Seattle Schools Community Forum

And why not? He's a long-suffering SPS parent as well. In this particular column, Westneat asks some hard questions in his usual gentle manner.   He's writing about the Mayor's upcoming Education Summit and how the Mayor seems to be figuring out what he might think needs to be done for/to Seattle Schools.

We all know - from photos, tv, etc - what a pixel is.  It's a tiny picture element - a point - to a larger picture.  You can't tell from one pixel what the picture is. Lately, I have been seeing several notable series of pixels that seem to be gathering speed to create the big picture.  This is a profile of one of those pixels. The big picture that I see gathering speed is that this district is being set-up for a transformation.  I would say set up for a fall but mostly a picture seems to be forming so that the district can look like it's in very bad condition but, simultaneously, that it's nobody in senior leadership's fault.  (Yes, that's quite the feat but I think that's how it's going to get played). I believe our district is being set-up to be taken over, at some point, by the Mayor and others in power in the city.    I think - like Bill Gates - they are frustrated (and, in some cases, rightly so) with the pace of student academic gains in ...

I'll put a notation by each of these; please consider contacting your legislative reps for your support or rejection of each bill. From the Seattle Times :

The Times has yet another editorial on the state of the Seattle School Board.  Yawn. This time around they reference the three bills before the Legislature around large districts. HB 1665 -  Increasing compensation for school directors in districts enrolling twenty thousand or more students. HB 1497 - Concerning appointments of the board of directors of a school district of the first class having within its boundaries a city with a population of four hundred thousand people or more.  HB 1860 - that would limit a school district size to 35,000 (affecting SPS only).  

A group of public education activists has come out against Rep. Eric Pettigrew's bill to all the mayor of Seattle to appoint two members of the Seattle School Board.  It includes statements from Director Sue Peters who, as far as I know, is the only Board director to go on record.  I asked for a statement - a week ago - from the Board but have received no answer. The Seattle Weekly has a good story that has a startling ending. 

 UPDATE:   If you’re the parent of a soon-to-be middle-schooler, mark your calendars for this Thursday, January 29th. McClure Middle School is hosting an Open House and Tour to help families learn more about Queen Anne’s neighborhood middle school. Incoming students can learn more about their new school and parents can learn more about what McClure offers its students. Check out the flyer below for all the information you need to know: http://mcclurems.seattleschools.org/ End of update If you are a member of your PTA, you might consider weighing in on the issue of hybrid mayoral control of the school board to both your unit (if they are taking a stand) and to the SCPTSA .  President – Katherine Schomer, president@scptsa.org Legislative Chair – Eden Mack, legchair@scptsa.org I think my stand is pretty clear; no.  It's not democratic, it questions voters abilities to make their own choice, there is no proof that the current mayor has any real credibilit...

The Times starts off the year with their "headlines we'd like to see" contest.  Funny thing, their editorial doesn't even give the top reader winners' headlines but only the ones the Times wants to see.  (None of were about public education except for "No U.S. school shootings in 2015 " which won first place.) The Times calls their own headlines "wishful thinking" and they certainly are. Hey, look at that - four of them are about public education. 

In public education editorializing, the Times mantra seems to be, "keeping saying the same thing over and over and it'll work."  Well, it does sometimes but not always.  (You have to wonder about this tactic given their dropping subscription rates - people like to read about NEW things.) Here's their latest and it's fairly boring reading because it's the same old wording.  "Dysfunctional", they get the number of students in SPS wrong ("nearly 50k" - geez, aren't they journalists?), "melodrama" and, of course, should we have a conversation about governance? Here's my comments to them:

Oh look, the average tenure of urban superintendents has gone down to 3.2 years.  FYI, Mayor Murray and Seattle Times. Council of Great City Schools

You ask, the mayor answers during a live broadcast of Ask the Mayor , 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22 , from Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave. Ask the Mayor’s format features a live audience and a topic of focus during the second half of the hour-long program. During the first half of the show, Mayor Ed Murray will join host Brian Callanan to discuss a range of city issues. Murray will answer questions posed by a live audience as well as viewer inquiries submitted via e-mail and social media.  In the second half of the program, Callanan and Mayor Murray will discuss his 2015-2016 budget proposal. Mayor Murray submitted a 2015-2016 budget that expands funding for priorities in education , worker protections, public safety and support for the homeless. The mayor is also proposing to bring new transparency to the city budget, including increased accountability for program outcomes and improved access to information on city finances. The City Council has begun their re...

Update: I checked with OSPI about one reader's claim that there was a grand plan from OSPI and the feds to take over the district. From OSPI: There are no laws that allow for OSPI to take over a district. We can, in some circumstances (see Question 5), withhold funds from districts. But we can’t simply take over the district’s day-to-day duties. That’s what local control is all about. On whether OSPI would be part of any legislative action to take over the district: State Superintendent Dorn would have his position to influence legislators to vote one way or another. Has OSPI been supporting/advocating for this direction for SPS? No one that I know of at OSPI is doing that kind of work. If someone is doing that work, it’s not been sanctioned by State Superintendent Dorn. Would you know under what circumstances OSPI can withhold funds from a district?  Noncompliance of state law (RCWs) or agency regulations (WACs). Audit findings also can result in a district repay...

Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasy told his district's top leadership that he would be leaving in a few months.  He came from the Gates Foundation and is yet another Broad superintendent to get exited or who left a job.  He has been on the job since 2011.  Into this issue wades Robin Lake of the Center on Reinventing Public Education (basically a local think-tank for ed reform).  She lauds Deasy for leaving "a comfortable job at the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation."  Then she goes all in: In nearly any other sector, a man like Deasy—who is able to articulate a strong vision of change and pursue it relentlessly—would be able to get people to follow him and accomplish most anything. But this was LAUSD, where for decades strong leaders were eaten alive by the politics of race and unions and poverty and rampant district dysfunction.  Note that ed reform jargon: dysfunction (again), politics of race and unions and poverty.  Then she expla...

I met the Mayor at a Starbucks (on the very day there were flash strikes at a few Starbucks but not the one we were in).  He was in an expansive mood and ready to talk Seattle schools. The Mayor always talks as "we" meaning his team at City Hall.   So he started by saying what "we"  have been doing.  It's a pretty long list: doubled the Families&Education Levy and helped support its passage launched a successful attendance campaign (with private companies and local celeb support) launched an Education Leadership Group, believing that many groups/entities are on the same education road.  It includes Superintendent Banda, reps from our community colleges as well as UW, a Labor Council rep, someone from the Gates Foundation, the Seattle Foundation, and United Way among others. worked on creating programs for pathways to careers, summer jobs  and summer food programs listened to Superintendent Banda's presentation on the district's new Strat...

I had a good interview with Senator Ed Murray recently who will be in the General Election against current mayor, Mike McGinn.  We sat down in his campaign offices to talk. I asked him about what he believes t he role of the Mayor is vis a vis Seattle public education. He said that he believes it has changed from what it was traditionally as something of a cheerleader position to a more visible one.  He believes that the Mayor should push for discussions about changes needed in the district AND in city government to find better academic outcomes.  He said, "Only the Mayor has the position to pull stakeholders together." I told him that sounded a lot like mayoral takeover of the district.

Or are you waiting to see how it all shakes out after the primary on August 6th?  On the one hand, the one person I did not want to be mayor - from a public education standpoint - was Tim Burgess.  He made it much easier because he walked away.  (But he made it clear he hoped for a new mayor in the fall.)  I am continuing to talk with all the candidates and it makes for some interesting discussions.  What I plan to do is offer tidbits of those conversations and make some suggestions for candidates I think would be good for public education.  There won't be any endorsement per se of one candidate.  There are several mayoral forums coming up this next week: Sunday, June 23rd , the South Lake Union Mayoral Forum at  2 pm at the Immanuel Lutheran Church at Pontinus and Thomas (moderated by C.R. Douglas - I'm a big fan of his).  Wednesday, June 26th , the City Neighborhood Council Forum from 6-8 pm at City Hall, Bertha Knight Landes Room...

Remember that column I linked to at the Washington Post written by the Dean of Education, Leslie T. Fenwick at Howard University?  She said: "Mayoral control, Teach for America, education management organizations and venture capital-funded charter schools have not garnered much grassroots support or enthusiasm among lower- and middle-income black parents whose children attend urban schools because these parents often view these schemes as uninformed by their community and disconnected from the best interest of their children. Indeed, mayoral control has been linked to an emerging pattern of closing and disinvesting in schools that serve black poor students and reopening them as charters operated by education management organizations and backed by venture capitalists. W hile mayoral control proposes to expand educational opportunities for black and poor students, more-often-than-not new schools are placed in upper-income, gentrifying white areas of town, while more ...

Slow down, it's not Tom Stritikus.  Please. No, this amazing piece of writing comes via the Washington Post's The Answer Sheet with a guest column by the Dean of the Howard University School of Education and professor of education policy, Leslie T. Fenwick.  You should read the whole thing but highlights (bold mine): "Approximately 90 percent of black and white parents report attending parent teacher association meetings and nearly 80 percent of black and white parents report attending teacher conferences. Despite these similarities, fewer black parents (47 percent) than white parents (64 percent) report being very satisfied with the school their child attends. This dissatisfaction among black parents is so whether these parents are college-educated, high income, or poor. The lie is that schemes like Teach For America , charter schools backed by venture capitalists, education management organizations (EMOs), and Broad Foundation -prepared superintendents ad...

From Crosscut, an interview with mayoral candidate, Tim Burgess.  Key item: Burgess, his wife, Jolene, and their three children are products of Seattle Public Schools, so it's no surprise he considers it another of his priorities. "I graduated in 1967 and the adults then were talking about North End schools vs. South End schools," he said. "And they are talking about it today. That's a tragedy." It's important, he argued, for the city and the school system to align their resources and efforts for education. One such example: the city's agreement to let its ethics office handle questions for the Seattle school district.   (Note: that did happen with McGinn who didn't need to take over the district to get it done.) Would he push for a mayoral takeover of the school system? Burgess pointed to a recent Center for American Progress study that showed mixed educational results in cities that control of school systems, but said the rep...