Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the LA Times : The L.A. Unified school board could name an interim superintendent as early as 10 a.m. Thursday, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved a personnel matter and confidential negotiations.

 In the "grrrr" edition of Open Thread: In Jurupa Valley (a small city near Irvine, California), s chool officials apologized to parents of high school Sped students because, as part of a "functional skills program," the schools had them dig through trash for items that could be recycled for money.  The Superintendent carefully phrased his apology: “I personally apologize to any students who may have been humiliated,” but also said: Duchon said Tuesday that “this is standard curriculum” for the program’s students, who routinely collected recyclables such as cans and bottles. “Up to last week, there has not been one complaint,” he said. Gee, I wonder why students didn't feel they could stand up to their teachers over this nonsense. (It was discovered after complaints appeared on Facebook.) Their Sped ex director said it was a common project to teach life skills. Next, remember that HUGE planned iPad buy for Los Angeles Unified School District...

From SPS: Seattle Public Schools seeks members for School Family Partnerships Task force Seattle Public Schools is starting the process of revising the current School Family Partnerships District Plan. An important part of the review is to engage with our families, staff and community members and gather as much feedback as possible to help revise our school family partnerships efforts over the next three to five years. A key element to gathering feedback is the formation of a School Family Partnerships Stakeholder Task force . The task force, made up of approximately 40-50 people, will be a diverse group that includes families/guardians, teachers, principals, District staff, community members, city officials and university representatives. Task force members will offer feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the District’s School Family Partnerships Plan, give feedback on the vision, mission, and core beliefs of the District on School Family Partnerships, and make...

I'm off to go listen in on the Work Session this afternoon about Capital Program Planning.  I was talking with an aide to a City Councilperson yesterday about this very issue.  Apparently the staff and families at the NW Center for Kids have been very active in reaching out in all directions to try to stay in the SPS building they currently occupy.  He was mystified at how there could be two groups - Cascade and NW Center for Kids - both whom serve special needs children that have somehow become pitted against each other.  Inwardly, I thought, "Well, that's about par for SPS."  He was also surprised at the lack of preventive maintenance in our school buildings especially given how packed and well-used they are.  Again, no surprised if you know that the district has cut back on maintenance since the late '70s.  They cut back and never looked back.  Well, there has been a lot of hand-wringing from Board members and superintendents and staff an...

Interesting six-part series on math in the NY Times, Me, Myself and Math . Oh those kids! Looks like LA high school students found it quite easy to hack into their new school-issued iPads. One week after students started receiving their iPads, students attending at least three Los Angeles high schools had figured out how to disarm a built-in security lock that was supposed to limit what they could do with the devices. This freed them to use the iPads to surf the Internet, send tweets, socialize on Facebook, stream music through Pandora, and who knows what else besides homework and school assignments.  Student access to social networks and tweets will of course invalidate any of the online exams. All the students had to do to trick the system was to delete their personal profile information and then they were free to use the iPads any way they wanted to.  Last Growth Boundaries meeting at Ballard tonight.  Anyone going?   Update: Stephan Blanf...

From Ed Week , are lawmakers finally connecting the dots between the Gates Foundation and Common Core?   Do tell. In Michigan, here is what representative Tom McMillin had to say two days ago, in response to testimony from Chester Finn, of the Fordham Institute, which can be counted among the architects of test-driven reform. McMillin points out that Chester Finn's colleague at the Fordham Institute, Michael Petrilli, had stated that after Arne Duncan hired four Gates Foundation staffers to high level positions in the Department of Education, "the Gates Foundation's agenda has become the country's agenda in education."  Finn said he disagreed, however he acknowledged that " the Gates Foundation paid for the development of the Common Core standards. There's no disputing that."  McMillin responded: And they also paid $6 million to Fordham (Institute) and then you guys evaluate the Common Core standards and decide if they're a...