Seattle Schools Community Forum

Social Studies Adoption Committee wants, needs, your input : please inspect the candidate text books and supporting materials and provide your feedback and preferences.   These are the social studies text books middle school students will have for many, many years. So, even if your student is in early primary grades, they will still be affected. Now is the time to speak up! Viewing continues until June 18 th 2015.  All instructional materials are available for viewing at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellent AND at 5 middle school libraries: Hamilton Int'l Washington Madison Aki Kurose Eckstein If your students happen to be at those middle school, urge them to pop by the library and check out the texts and leave feedback. Their input matters! If you visit the school, be sure to stop in at the office first to register as a visitor. They can direct you to the library. (Note: 6 th graders study ancient civilizations, 7 th gra...

From a parent who attended the SCPTSA meeting on Monday, Flip Herndon told several parents that they are considering an annex for Hamilton.   There is space at JAMS and Eckstein but rather than admit the enrollment made a mistake by sending 5 feeder schools to Hamilton, the smallest, least flexible middle school, they are going to plow ahead with an un-workable and expensive facilities solution to an enrollment planning goof. At least two letters in support of the Africatown MOU say that Africatown should be returned to "Horace Mann upon completion of the renovations."   One of these was from the head of the Seattle/King County branch, Gerald Hankerson.  I asked him about it and he said that former Superintendent Banda gave an "verbal agreement" this would happen.  And if it doesn't? Is Africatown going to sue the district? Those of you with suggestion that more room for Garfield could be found at Mann may just be out of luck. Why would Director McLa...

Editor's note: I have mostly stopped doing this as the district's calendar is available at their website.  I'm going to concentrate on those meetings/events likely to have the greatest impact. Also, another thought.   I have been going to district meetings - of all kinds - for more than 15 years.  The audience, especially for Work Sessions and Committee meetings, is almost always the usual suspects.  Before the filing deadline for the School Board races happens in early May, I just want to point out that AFTER that filing, suddenly there are all these concerned citizens with concerned faces. They have never previously been seen at Board meetings or any other type of meeting but suddenly, now that they are running, they are very interested in what's going on.  A couple of Board meetings is not going to bring any one up-to-speed.  

From SPS Communications: Seattle Public Schools invites all families, staff and community members to review instructional materials under consideration for use in middle school social studies. This is the first of two rounds of review. Public input will help the Middle School Social Studies Adoption Committee narrow materials for the second review round. Public viewing of materials and feedback for the first round ends on Wednesday, April 15. Two options are available for review: Visit the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence during normal business hours to view the materials in person and fill out a feedback form. Materials are on display and forms are available in two locations: the School Board office on the first floor and the Professional Library on the second floor. Access the materials online. Click HERE for our adoption page, which provides links to PDFs with access instructions from three of the four vendors. The page also offers links to survey...

I noticed that the Tuesday Open Thread is chock-full of concerns and complaints.  Most are around the pending SBAC testing but others are more basic.  So, as a public service, I'm going to open this thread up for more of those.  And, in a couple of days, I will forward it to the Board.  It would be helpful if you at least identify your region (possibly school?) so that Directors get an idea who's writing in. I'll start.

The Seattle Times, like Crosscut, has redesigned itself (well, not in editorial writing so don't get your hopes up).  Both redesigns - to my eye - are not good.  Busy and hard to follow the categories.  The Times does have a good overview article from the AP about the opt-out movement. — Thousands of Colorado high school seniors walked out on new state-mandated science and social studies tests last fall. — An Ohio middle school teacher published a letter calling state officials “bullies” for printing a pamphlet that warned of wide-ranging consequences if students sit out exams. — At least 93 students at a single Philadelphia middle school are declining upcoming tests in a city that saw only 20 students districtwide sit out the exams last year. The Washington Post's Answer Sheet also has a great article from a high profile principal, Carol Buris, on what is really happening in American public education. - Backlash against Common Core - Pain but no gain ...