Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the New York Times: an op-ed about asking students what THEY want in a high school .  The author, Susan Engel, followed a group of 8 high school students as they " designed and ran their own school within a school. "  Interesting reading.  Here's a connecting lesson plan .  A couple of thoughtful parts: An Independence Project student who had once considered dropping out of school found he couldn’t bear to stop focusing on his current history question but didn’t want to miss out on exploring a new one. When he asked the group if it would be O.K. to pursue both, another student answered, “Yeah, I think that’s what they call learning.”  The students in the Independent Project are remarkable but not because they are exceptionally motivated or unusually talented. They are remarkable because they demonstrate the kinds of learning and personal growth that are possible when teenagers feel ownership of their high school experience, when they learn thin...

I know that the most important thing going on right now is all of the day lighting of the incompetent and criminal behavior going on at the John Stanford Center for Education Excellence. Please don't let up on this until every rock has been overturned. However, Cliff Mass wrote an Op-Ed in the Seattle Times that was published on Friday about the possibility that Washington may adopt the Common Core national standards. This would be a major tragedy for our students, especially in mathematics. Now I freely admit that I do not like the books that I have been saddled with to teach Algebra 1 and Algebra 2, but I do have to say that the new standards are excellent and I see no reason to do anything to them. To adopt the Common Core would be a step backward, as they are not as rigorous as out current standards and are hard to understand. Please remember as we send the current top administration down the road, the idea is to educate children and prepare them for the future. Please do...

This from Wallyhood blog : The Math Salon is an opportunity for everyone – children, adults, families, teachers – to come together and play with math. We’ll have different mathematical games, puzzles, books, and inspirations available. The next math salon is February 28 from 4pm-6pm at Mosaic Coffeehouse in Wallingford. The event is free. Sponsored by Math for Love: http://mathforlove.com/ This is sponsored by two teachers (Dan Finkel and Katherine Cook) from Math 4 Love which puts on these free salons along with providing services like math tutoring.

I came across this article in the Science section of the NY Times about a young woman who see the world - almost the entire world - through mathematical eyes. She's almost hard to describe (so thank goodness for the writer of the article , Kenneth Chang). Read the article and then, I urge you, grab a kid and go check out Vi's blog with its great and fun videos about music, Harry Potter, balloon twisting, a mathematical food index and doodling in math class. From the article: She calls herself a full-time recreational mathemusician, an off-the-beaten-path choice with seemingly limited prospects. And for most of the two years since she graduated from Stony Brook University , life as a recreational mathemusician has indeed been a meager niche pursuit. Then, in November, she posted on YouTube a video about doodling in math class , which married a distaste for the way math is taught in school with an exuberant exploration of math as art . The rapid-fire ...

I started this to go over my notes from the Work Session but got lost in this slide about what other districts we would like to emulate are doing. I took the time to look these districts up because I want to know what it is that that they do that the Superintendent thinks we should be doing. It's a mixed bag without further input from her. There was a slide (#6) from the Work Session handout referencing other districts making changes but no discussion about it. So let's review them: Gwinnett County, GA - right on their home page - winner of the 2010 $1M Broad prize. (It goes to the urban school district that has the strongest student achievement and improvement narrowing of the achievement gap. The money goes for high school seniors for college scholarships.) That said, a pretty impressive district. They have some mighty small high school class sizes. Good for them but how do they do it? This district has about 161,000 students. Boston - what's interesting...

Lots of interesting news stories out there, here are some of them. Singapore Math on the front page of the NY Times. Guess what? It's what they use at the school Obama's daughters attend. Singapore math may well be a fad, too, but supporters say it seems to address one of the difficulties in teaching math: all children learn differently. In contrast to the most common math programs in the United States, Singapore math devotes more time to fewer topics, to ensure that children master the material through detailed instruction, questions, problem solving, and visual and hands-on aids like blocks, cards and bar charts. Singapore math’s added appeal is that it has largely skirted the math wars of recent decades over whether to teach traditional math or reform math. Indeed, Singapore math has often been described by educators and parents as a more balanced approach between the two, melding old-fashioned algorithms with visual representations and critical thinking. Bu...

