Seattle Schools Community Forum

Taeko Tashibu of Roosevelt High School in Seattle, who is a Japanese language teacher.  Congrats to Ms. Tashibu!  From Ed Week: According to the ACTFL, the Language Teacher of the Year takes on the role of spokesperson for the language-teaching profession, promoting the importance of teaching foreign languages and cultures. The current LTY is Noah Geisel, a Spanish teacher at East High School in Denver. (Check out his presentation on engaging students in cultural studies .)   This year's winner will be announced at the ACTFL's Annual Convention in Orlando, Fla., in November. In addition to administering the award, the ACTFL, a membership organization, provides professional development, certification programs, and language-education resources. It also offers scholarship and grant opportunities . The other finalists are three Spanish teachers and one Latin teacher.  

To start, I think that foreign language teaching is great and should be started in every elementary school. I would advocate for foreign language several times a week in every elementary versus what we have now which are four foreign language immersion elementary schools that are ONLY open to neighborhood children. I did a previous post on this subject that covers some of the history. JSIS started as a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland "hey kids, let's open a foreign language school to honor a beloved superintendent." But, where was the discussion about funding, where those kids go AFTER elementary and how to expand the program? Nowhere.   Guess what? John Stanford International School was a wild success and left other parents clamoring for more. It took the district nearly eight years to bring a couple more schools on-line and then McDonald in the last couple of years. (They did also finally get around to figuring out a pathway to middle and high school although those...

First up, this is not directly ed related (although peripherally), a letter from a whiter-than-white (his term) Republican who was mightily unhappy with his party this election.  (Caution: he minces no words so if you are a delicate reader, do not read this section.)  He does speak to some of what ed reformers on the Dem side like to do; namely, name-call and harangue which to my mind, never works.   One of the reasons my family is affluent is that my wife and I have a collective fifteen years of university education between us. I have a Masters degree in Science and Technology Policy, and my wife is a physician who holds degrees in medicine as well as cell and molecular biology. We are really quite unimpressed with Congressional representatives such as Todd Akin and Paul Broun who actually serve on the House science committee and who believe, respectively, that rape does not cause pregnancy and that evolution and astrophysics are lies straight from Satan’s butt ...

From New London, Connecticut comes a story that the district there will make " knowing American English" a requirement to graduate from their high schools by 2015.  From MSNBC: "We know from colleges and employers, that our students are going to have to know how to read and write in English if they are going be successful," Supt. Nicholas Fischer, told the Day.  That is not to say that the school is instituting an "English only" program in which where students are told they can only speak English in the schools. New London's program is a literacy program in which students will be required to achieve a certain level of English reading and writing literacy by the 10th grade.  The school system will offer several ways for students to fulfill their English language requirement and they have until the age of 21 to meet it. " I'm thinking some of this is driven by district costs but they may very well feel kids are not b...

As requested, an open thread to talk about any and all high school curriculum issues. I can start off by saying I do not understand this opt-out testing for Physical Science that is only for Ballard students.  Why?  Also, one of our Ballard High science teacher readers, India Carlson, told DeBell at his last community meeting that the test created is extremely difficult (so it would seem that few Ballard kids would pass it anyway). Other suggested topics: science math language arts electives foreign language oc-ed uneven teaching quality (I found this more apparent in high school than any other level; this was at both Roosevelt and Hale.) counselors

A local exchange group is looking for host families for Spanish teens this summer from roughly July 1-31.   I've hosted students in the past and it is fun and a very good opportunity to learn a new language (good for your kids, too).   This is an open hosting experience meaning the student will spending most of his/her time with the hosting family. From the e-mail: The students that will be visiting Seattle are fully insured, speak both English and Spanish, and bring their own spending money. They are excited to practice English with your family, experience authentic American life/culture/food, and assimilate into the daily routine of a typical American family for four weeks. They will require their own bed, but not necessarily their own room. If you have teens in your household that is a plus, but not a requirement! There are multiple benefits in hosting a Spanish-speaking student which include: improved motivation/ achievement in your own student’s study of ...

Didn't see this posted at the SPS website but over at the Wallyhood blog there is notice of a meeting on Monday night to discuss options for parents who don't want foreign language immersion at McDonald.  The McDonald Elementary PTA and the District are seeking feedback from families who do not want to attend McDonald this fall because of the language immersion program.  A meeting with Seattle School Board Director Sherry Carr and Bree Dusseault, Executive Director for NW schools for SPS, has been scheduled for April 4, 2011 from 6:30-7:30 in the library at Lincoln . (4400 Interlake Avenue N.)  This meeting is an opportunity to present concerns and potential solutions to district personnel.  Please try to make this meeting if you are, or are considering, not attending McDonald due to the immersion decision. The district needs to see just how many families are affected by this decision. The two languages to be used at McDonald are Japanese and Span...

