Seattle Schools Community Forum

There are not further details/information on the Hamilton substitute incident that occurred last week as the investigation is on-going.   SPS replied to these basic questions about substitute hiring. 1) Why did the reporter say the sub wasn't employed by the district? Is that right? We did not tell the reporter that the substitute wasn’t a district employee. We did say that because he isn’t a permanent teacher, he couldn’t be placed on leave. Instead, we would not give him any more assignments until the investigation was completed.

 An update to this thread comes from this op-ed by Allison LaFave, a teacher in a charter school in NYC.  She says: Last week, Deborah Kenny wrote an op-ed piece (in the NY Times) decrying the heavy influence of test scores on teacher evaluations. Kenny rightfully claimed that the practice “undermines principals and is demeaning to teachers” and leaves little room for innovative teaching and learning. S he went on to say that test-based evaluations inhibit the “culture of trust" between principals and teachers and “discourage the smartest, most talented people from entering the profession.” While I agree that test-based evaluations are inherently flawed (when was the last time our politicians, Democrats or Republicans, truly analyzed a Pearson test ?), I am baffled by Kenny’s ultimate argument. It seems that Kenny bashes test-based evaluations because ... wait for it ... they make it harder for her to fire teachers she doesn’t like – specifically a teac...

Here are my highlights:

There's a shortage of teachers at SPS , according to this report , that was attached to the UW's revised Form 2 A for their application for alternative certification for TFA. (Thanks to Stop TFA for this info.) Here's something else fun about it (from the Oompah's comment): I love the report, page 2 of Appendix B under the title "Teacher Vacancies". The opening sentence reads as follows: "In the 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 352 vacancies in Seattle Public Schools.(4)" And then footnote 4 reads as follows: 4. The 352 positions included 1.0 FTE as well as partial FTE positions; there were not 352 total FTE vacancies. So though "there were a total of 352 vacancies", in fact "there were not 352 total FTE vacancies." The way this report is set up looks as if it intends to show the reader that SPS needed 352 additional teachers to fill positions in the district. One must wonder who it was that r...

A request was made for a thread on this topic.  Let us know what is happening at your school. One person commented they were interested in how this might affect Garfield and Ingraham.  From a discussion I had with Martin Floe, it does not appear that Ingraham will have any RIFs (or very few).   I do not know about Garfield.  (I did ask Mr. Floe about TFA and he gave one of his trademark hearty laughs.  Then he said that there isn't much movement of teachers out of his school and he didn't anticipate any RIFs.   It is one hallmark of a good school when teachers don't want to flee.)

The Times had an article this week on TFA recruits coming to the Puget Sound area. This might be a tougher area to crack than they had anticipated. According to the article, they will try to bring in 35 with one sole commitment (from Federal Way) of only 4-10 teachers. (Of course, even though SPS's contract is said to only allow interviews to happen, I'm pretty sure SPS will be hosting many of them.) From the article: Tuesday's announcement was made on the same day Teach For America sent out its third round of acceptances for the 2011-12 school year. Twelve people learned that they will be placed in the Seattle area, Ortega said, and she expects to add another 23 later. The program placed 100 percent of its recruits last year, and expects to be able to do the same this year. That's a lot of confidence given they only have a guarantee for 4 from Federal Way. Hmm, makes you wonder if the fix is in. What is also a big question mark is this (bold mine): This fall, ...

Salon: "Myths and Realities in American Public School Education Today - Seattle Public School Teachers Speak Out" Thursday, January 27, 2011 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. STCN 160 (LeRoux Room), Student Center The Academic Salon program and the Diversity, Citizenship, and Social Justice (DCSJ) Core Track hosts a panel discussion with four Seattle Public School teachers who will discuss issues pertinent to the present and future of public education in American schools, from funding problems, private foundations, and charter schools, to curriculum and our local superintendent. Eric Muhs , award winning National Board Certified Teacher, Seattle Public Schools, Physics & Astronomy Dan Pickard , Seattle Public Schools, Integrated & Earth Science India Carlson , Seattle Public Schools, Botany, Horticulture, Integrated Science Dan Troccoli , Seattle Public Schools, Social Studies, & Seattle Equality Educators Our featured panelists, who represent a total of more than f...

