Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS to parents:

Massachusetts-is-a-lot-like-us-so-why-are-its-schools-so-much-better?  This was a good article in the Times this morning (although the only local quote is a business person and not an educator?) Naturally, I had some comments about it as did other readers.  One comment that came up was the comparison of states purely by some demographic measures.  One reader said it should have been Colorado which is also, by geography, as big as Washington state with agriculture AND they spend less.  (I will also point out that Colorado has had some success with their public education reform but also a hotbed of problems with charter schools, takeovers of districts and big spending on school board races by out-of-state donors.) The article points out that Washington students don’t take the international exams but doesn’t say why. Could that be cost?  I'll have to call OSPI and ask.  “The education of all children (in Massachusetts) was seen as a matter, not onl...

Want to understand where we are on McCleary?  Here's a good wrap-up from the Coalition to Protect our Public Schools.  Will the Supreme Court order the Legislature back into session?  I doubt it given there were so many extra sessions already.  I think the Supreme Court has seen what "action" looks like from the Legislature. No, I think the Court will probably act on one of the McCleary-requested actions (see below).   That will get the Legislature's attention.

From the Times . Apparently this WILL prevent a shutdown of the state government on July 1.   No details have yet been provided.  The Governor's office has apparently been instrumental in getting both sides to the table.  "They're definitely forcing closure, which is a great thing, (Ross) Hunger said, referring to the Governor's office.  I would be willing to bet that the teachers don't get much of a raise that that I-1351 is mostly on-hold (something like I-728).  From the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk blog , Class Size: The Common Sense Bus doesn't stop on School Reform Blvd.

Thread to come: the Washington Middle School meeting on Spectrum .  Pretty interesting stuff but again, what does it all mean? From the Washington Post, doing some building work on an Oklahoma high school, contractors uncovered chalkboards - intact with lessons - from almost 100 years ago.  What is truly fascinating is one board has a technique to teach multiplication tables that was new to the principal (it's some kind of circle table).  From King5, Renton High votes transgendered teen as their prom queen.  There was also a good story on KUOW on the issue of transgendered children .  Legislative News:

News from Thornton Creek: The Seattle school district has only budgeted Thornton Creek to have two 4th grade classes, two 5th grade classes and one mixed 4th/5th class for 2015-16, even though there are three 3rd grade classes and three 4th grade classes moving up.  Grades 4 and 5 are currently 140 students.  The plan would be to have 2 fourth grade classes and 2 fifth grade classes of 29 kids each, and 1 slightly smaller mixed age class for 4th/5th grade.   A group of concerned parents has created an online petition requesting a sixth class at 4th/5th grade. http://tinyurl.com/ohfqrxh

I saw this video from Creative Evolution ; it's called The Truth About School (in a two-minute video).  I think that it is simplistic and probably less-than-accurate about all public education because I don't agree all schools are doing this.  But I do think that our country is still stuck on many issues around public education. That's the funny thing - if you don't like the current ed reform ideas, you're "for the status quo."  Nope.  But there are other things that need to happen but the problem is that basically there's a lot of busy "look at what we got done" in public education, rather than "look at the outcomes for these students."  You can "do" a lot and it may not help kids (especially when some people seem more interesting in their resume than actual outcomes).  But I think this two-minute video does start a conversation. Based on your experience with public education so far, tell us this:

Tell me what you think.  From the OSPI press release: The State is currently under a court order to produce a complete plan showing how it intends to achieve full state funding of K-12 basic education without the use of local funding. Superintendent Randy Dorn has introduced a plan makes two significant modifications to current law regarding full funding: 1), It reduces class size in grades 4 through 12, but not as much as voter-approved Initiative 1351; and 2), It extends the timeline for achieving full funding from 2018 to 2021. The extension is a realistic timeline to hire more teachers and build more classrooms to accommodate the new class-size limits. Below is a summary of the complete plan: The State must: - Complete the funding of House Bill 2776 . In their McCleary decision , the State Supreme Court requires the State to fund HB 2776, which includes statewide full-day kindergarten; lower K–3 class size; materials, supplies, and operating costs; and tra...

From Publicola , the most recent Elway poll:  "Voters "aren't having" the fact that both the Democratic and Republican proposals don't fully fund I-1351, last year's $1.4 billion (when you account for the overlap with the McCleary mandate) smaller class size initiative . The poll also found that 48 percent of voters (versus 43 percent) would take a second vote on the initiative with a funding source—and 60 percent of those people would vote yes. No specific tax proposal got polled, though."

The Senate GOP put out its budget and it's not good.  As if to not only sneer at 1351 (they have been saying all along they had no money to enact this voter-approved measure to lower class sizes), they actually increase class size.

