Seattle Schools Community Forum

First up today, it was the use of the word "illegals", then it seems "whom" may be on its way out and now the NY Times weighs in on language with this op-ed " Those Irritating Verbs-as-Nouns. " Today the Associated Press (via the Huffington Post) sent out a style guide to reporters about using the term "illegals, illegal immigrants and undocumented immigrants." From the AP Stylebook: illegal immigration Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without legal permission.  Except in direct quotations, do not use the terms illegal alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented. Do not describe people as violating immigration laws without attribution. Specify wherever possible ho...

I attended the C&I meeting on Monday.  There were some interesting discussions.  Sadly, I missed the one on innovation schools as I misheard and thought it was struck from the agenda.  Turns out it was moved to the end of the agenda and there is an MOU between the SEA and SPS that I will write a separate thread on at a later time.

Here are the highlights from the April 25th Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting.  (I'm just behind, sorry.  I also don't have the agenda with me so I'm flying by the seat of my notes.)

Not much happening this week in SPS meetings but many education events this month.

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

Monday, March 28th Board Committee Meeting - Curriculum and Instruction Agenda topics:  science adoption delay, AP Science and Social Studies, high school social studies adoption committee, middle school language arts adoption committee, K-5 General music adoption commitee, promotion/retention policies, homework policies Tuesday, March 29th   Superintendent Chat from 8-9 am at the Central library downtown (10th Floor) The Source Informational Night for Latino Families - Campana Quetzal will be hosting this event at 6:30 p.m. in the RBHS library.  Families will learn to use the Source and how to create an e-mail account.  The workshops will be in Spanish.   Superintendent coffee with members of the East African community from 6:30-8:00 p.m. - there is no location given for this; I'll try to find out where.   There is also another diversity speaker lecture.  This one is Brian C. Johnson about framing diversity through modern film....

The Middle School Language Arts Instructional Materials Adoption page has links for a staff/student/family survey as well as info on applying for the Adoption Committee. Again, the end date on the surveys and due date for committee applications is Jan. 6th.

The district has its own internal auditor and apparently, that person just abruptly resigned today. Should make for an interesting Audit and Finance Committee meeting this afternoon. Also, on the Board meeting agenda for Wednesday is the final decision from the Board on the use of Brave New World. I had thought, per the Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting last week, that the deliberations would come right before the Board meeting. No, it is to happen directly after Public Testimony. Now this should be really interesting. You will have all the Board members trying to publicly suss out a pretty important issue. This is where you will see judgment and thought-processes in action. My feeling is that they will, of course, side with the Superintendent. I actually wouldn't mind if only they said that the use of Brave New World is suspended until all the professional development that BOTH teachers and district staff say should be done. After that, I think it's fine to u...

So in advance of the upcoming tours and open houses at both public and private high schools, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine latest issue has several articles about high school education with 78 public and 50 private schools graded. Among the articles: The New School Plan - about the NSAP One Size Fits Some - about the LA alignment Talk Supe - about who else? (We'll have to discuss this one because she flatly denies saying something I heard her say out loud at a meeting.) Geek Boot Camp - about STEM at Cleveland (I'll have to take them to task for this title; no, no, and no.) Smart and Smarter - about a West Seattle mom who worked to get IB at Chief Sealth 6 Ways for Seattle Schools to Score Higher - hey, this one's by me and Charlie Parents as Search Engines - mostly about applying for private school (but boy does the district take a ding here) Private Lives - about a couple of private schools Grading our High Schools - the listing and grades of area high school...

What this situation in Seattle Public Schools and its use of Brave New World is NOT about is banning a book. That one word is so loaded and has been used over and over and it's just not true. It is not used in any of the supporting materials submitted by the district in this case. I just want to relate how troubling this can be by the reaction on KUOW yesterday morning during their weekly news roundup. This week they had as guest pundits; Joni Balter, editorial writer at the Times, Eli Sanders from the Stranger and Knute Berger from Crosscut. These are people who I know to be professionals and not particularly hysterical people. I was listening at that time (I always like to check in on the news roundup to see news items make it) and they were discussing the Brave New World book situation. I called in NOT to give my opinion but because I had attended the hearing, read the supporting materials and have spoken with this mother, Sarah Sense-Wilson, in the past. (She's al...

There was a student at Hale who went to her parent with concerns over a book being used in her child's LA class. The book was Brave New World written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley. The parent and student are Native Americans. (Just to interject here; I mistakenly thought there was no Board policy attached to this review and I simply erred in not scrolling down the page. My apologies.) Basically if a parent or guardian has an issue with instructional materials they are to go to the principal and staff member first. If that fails, any party at step 1 may request the administrator in Charge of Curriculum and Instruction meet with those involved to resolve the issue. After step 2, the principal shall furnish the party not in agreement with a copy of the "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" form. When that is received, a "Reconsideration Commitee, is formed to reconsider the material. (The committee is made up of a parent of a child at the gra...

The Times' Bruce Ramsey wrote an Op-Ed on the District's plans for Language Arts alignment. You can read it here: Seattle sacrifices Monster Lit

Seattle Public Schools will adopt an aligned curriculum for Language Arts classes 9-12. Students in any one grade in Language Arts classes throughout the District can expect the same high expectations and the same high quality materials. An aligned curriculum will allow Seattle Public Schools to provide targeted support for teachers and schools. A common set of expectations across the District will allow us to better focus our professional development offerings. All SPS instructional materials will be designed to meet cultural relevance and accessibility standards, and will incorporate methods for teaching all students, including those with Special Education, English Language Learner, Advanced Learning needs. The instructional materials adoption process for high school will be completed by August of 2009. If you have any questions about the adoption process, please contact Kathleen Vasquez, High School Language Arts Adoption Coordinator. Getting questions answered early in the process...