From Joan Sias, word that the "highly qualified teachers" item that was inserted in a Senate appropriations bill to allow teachers such as TFA recruits to be considered "highly qualified" for NCLB is back in the bill. Here's a link to the Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet, with info on this story. This is complete nonsense. On the one hand they want better teachers and want to direct districts to tell parents their student has a teacher who is "highly qualified" and that means a bachelor's and 5 weeks training? Look, if you want to put these student teachers into difficult to fill posts, fine. But to argue that they are highly qualified is wrong. If you think so, please contact Senator Murray's office http://murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe The phone numbers are there. To get directly to her aide who focuses on education, call Sarah Bolton in her DC office - 202-224-2621. I would also contact Senator Cantwell as well.

Teacher-in-training performance was the topic of this story that appeared in the Times. From the article: A new licensing system is being tested in 19 states that includes filming student teachers in their classroom and evaluating the video, also candidates must show they can prepare a lesson, tailor it to different levels of students and present it effectively. Most states only require that would-be teachers pass their class work and a written test. Supporters of the new system say the Teacher Performance Assessment program is a significant improvement, while others are a little more cautious in their praise, warning that it's not guaranteed it will lead to more successful teachers. The assessments also place responsibility for grading the would-be teachers with teams of outside evaluators who have no stake in the result. Currently, the teachers-in-training are evaluated by their colleges, which want their students to get their teaching licenses. Sounds good and yet ...

I think many ed reformers rightly say, "Kids can't wait." I agree. There is nothing more depressing than realizing that any change that might be good will likely come AFTER your child ages out of elementary, middle or high school. Not to say that we don't do things for the greater good or the future greater good but as a parent, you want for your child now. Of course, we are told that change needs to happen now but the reality is what it might or might not produce in results is years off. (Which matters not to Bill Gates or President Obama because their children are in private schools.) All this leads to wonder about our teachers and what this change will mean. A reader, Lendlees, passed on a link to a story that appeared in the LA Times about their teacher ratings. (You may recall that the LA Times got the classroom test scores for every single teacher in Los Angeles and published them in ranked order.) This teacher in the story, Faye Ireland, retired after 45...

Will it ever end? Norm Rice says his piece at the Times. I guess the Times is going with the old adage of saying it enough times (and tapping your heels together three times) will make it come true. As a community, we need to determine if Seattle will be an early adopter or a laggard in education reform. And there's nothing in-between like careful consideration of what we do and the people in charge of enacting it (as the State Auditor questions their commitment to rules and regulations and oversight)? But he does say: The union and the school district need to come together and agree on what can be done now — controllable, deliberate steps we can take to improve education. Okay, Norm, so can you allow the union a chance to think about what they are asking members to do? Research shows that outside of parents, an effective teacher is the most important factor in determining whether children will succeed in school. Yay, Norm. More than just a factor in compensation, evaluati...

I am desperately trying to catch up on a number of stories. (This one is long but I found it fascinating so get something cool to drink.) One that caught my eye was this one from the NY Times about a study that found was asking this question: How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life? The effect was thought to be short-term even for students who had great teachers. By junior high and high school, children who had excellent early schooling do little better on tests than similar children who did not — which raises the demoralizing question of how much of a difference schools and teachers can make. There has always been one major caveat, however, to the research on the fade-out effect . It was based mainly on test scores, not on a broader set of measures, like a child’s health or eventual earnings. As Raj Chetty , a Harvard economist, says: “We don’t really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.” Early this year,...

From the district: "The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards announced Wednesday, Dec. 16, that 57 Seattle Public Schools teachers earned their National Board certification in 2009. Seattle now has 174 National Board-certified teachers, and more than 85 additional teachers are working toward certification in 2010. The National Board noted that Seattle Public Schools is among the nation’s top 20 in terms of the number of teachers who achieved national certification in 2009, ranking 15th." Good for all these teachers. Beacon Hill International had the most with 6 newly certified teachers. I also note that this is the silly time of the year when the students come back from Winter Break and have 2 full days off plus an early release day before Feb. 15th when Mid-Winter Break starts. (It's even less time if you are at a school with its own early release/late start days.) There's a regular Board meeting this Wednesday at 6 p.m. The big item is the introd...