As several people have reported (thank you), the district has quietly extended Open Enrollment thru April 15th due to changes in transportation services. This is at the News and Calendar page but not noted as a change on the Enrollment page. From the notice: A decision expected at the Feb. 16 School Board meeting. The Transportation Department will be sending out letters notifying families about students' transportation eligibility for next year. Open Enrollment is being extended to give families more time to consider whether these proposed changes will impact their choices for next year. What is to note at the Enrollment page is that the SPS Service Center will be closed all day this Wednesday, the 16th for training on the new Student Assignment System. Open Enrollment Period - March 15th - April 15th Tuesday the 17th There isn't an open meeting on Tuesday but there is to be a 3 1/2 hour Executive Session on Tuesday. It is about a complaint against a public employ...

Monday - Curriculum and Instruction Committee mtg. - 4-6 p.m. Among the agenda items: world language credit, credit for online work, update on science and social studies alignment, Wednesday - Director Sundquist Community Mtg. - 11 am-12:15 pm Also, Board Work Session on Budget - 4-8 p.m. This may be a bit of showdown. Will staff have the information that Directors requested at the last meeting? Will staff try to waffle on how much Central Office staff gets cut? Will it be Central over Transportation? Thursday - Community Meeting on Transportation from 7-8:30 p.m. I don't know where and I don't know how this can be covered in this short a timeframe. I'm thinking they aren't that interested in feedback. Possible Audit and Finance Committee meeting - TBD Also, a reminder of forum of public school K-12 teachers talking about challenges, both local and national . Seattle University, 6-8:30 p.m., Student Center, Room 160

UPDATE: Here's the Powerpoint link. Following up on my Summary thread, here are the highlights of the discussion. Steve started with a bit of a monologue about Board's role versus staff's (I'm going to have to have him repeat it for me). He did say something interesting that I'm not sure the rest of the Board would agree with, namely, that if the Board asked more questions than staff could answer in this Work Session, it is the job of the Audit&Finance Committee to prioritize them. It is unclear to me if he meant that if some of the lower questions didn't get answered, it was okay. It seemed that way. Frankly, with this kind of climate and for a budget, I think ALL Board questions should be answered. Overall themes: a struggle over what will take priority; the Strategic Plan or WSS for schools. frustration by several Board members but mostly Sherry and Michael over the lack of clarity in this presentation. The Board seemed very frustrated ove...

I attended the press conference today about the Transition Plan for 2011-2012. Tracy Libros was there along with the new(ish) head of Customer Service, Brandon Holst and Teresa Whipple of Public Affairs. The media was represented (in person) by me, Phyllis Fletcher of KUOW and Jerry of KING-5 tv. (By the way, I think KING-5, followed by KIRO-7, do the best job for tv coverage. KOMO and KCPQ always seem awol on these issues.) On the phone were reporters from the West Seattle blog, PI-online, Seattle's Child and The Stranger. Two of the most important things before Q&A. Again, as I posted previously, the deadline for issues/concerns to Board members in order to create amendments is FRIDAY, JAN. 7th (tomorrow), not Monday, the 10th. Steve Sundquist abruptly changed this date. Second, I asked and Tracy verified the following point. There used to be an amendment to the enrollment plan called the Waldman/Barnhart amendment. Basically it was a hold safe amendment. Yo...

Nicholas Kristof, a NY Times columnist, had an interesting column with a premise about parents rushing for their children to learn Chinese (Mandarin) while Spanish seems to be more to the point for our own country's interests (both in population and borders). From the column: Chinese is still far less common in schools or universities than Spanish or French, but it is surging and has the "cool factor" behind it — so public and private schools alike are hastening to add Chinese to the curriculum. In New York City alone, about 80 schools offer Chinese, with some programs beginning in kindergarten. And let's be frank: If your child hasn't started Mandarin classes by third grade, he or she will never amount to anything. Just kidding. In fact, I think the rush to Chinese is missing something closer to home: The paramount importance for our children of learning Spanish. He points out that we have many more Spanish speakers in this country and, increasingly,...

(Did anyone attend Tuesday's? I think Dorothy said she did. I looked at the PowerPoint and there is a lot of stuff that I wish I had heard presented. I'll have to tease it out in another thread. Here are my notes from the PowerPoint of the 2nd of last week's "integrated" work sessions (a mash-up of budget and transition plan). I did not stay until the end so help me out if you did. All the Directors were in attendance as was Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. They started at page 45 of the previous day's work session. They started talking about program placement and the new possible Accelerated IB program in response to the overcrowding at Garfield. It would be modeled after the program at Interlake over in Bellevue. (I'll just say here that I think it's done. The community would have to rise up, en masse, to prevent it. I just think there's way too much work already done for this to be just a "possibility." The question is whe...

