect that needs more attention, though, is the question of how best to educate students whose native language is not English. It's a politically charged topic that rarely focuses on research and instead pits those who don't want to spend resources on instructing children in any language other than English against those who believe bilingual education is a civil right. Okay so let's stop there because there are a couple of issues. One, should the American public education system be educating children in their native language and two, is it a civil rights issue? Ms. Cepeda argues that it hurts the whole educational system's performance if non-native speakers struggle because of language barriers. The U.S. Department of Education's Nati...

This update from the SPS website: The Bilingual Family Center is relocating to the John Stanford Center. The BFC's last day at Aki Kurose Middle School will be June 22, 2010. They will reopen at the John Stanford Center on June 28, 2010. Reminder: Waiting for Superman , the ed reform documentary, plays tonight at 7 p.m. and tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival Cinema ( on Mercer just next to the NW Ballet). I checked and there are only rush tickets left (meaning if people holding tickets don't show up, they will let you in). This means a big interest in this topic so I'll be interested to see the reaction in the theater. Open Thread - what's on your mind? End of school fever? (Also to note, the publicity about the Superintendent's review is higher than for any other review I have ever seen. The rally before the Board meeting seemed to peak the TV stations' interest as well as the teachers' vote of no confidence at Ballard. Yes,...

So I received my new school calendar and there are some interesting items in it. First, hate the new size. Kinda of awkward to handle. Second, theme anyone? Coming in at #1 (with a bullet and mentioned no less than 20 times): accountable/accountability. Number 2? "Improving services for our students in special ed, advanced learning and bilingual programs." Given how little information there is available on the website about what or how this is happening, the jury is way out on this one. Under Measuring Performance, page 2 "Every person employed by the District is accountable to contribute to our central goal of student achievement." Really? How are they held accountable? They sling that word around like hash at a diner and yet, who is ever really accountable? Three, is it me or does the text in this calendar have problems? It does not seem to be not well written. I also note a couple of items that are either confusing or incorrect. On the Family Engageme...

I'm going to try to dash off a few highlights from this meeting (and hoping to get to the Board meeting later). Directors Chow, Martin-Morris and Carr were there, with Harium chairing the meeting. There were at least 8 staff there. The agenda included grading policy for giving credit to middle school students for high school courses curriculum alignment - delivery of a white paper textbook adoption and materials anaphylaxis policy (which I previously reported on so will skip here) math intervention; what was done over summer and plan for this year (I left so I missed this part The discussion did not stay in this order so I may skip around a bit. Dr. Enfield (our new CAO) started by saying that it had been a good day for principals with training on the integrated service delivery model for Special Ed and bilingual students. There was no fleshing out of this issue so I don't know what was done. Then Harium talked about fewer minutes with more Action items. Less of what he te...

From the School Beat newsletter: Bilingual Department to host three May meetings on audit progress Seattle Public School's Bilingual Education department will host three community meetings in May to share the progress in addressing the bilingual audit received in August 2008 and to support families by sharing reading strategies with their children. At each meeting, families will receive folktale stories in several different languages to take home with them. The three meetings will be held at the locations listed below. For more information, contact Veronica Maria Gallardo, Bilingual Education Program Manager, at vmgallardo@seattleschools.org Monday, May 11 6-8 p.m. Summit K-12 11051 34th Ave. N.E. Tuesday, May 12 6-8 p.m Aki Kurose Middle School 3928 S. Graham St. Saturday, May 16 10 a.m. to noon John Stanford Center 2445 Third Ave. S. Also, I note that Broadway Bound (a community musical theater group that has been working in the Rainier Valley) is putting on "Cats" a...

There are a number of upcoming events and community engagement opportunities for you to know about. CAPACITY PLANNING If you visit the District's Capacity Planning web site , you can provide feedback on a form . A School Board work session on this topic is scheduled for Wednesday, October 1, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Board Work Sessions are open meetings and the public is welcome to attend, but the Board does not take testimony at a work session. BILINGUAL REVIEW On September 25 Veronica Maria Gallardo, Seattle Public Schools' Bilingual Program Manager, will share the findings from the Bilingual Peer Review with the community. The meeting will be held at Aki Kurose Middle School, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the cafeteria. An informative presentation will be followed by small group discussions to provide additional information and to seek feedback. Additional meetings will be scheduled during October. For more information, call the Bilingual Family Center at (206) 252-7750. Simultaneous inte...

"Ad hoc, incoherent and directionless." "Highly fragmented, weakly defined, poorly monitored, and producing very unsatisfactory academic results." "The school district has not articulated a clear vision for what it wants to see in its English language learners and possesses no strategy or coherent program that would boost the academic chances of those students." These quotes are from the audit of the district's bilingual programs. Blunt is the word for it. Both the Times and the PI ran stories on it this morning. Here are some notable quotes from the usual suspects From the PI: "This review, the latest in a series commissioned by Seattle Public Schools in the past year, was the toughest yet – but necessary, Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson said Wednesday. "If you want to go from good to great, you have to look at the brutal facts," she said." From the Times: " At the School Board meeting Wednesday night, Sherry Carr ca...