Seattle Schools Community Forum

I attended the Community Center for Education Results' (CCER) Road Map for Education Results Project Kick-Off Conference last week. It was interesting and a fairly full conference. I saw a lot of usual suspects - people from League of Education Voters, Alliance for Education, at least 6 SPS staff including the Superintendent - as well as elected officials like Councilman Tim Burgess, newly elected Board President Steve Sundquist and speaker King County Executive Dow Constantine. Like most conferences, the workshops were better than the speakers. Mary Jean Ryan, who sat on the State Board of Education and previously ran for Seattle School Board and is the head of CCER, was the leader of the conference. Sincere, nice but not a particularly inspiring speaker. The Keynote Speaker, though, was Amy Wilkins from the Education Trust . She was a good speaker (although I am still waiting for a copy of her Powerpoint which had great data but she told us to listen and not take notes). W...

Ever notice in Seattle how quiet it gets when it snows especially within a neighborhood? Few cars and just the sound of your feet stomping through the snow? I really like that. But see, there's also another kind of quiet. The calm before the storm. I recognize this void, this lack of sound. I recognize this because, deja vu, I've been through it before. Does anyone remember Joseph Olchefske? He was full of hot air (although admittedly he could be charming). He had a Board that was wrapped around his little finger with the notable exception of Mary Bass. They were an upright Board, professionals and solid citizens. They didn't listen to Mary and even ostracized Mary on the Board. It was painful to watch but the powers that be just tisk-tisked about how Mary didn't "work" with the rest of the Board. And indeed, she voted no on Olchefske's last budget even though she couldn't quite explain what the problem was. (It was buried.) But i...

The Times has what they call "The Truth Needle" and Linda Shaw, their education reporter, filed a report this morning. Let me allow her to tell you: The claim: Starting in 2008, Seattle Public Schools reported that a meager 17 percent of its high-school graduates met the entrance requirements for four-year colleges. The district quietly quit using that number then recently revised it, without comment, to 46 percent. "... revised it, without comment ..." classic SPS. This is why, when you read a contract or a hard number, you should bookmark that page or print it out. It might just disappear and you'll feel like you got gaslighted (how old am I to use that reference). Now that 17% is out there in ether and even though many of us were left scratching our heads (how did all those seniors at Roosevelt get into college?), what can you do? This 17% number has been used by LEV, Seattle Foundation and many other "community" groups. What the Times f...