Seattle Schools Community Forum

From Diane Ravitch's column (this is a parent who wrote to Seattle Opt Out: This spring the SBA was rolled out in grades 3-8, 10 and 11. We were delighted to learn that there were many opt outs across the Seattle School District, as well as in every corner of the State. We formed the Seattle Opt Out Group in Dec. 2014 and have worked tirelessly in the first half of 2015 to inform parents about opting out and the problems that high stakes standardized tests bring with them. We plan to continue our efforts in earnest over the summer and into the next school year. Yesterday, however, we learned of an event that has us quite alarmed, and we want to proceed in as informed a manner as possible. Apparently at a Seattle middle school the principal forbade students who opted out of the SBA to attend a year-end school carnival last Friday. A parent reached out to us and sent us this note: Here is my daughter’s experience with being excluded from the Denny Carnival ...

According to this story in the Seattle Times , State schools superintendent Randy Dorn is threatening to withhold funding if Seattle's Nathan Hale High School doesn't administer the SBAC tests to 11th graders.

Update: I asked the Washington State Charter Commission staff about the letter of intent as I had gone back, read the WAC and realized that anything in it was "nonbinding" (including the fact that the letter of intent doesn't mean anyone has to follow-thru).  Here was their reply: The purpose of the Notice of Intent (NOI) is two-fold: First, they help us as staff plan for the upcoming application cycle. Second, per WAC 108-20-010 (1) a NOI is a requirement of the application process.  As you pointed out, the NOI is nonbinding.  Information submitted on an NOI does not prevent an applicant from submitting a different application from what is suggested in the NOI. End of update. As I previously reported, Green Dot has submitted a letter of intent to the Charter Commission to open their second Puget Sound region charter school this time in "south Seattle."  A couple of readers alerted me that Green Dot had two open houses this week, one in the SW and one in...

Two Special Education stories of note. First, the Times reports that the State will accept SPS's Special Ed plan with a few extra conditions.  The concern seems to be that the staffing plan seems more worried about teachers's needs than meeting student needs.  The State also wants the district to spend more federal dollars on consultants to help to shape/improve services.  Also, the AP is reporting that Bainbridge School District has to pay the family of a student with Asperger's who was bullied $300,000 in damages .  The lawsuit started in 2010 when the student was then 14 and at Bainbridge High School.  The parents had gone so far as to get a restraining order against four male students as well as contacting the Bainbridge Island police.   The students were found guilty of criminal conduct relating to their actions towards the victim. Another STEM school with an aviation twist has opened in south Seattle.  The school, Raisbeck Aviation High Sch...

I'm sure most of you heard about the drive-by shooting in Lake Stevens of Molly Conley,  student at Bishop Blanchet High School.  She was shot to death on her 15th birthday; the police have no suspects in custody at this time. From My Northwest , Linda Thomas reports that the school sent home her report card and in the envelope was a letter she wrote to her class as a last assignment.  Blanchet is a Catholic school so Molly does speak in religious terms.  But what she asks of her classmates (and herself) should ring true for all teens.  Show this to your middle schooler or teen and ask them to consider what she says going forward in their lives.  Hers is over but maybe she can generate some real thought about how students treat each other. I particularly like her last paragraph. Dear Class of 2016, I pray that we can find a way to connect and get along before our last year together. I pray we are different. I pray that we can be a family. I pray ...

Hard to believe, sad to believe but apparently this is happening.  From the NY Times (bold mine): Any difference can set schoolchildren apart from their peers and potentially make them a target for bullying. But a severe food allergy is a unique vulnerability: It takes only one lunch or cupcake birthday party for other children to know which classmates cannot eat nuts, eggs, milk or even a trace of wheat. It can take longer for them to grasp how frightening it is to live with a life-threatening allergy. Surprisingly, classmates may prey on this vulnerability, plotting to switch a child’s lunch to see if she gets sick, for example, or spitting milk at a child’s face and causing a swift anaphylactic reaction. In a recent survey of 251 sets of parents and children with food allergies, published in Pediatrics in January, roughly a third of the children reported being bullied for their allergies. Parents knew about the threatening behavior only half the time. Food ...

From the district webpage (with links to all the info/surveys): Results of recent state and federal surveys of health- and risk-related behavior among Seattle Public Schools middle and high school students provide a snapshot of everything from drug use and sexual behavior to how often they eat fruit and vegetables and watch television. The state-funded Healthy Youth Survey is taken every two years by students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 and focuses on attitudes and health risk behaviors. Topics include gangs, physical activity, suicide, sexual activity, bullying and drug, alcohol, and tobacco use. The federal CDC-funded Youth Risk Behavior Survey , also conducted every two years, surveys students in grades 9-12 , with a focus on health risk behaviors that result in unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to HIV infection; other sexually transmitted diseases; unhealthy dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. ...

This comes from a reader whose child is at Washington.  I am appalled at the poor judgment on the part of these teachers.   Why, in 2013, does anyone have to tell teachers and administrators that awards should ONLY be positive?  That they think - after the fact - that some "humorous" awards might even be the cause of bullying is deeply troubling. Dear Senior Music Families, We are sending this letter home to address what has become a concern to many. As a “fun activity” that was planned for the upcoming Senior Trip this weekend (May 17, 18, and 19), an “awards ceremony” was devised with varying types of awards that were to be created for serious effect, and for humorous effect. It is our observation that some of the awards that were created are coming off as offensive to many. Please understand that the intention in the awards ceremony was not to be offensive. In hindsight, it is easy to understand why many are feeling this way right now. We now clearl...