I know that I'm inviting trouble with this, but something that Reader wrote in a comment on another thread piqued my interest. I would like to discuss only a narrow question. Please don't expand the discussion. Writing about Everyday Math and Singapore, Reader wrote: " The fact is, the newer curricula stress more problem solving and discovery. That is, it's doing more than a lot of older curricula. " Here's my question: can problem-solving be taught? I mean this in the nicest possible way and I don't have an answer myself. I'm not sure, I'm asking. Can people be taught or trained in problem-solving techniques or is it a talent that some people just natively have more than others? Problem solving requires a certain amount of creativity, doesn't it? It can require a flexibility of perspective, curiosity, persistence, and pattern recognition. Can these things be taught or trained? I suppose anyone can be taught to play a musical instrument, but no...

The Board has two work sessions scheduled for this month. The first, today, Thursday June 10 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, will be on Math . No agenda details are available but there is sure to be a powerpoint and it is sure to appear on the District web site soon. I have to believe that the Board is looking for a report on the implementation of the curricular alignment, the implementation of the Theory of Action from the High School textbook adoption, and some update on student academic progress in math. Next week, on Wednesday, June 16, from 4:00pm to 5:30pm, will be a Board Work Session on Advanced Learning . I honestly cannot imagine what the District staff will have to report They cannot report on the response to the APP Review because they have quietly dropped that project from list of Strategic Plan strategies. They cannot report on the implementation of the APP curriculum because they have not implemented the APP curriculum - the one that was supposed to have been fully implemented wi...

From the SPS website, there is this notice: May 28: Update on 5th Grade Math Letters Letters recommending math placement for students entering sixth grade in 2010-11 were due to be mailed on May 26. Unfortunately, the letters were not sent out. This is due to a production issue at the external printing and mailing service that is handling the letters. We apologize to our families, and we will get the letters to you the week of May 31. So look for that letter in this week's mail. There is a Board meeting on Wednesday night . Sign up tomorrow in the AM to speak. The agenda isn't long but has a few interesting items. The CAO update from Dr. Enfield will be about preliminary MAP scores On the Action Item agenda is approval of an online learning policy prompted by a new WA State law, RCW 28A.250.050, which requires that by August 31, 2010, all school districts shall develop a policy and procedures around online learning. On the Introduction Items is one that is surprising ...

I'm not sure what they are going to try to accomplish or how they think they can do it in three hours, but the Board has scheduled a Work Session on both Community Schools and Math for 4:00pm - 7:00pm. I'm not sure what the Board has to discuss about Community Schools. The best answer would be that the District intends to make Hawthorne and West Seattle Elementary Schools into Community Schools as part of their federal grant funded and required Transformations. The most like answer is that this will be an open-ended go-nowhere discussion of the idea of Community Schools in general. Let's remember that they ended their Work Session on International Schools by agreeing in principal to discuss making an update to the timetable for the plan. As for Math, once again, I can't imagine what they think they have to discuss. There's no one on the District staff who has allowed any heresy to the current path. Given their true-believer status, there's nothing they could sa...

Two articles of note in the NY Times last week. One was about how the US is training math teachers and that they earned a C on a new test compared with students in other countries like Singapore and Taiwan and Germany. The tests were created by an international consortium and the study done in the U.S. However, there were few European countries in the study. From the article: On average, 80 percent to 100 percent of the future middle school teachers from the highest-achieving countries took advanced courses like linear algebra and calculus, while only 50 percent to 60 percent of their counterparts in the United States took those courses, the study said. “The study reveals that America’s middle school mathematics teacher preparation is not up to the task,” said William H. Schmidt , the Michigan State University professor who was its lead author . However, other voices stated: “There are so many people who bash our teachers’ math knowledge that to be honest these results ...

Here is the latest innovation from the Math Department, the secondary Math Pathway. It represents yet another step forward in the inexorable march towards Standardization. There are some very clear problems with this totally unnecessary rigidity. First, of course, is the fact that it is unnecessary. Who needed this? Who needs to be told that students are expected to progress from 6th Grade Math to 7th Grade Math to 8th Grade Math? Did we really need a document to inform us of that? Second, of course, the rigidity. It doesn't allow much room for exception, yet there is ample need for exception. There are students who are working more than one grade level ahead (including - but not limited to - most of the students in APP), but this document doesn't appear to allow for that. There are students taking AP Calculus BC, but this document doesn't appear to allow for that. There are students taking math classes through Running Start, but this document doesn't appear to allow f...