Part 1 ( this part is not as fascinating as Part 2 but may have info you might be interested in. I'll bold key words so you can skip to what you care about.) Charlie was right (I lost count how many times I have written that this year but his streak continues). The Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday morning was very, very good. I was the only member of the public there which I think might have somewhat influenced what was said (or how forcefully it was said). I'm not sure it was me personally but that there was a John Q. Public in the room. Michael DeBell is the head of the Committee and Kay Smith-Blum and Steve Sundquist are the other members. The cast of staff coming in and out was quite amazing. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson was there for most of it as was Holly Ferguson, head of policy and government (I always forget her exact title) and Noel Treat, the new head of Legal. The first thing I learned is that this is where you get an advance look at upcoming Board meeting age...

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...

Did anyone attend DeBell's or Sundquist's community meeting yesterday? I attended Harium's. I was quite surprised that it turned out to be just 3 parents. One was an Eastlake parent and one was a Hale parent. I would have thought from posts here that more parents had issues and questions especially about the NSAP. I first brought Harium up-to-date on the issue of me being able to ask questions at the press conference. (I had received an odd e-mail from Communications that was written for the press.) I asked Harium if the Board had a policy on media access. He said no and he didn't think they needed one but the district should have a procedure. I agreed. It seems apparent that the district has no policy and was flying by the seat of their pants with me and just made it up as they went along. I don't want to drag this out but I do want to make clear: The press conference started late even though all the speakers were there. I was told, five minutes befor...

Picking up from the thread on the early enrollment numbers as well as a conversation with an education leader in Seattle (not the district), I have two questions. (Please note, I'm not advocating anything. They are just questions that I have been pondering because of discussions with others.) One is about foreign language in elementary schools (actually there are two issues). Would it be better in your mind to continue with foreign language immersion OR would you rather see foreign language classes in almost every elementary school? Having classes versus a full program would be a lot easier to do at every school (albeit the rollout would need a lot of planning). As well, where would they put it in the day? Given that the best way to learn a foreign language is immersion (or living in a foreign country), would it be worth it to create foreign language classes at nearly every elementary? Would it be better than nothing to have some foreign language training at nearly every eleme...

The Times is reporting that the UW, Hanban (a Chinese nonprofit group affiliated with China's Ministry of Education) and SPS are launching a new institute to spread the Chinese language and culture in Washington State. It will be called the Confucius Institute. Hanban has several teachers in different SPS schools teaching Chinese. From the article: Hanban provided $150,000 in startup funds for the institute, which has been matched with about $150,000 in time and office space from the Washington partners. The institute's main office will be on the UW campus, and its education office, now at Denny International Middle School in Seattle, will move to Seattle's Chief Sealth International High in the fall, when Sealth and Denny move into a new, shared campus in West Seattle. The institute's director signed a memorandum of understanding with UW president Mark Emmert, Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson and Governor Gregoire. Apparently some other communities in other par...

From the SPS School Beat : Applicants Needed: The Instructional Services science staff is planning for an anticipated adoption process for high school physical science, physics and chemistry instructional materials . The process will start in late spring 2010 and end in spring 2011. Applications to become a member of this Instructional Materials Adoption Committee will be accepted from March 16 to April 16. The time commitment for each Instructional Materials Adoption Committee member is approximately: • one meeting in late spring 2010, approximately three hours • five six-hour days, approximately one per month in the first seven months of the school year • three after-school meetings, approximately three hours each District educators and community members are encouraged to apply. Seattle Public Schools teachers will be provided with substitute release or extra hours for their time. Community members will participate on a volunteer basis. Please look for the announcement a...

I have a bunch of stories I've been holding onto because we had so much breaking news. This article was in the NY Times about a government -financed survey found how thousands of public schools in the U.S. have stopped teaching foreign languages (not the trend here, clearly). But the one lanaguage that does seem to be growing in popularity is Chinese. From the article: "Among America’s approximately 27,500 middle and high schools offering at least one foreign language, the proportion offering Chinese rose to 4 percent, from 1 percent, from 1997 to 2008, according to the survey , which was done by the Center for Applied Linguistics, a research group in Washington, and paid for by the federal Education Department ." “It’s really changing the language education landscape of this country,” said Nancy C. Rhodes, a director at the center and co-author of the survey." And AP Chinese is rapidly taking over German as the third most take AP foreign language test (after...