This just came on my radar so sorry for the late notice. On Monday, the 29th, Town Hall is presenting Emily Bazelon of Slate (and author of Sticks and Stones ) in a discussion with Dan Savage of The Stranger (and creator of the It Gets Better program) about " Defeating the Culture of Bullying ."  I think it will be fascinating to listen in.   I do want to note that Dan can speak quite frankly so you are warned.  From Town Hall : Growing up has never been easy, but with the rise of the Internet and social media, bullying has taken on new, complex, and insidious forms, and suddenly childhood is exponentially more challenging—as parents, educators, and even elementary-age kids know all too well. Slate senior editor Emily Bazelon, a leading voice on the social and legal aspects of childhood drama and author of Sticks and Stones, returns to Town Hall after hosting 2012’s sold-out Political Gabfest to examine the ever-shifting landscape of kid-to-kid meanness and...

From KUOW, a story on high school "froshing" which is basically hazing freshman (whether general population or via groups like sports teams) in SPS.  This, of course, is outlawed in SPS and there is a very strongly worded statement in the student handbook about not doing this and the severe outcomes that follow.  "Harassment and hazing constitute exceptional misconduct and are in fact felony offenses. This includes 'initiation' and 'froshing.' Prohibited activities include dunking in the lake, face painting, baby powder, whipped cream, shaving cream, boxing, other forms of initiation, humiliation, or abuse. Consequences include suspension or expulsion, and/or possible criminal charges."  Listening to the story was not pleasant: Anna: "We poured condiments on them, we made them do an Easter egg hunt and inside the Easter eggs were gross things. We sprayed them with hoses and stuff." The freshmen have to dress in costumes an...

The wave of stories about bullying since the beginning of the school year in this country shows no signs of stopping.  One of the latest stories pulls back the curtain on a settlement between the district and the family of a boy who was paralyzed by a punch to the abdomen by a known bully.   (The hit to the abdomen was so severe it caused a blood clot in a major artery to his spine that left him paralyzed.) The Ramsey Board of Education in New Jersey settled with the family for $4.2M.  The district says the settlement was "the decision" of the insurance company and that they did nothing wrong. What? No, the district was told how bad the evidence was against them, was counseled by the insurance company to pay out and now wants to say, we're paying but we deny we did anything wrong.

From our friends over at The Stranger Slog, comes this story of a young man who won a judgment against the Aberdeen School District for unbated harassment against him by classmates in both middle and high school.  The lawsuit was filed with the help of the ACLU.  He won $100,000 from the district. The harassment sounds like crazy town (some kids went so far as to create a mocking website of him).  He and his parents repeatedly reported the incidents, in person and in writing, and never got help from administrators.   There were harassment over his perceived sexual orientation and his race.  “ Public school officials must be held accountable when they fail to meet their responsibility to act decisively when a student is subjected to harassment by his peers," said Sarah Dunne, ACLU-WA legal director in a statement released today. "This settlement sends a message to school districts statewide to take strong action as soon as they learn that a student...

There was a report on the West Seattle Blog about a "froshing" incident in West Seattle. Students from Garfield and Roosevelt were involved.

I missed this but in June, the US Department of Education released data on disparities in education resources and opportunities for U.S. public ed students.   It is called the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and covers about 7,000 school districts.  There are two parts.   Part 1 was released in June and covered primarily enrollment data and part 2, which will be released this fall, collected cumulative and end-of-year data.  Part 1 covers: access to the rigorous sequence of college and career-ready math and science courses,  the number of first and second-year teachers in schools,  the number of high school counselors in schools,  availability of pre-K and kindergarten programs,  districts operating under desegregation orders or plans, and  whether districts have written policies prohibiting harassment and bullying on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or disability. Part 2 will cover; numbers of stude...

The Board Directors are busy attending high school graduations this week so the district is fairly light on meetings. There will be a Work Session with the topic "Strategic Plan Refresh" on Wednesday before the Board meeting . The Work Session is from 4-5:30 p.m. with the Board meeting starting at 6 p.m. There are no presentation materials yet available.

Glee won for best comedy at last night's Golden Globes. One of the writers said this: ”Thank you to public school teachers. You do the most important work in America even though you don’t get paid like it.” ~GLEE writer Ian Brennan On television. In prime time. And, this happens every single year at either the Globes, the Grammys or the Academy Awards. Many performing artists know where they got some of their best support for their work early on. Also Chris Colfer, who won for his part in Glee as an openly gay student who gets a lot of harassment from other students, said this: "To all the amazing kids who watch our show and the kids that our show celebrates," he said. "Who are constantly told 'No' by the people in their environments -- by bullies at school -- that they can't be who they are or have what they want because of who they are. Well, screw that, kids!" It was a great moment.

Following up on the story about adults trying to separate "best" friends and have kids have a wider group, there comes this lengthy - and disturbing - story from the NY Times about texting and bullying. The title is Online Bullies Pull Schools into the Fray. The opening to it is a story from NJ about a couple of sixth graders, a boy and a girl. They had been "dating" for about a week and "broke up". The girl then received a dozen terrible and sexually-based text threads from his cellphone one Saturday night. Her parents came to school looking for relief. The school said it occurred out of school on a weekend and offered that the parents might want to call the boy's parents. Too awkward as both fathers coached sports together. (Which begs the question, who's the grown-up? If you are concerned enough, you'll put the coaching aside.) The school asked about the police but the parents were reluctant because of the formality of a criminal...

Here's an interesting story from the NY Times that gave me pause. It's about best friend pairings versus group bondings. It seems that some schools and summer camps are trying to get kids to be friends with more kids. From the article: But increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend? Most children naturally seek close friends. In a survey of nearly 3,000 Americans ages 8 to 24 conducted last year by Harris Interactive, 94 percent said they had at least one close friend. But the classic best-friend bond — the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school — signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying. Schools ...