As I said, it was quite full and quite rocking at the beginning with many counselors with signs about their job loss and teachers with signs against the performance policy. Also, as previously mentioned, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson left because of her daughter's preschool event and the crowd was not happy. (As it turns out, she magically appeared almost to the minute when the testimony ended which seemed odd. Maybe she had to make sure to give her Superintendent's remarks but it did not leave a good impression.) Some of the speaker comments: "It sounds like blame the teacher is the message." Meg did a great presentation that the audience really appreciated. Her data-driven testimony really strikes a chord. She explained how the Superintendent had given an explanation in a letter about Title One and LAP money but did not give a full picture/details to the story. Her specific example was what will happen to Thurgood Marshall with the loss of Title One dollars. an executi...

For entertainment value read the Discovering Math Q&A in this article in the Seattle Times. The Discovering Math guy (1) doesn't always answer the question asked, (2) answers but doesn't address the topic properly - see the question on if Discovering Math is "mathematically unsound" and (3) sounds like he works for the district. Here's one example: The Discovering books have been criticized by parents, but they've been the top pick of a couple of districts in our area, including Seattle and Issaquah. Any thoughts on why the textbooks seem to be more popular with educators than with parents? Ryan: I think because (parents) lack familiarity — this doesn't look like what I was taught. I don't know how you get students to a place where more is required of them by repeating things that have been done in the past. That's not how we move forward in life. What? I thought the Holt person was able to answer the questions in a more straight-forwa...

I attended Harium's Community meeting and the 43rd Dems meeting (partial) yesterday. Here are some updates (add on if you attended either or Michael DeBell's meeting). We covered a fair amount of ground with Harium but a lot on the math ruling/outcomes. Here's what he said: t he Board will decide what will happen from the math ruling . I asked Harium about who would be doing what because of how the phrasing the district used in their press release - "In addition to any action the School Board may take, the district expects to appeal this decision." It made it sound like the district (1) might do something different from the Board and (2) the district had already decided what they would do. Harium said they misspoke and it was probably the heat of the moment. He seems to feel the judge erred. He said they did follow the WAC rules which is what she should have been ruling on but didn't. I probably should go back and look at the complete ruling but it see...

Seattle Times editorial writer, Bruce Ramsey, wrote about the success of Singapore math taught at Schmitz Park.

I had had an e-mail exchange with KUOW on this issue but Dan got the information about their upcoming story. So here it is if you are interested and want to participate and/or listen: In preparation for a segment to air on Feb 3, KUOW wants to hear from you. KUOW has an item that they want parents to tell them about experiences with "Discovering" math textbooks and other inquiry-based math education. They need to hear from you by Wednesday morning. They're asking for input from parents, students, teachers, and "other," but you have to be at least 13 years old to submit. Go to http://www.kuow.org and click on the light bulb on the home page. The light bulb is beside: What's your experience with the new math textbooks? Do you have a child in school who is using the new "Discovering Mathematics" textbooks? What is your experience with inquiry-based math education? Answer this question

Danny Westneat wrote a column about the appeal of the high school math textbook adoption now in King County Superior Court. He is dismissive of it. The comments following the story are more thoughtful than we usually see in the Times.

From the Chicago Tribune, a story on University of Chicago research that shows that elementary school girls do poorly in math if their teacher is female (and has math issues). From the story: "The findings are the product of a year-long study of 17 first- and second-grade teachers and 65 girls and 52 boys who were their students. The researchers found that boys' math performance was not related to their teacher's math anxiety while girls' math achievement was affected." "At the beginning of the year, the students' achievement was unrelated to their teachers' level of math anxiety. By the end of the year, however, the more anxious their female teachers were about math, the more likely girls--but not boys--were to endorse the view that boys are better at math. Girls who bought into the stereotype scored six points lower in math achievement than other students." Why is this? "We are not sure whether it's something overt, whether it'...

Just to be clear about the grandfathering of siblings, here's the official word from the SPS News and Calendar piece on the Transition Plan : In-coming kindergarten siblings: The School Board and staff at Seattle Public Schools have a sincere desire to enable incoming, non-attendance area kindergarten siblings to be assigned to the same school as their older sibling if requested by the family. While we are not able to guarantee sibling grandfathering, we are fully committed to making every reasonable effort to accommodate as many kindergarten siblings as possible in their older sibling's school. The Transition Plan outlines a series of steps to accomplish that goal. For families whose preference for the Kindergarten sibling to attend the older child's school cannot be honored, we are committed to a "safety net" so the students will not have to attend a different school. (bold and italics mine) STEM STEM Open House @ Cleveland Saturday, January 23, 2010 9:30 am –...