Seattle Schools Community Forum

It has been, for some time now, the District's contention that they are working to "make every school a quality school". This is a significant goal of the Strategic Plan, "Excellence for All", and a pre-requisite for the New Student Assignment Plan. So one might wonder how the District defines a "quality school". In fact, many more than one might wonder about it. The entire freakin' city might wonder about it. Well, they can just go on wondering because the District doesn't have an answer. That's right. They have been ostensibly working for two years now towards a goal that they have not defined. Although the District defines accountability as having objectively measurable goals and insists that everyone is accountable, there are no objectively measurable goals tied to the definition of a "quality school". This would appear to be an intentional effort to evade accountability. Not only are there no objectively measurable goals, t...

I'm just going to post an email I received from Fionnuala O'Sullivan of South East Seattle for Excellent Education because it requires no introduction or explanation from me. Ms Carr and your fellow Board Members: With all due respect... but is that alarm bells I hear ringing? As a reminder, here is the question that we at SES4EE (South East Seattle for Excellent Education) have posed to Supt Goodloe Johnson, CAO Dr Enfield, School Board members since Jan 20th, 2010 -please define a "Quality" school and the accompanying objective measurements of that definition as per the Strategic Plan Vision 2008 which states as a goal that 2. Every school is a high quality school Here is the response emailed to us on Feb 28th by Sherry Carr, School Board Member: " I have spoken with Dr. Enfield on this topic. In response to the meetings that you have had with her previously, she and her team are developing the definition of a quality school. Those materials will be ...

There is increasing talk these days about making every school in the district a "quality" school. The New Student Assignment Plan has increased the frequency, volume, and urgency for this bumper sticker talk. But despite those increases, there has not been much increase in action or even understanding of the goal. Everytime I hear someone spout this talk about "every school a quality school" I stop them immediately and ask them what they mean by that. What is a "quality school"? How will we know one? I pretty much tell them that if they cannot accurately define a quality school then they should just shut the hell up about it. I hate it when people use words without knowing what they mean. So, for the record, I have my own idea about what is a quality school. It is a school where the students are taught - at a minimum - the core set of knowledge and skills that they should be taught at their grade level and they learn it. It's a school in which students...