Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update 2: to include items from BEX Oversight Committee meeting on Friday.) (Updated to include analysis of the Board meeting on Wednesday.) Monday, Oct. 10th Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting from 4:40-6:30 pm in the Board conference room.  Agenda

Update:   a couple of corrections. Sue Peters is, of course, the Chair of the Audit&Finance Committee (which I attributed to Director Harris.)  Director Peters had asked Harris to chair the meeting since Peters was unable to be physically present. As well, I attributed a statement to Peters that was Geary's about how Director Blanford felt the $11M should be spent. end of update As I previously reported, the Board was having an Audit&Finance Committee Meeting of the Whole and then had an Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole and then a Work Session on the 2016-2017 Budget to figure out to do with this $11M underspend that was found.

Monday, May 9th Curriculum&Instruction Meeting , JSCEE, from 4:30-6:30 pm Agenda Lots of reviews with one of them being "research activity and assessment" - wonder if that will be an assessment of how testing is going this school year.  Under "Special Attention Items" there is "Native American update, K-5 ELA Adoption* and Initiate Middle School math adoption." Open House for English Language Arts Adoption at JSCEE from 5-7 pm in the second-floor library. Wednesday, May 11th School Nurse Day - thank you to all the nurses and health care professionals working in Seattle Schools for caring for our students! Board Work Session - Human Resources From 4:30-6:30 pm.  Agenda Executive Session immediately following - closed to the public This is a rather timely work session given issues that have arisen around who gets hired and who stays and who gets placed where at several of the district's schools.  Thursday, May 12th Audit&Finance...

From the Superintendent's Friday Memo of August 28, 2015: Math Materials Field Test Proposal In keeping with the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction’s schedule of adopting textual materials, Math Program Manager Anna Box is proposing a field test of some middle school Math textual resources during the 2015-16 school year. Providing this field test in 2015- 16 will help prepare to launch an adoption during the 2016-17 school year. Additionally, the work aligns with School Board Policy No. 2015, Selection & Adoption of Instructional Materials, amended by the School Board this month to allow for field tests of materials. 

The District has claimed that equitable access to quality programs and services for all students is important to them. They say that, but where are the efforts to provide equitable access beyond the flowery talk? In one step towards equitable access the District math department has standardized math placement in middle school. All of our comprehensive middle schools use the same assessment and make the same placement based on the results. This is a positive step towards equitable access. A student is assigned to the same 6th grade math class regardless of their attendance area school. Too bad that commitment ends in the 6th grade.