The House will be releasing its budget tomorrow with a public hearing on it also that day. Naturally, this is a greatly anticipated moment for public education because the question is: what's in there for McCleary (and how are they paying for it)?   What is vitally important to let legislators know is that McCleary is about several things. fully-funding K-12 public education fully-funding to whatever they are defining as "basic education" remembering that class size IS part of McCleary (especially at K-3) and any attempt to say that they can't fund 1351 would not be true (given the first part of my statement).     You cannot divorce class size from McCleary.  What was clear from the Town Hall at Hale on Saturday is that even the biggest legislative supporters of public education have no time/stomach for figuring out funding for 1351.  However, none of them want to ignore the will of the people, either.  (They all said they would no...

From Class Size Counts WA:

The Legislature doesn't like what the voters want. Really? From The Olympian : Legislature Might Send I-1351 Back to Voters. So wait, does this work for ANY unfunded initiative?  Because we could talk about others like I-1240. Also, how much would this repeal election cost taxpayers? A couple of choices for the Legislature: Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2015/02/13/3576397_legislature-might-send-initiative.html?fb_action_ids=10153069460173166&rh=1#storylink=cpy

The Times starts off the year with their "headlines we'd like to see" contest.  Funny thing, their editorial doesn't even give the top reader winners' headlines but only the ones the Times wants to see.  (None of were about public education except for "No U.S. school shootings in 2015 " which won first place.) The Times calls their own headlines "wishful thinking" and they certainly are. Hey, look at that - four of them are about public education. 

Yes, I will have a separate thread on the data breach that apparently happened at a law firm that was handling a Special Education case for the district.   Community meetings tomorrow: Director Blanford, 10am-11:30 am at Douglass Truth Branch Library Director Martin-Morris, 10 am-noon at NE Library branch News about SPS:

Update :  the I-1351 campaign has declared victory. My latest tweet:   Yes to lower class sizes in WA continues its winning ways, up 18K votes. Biggest counties trend Yes; should be able to call by Monday eve. After today's ballot drops, Yes on 1351 is up by 18,205 votes (nearly 1%).   Pierce County had 9,000 ballots - they are down to 1500 (at 51.65% Yes) King had 121,000 ballots - they are down to 88,000 (at 54% Yes) Snohomish had 58,000 ballots - they are down to 27,000 (at 50.5% Yes) Spokane has 13,500 ballots outstanding (at 50.23% Yes) So while some counties are just hanging in there, King has, by far, the largest number of ballots and they continue to trend Yes. Biggest approval?  Jefferson County with 60%. Lowest approval?  Colombia County with nearly 65%. I readily admit that, like other measures, voters may have been confused by this measure.  But again, if we all agree to vote Yes to everything for kids, then we will have a ver...

Update 8:25 am The Times is whining that Governor Inslee didn't "lead" by revealing his own vote against 1351. As governor, he should have expressed his concerns with the initiative and let voters know where he stood so they could follow his example. Now, the initiative might require a recount and, if it does pass, it could suck up lawmakers’ time and resources from other matters, and it might not ever be fully implemented. Inslee might have wanted to let voters make up their own minds, but that’s no excuse for sitting back and not doing what voters expect him to do: lead. Since when is ANYONE supposed to reveal their vote (even a Governor)?  I have to wonder if maybe he does support it but worried about the money so he voted no.  Whatever the reason, it's his vote. Next big ballot drop is 4:30 pm. Update 8:05 pm Yes continues upward climb over 4500 votes up with more votes to count. Update 7:40 pm Yes takes the lead...with about 125 votes.  However, K...

The Seattle Times has run another editorial in opposition to the class size initiative , I-1351. This one is disguised as a news article about the initiative's commanding lead in the polls, but all of the content is an argument in favor of a "no" vote. This isn't even clever. It belongs on the editorial page.

 Update:  it seems I'm not the only one who thinks that I-1351 + McCleary = the push needed to force the Legislature to make real change in revenue sources.  The somewhat to the left left, Budget & Policy Center, says this: Without an identified revenue source, I-1351 leaves it up to the legislature to determine how it will be funded. The sheer enormity of the gap between our resources and funding needs means that there is no escaping the need for new revenue. Funding I-1351 and meeting McCleary without additional revenues would be impractical. A cuts-only approach would decimate health care, child care, community colleges and universities, and other investments kids need in order to succeed in the classroom.  end of update. I hope that it has not missed anyone's attention that there is again an initiative to lower class sizes in Washington State. Our state's class size?  We are 47th out of 50th in the nation.  (Sadly, just like with McCleary, p...

In the "wait, what?!" category comes this story from the Washington Post's Answer Sheet - School puts nearly 100 kindergartners in one class in a teaching experiment.   The first sentence in the article says "no, it's not a headline from The Onion."  This is being tried at the lowest-performing school in Detroit.  There are three teachers in the class. Incidentally, the lead teacher is 30 years old, another teacher is in her second year and the third is in her first year. It's from a story in the Detroit Free Press .  It sounds like it works (somewhat) but I honestly do not believe it is what is best for children. The AP is reporting that Washington state is the only state denied renewal of its NCLB waiver that seems unlikely to get their waiver back (the other three states seem to be doing what Arne Duncan wants).   Randy Dorn, the WA state superintendent said this: