Seattle Schools Community Forum

I did link the latest Gallup poll on what Americans think about public education but it deserves an updated reprint. First, from Gallup itself, the highlights:

If you read nothing else about the takeover of our public schools by people who want to control the system (and some who want to make a buck), please read this article from The Nation Institute.  It is probably one of the best written and in-depth articles around.  Highlights : If the national movement to "reform" public education through vouchers, charters and privatization has a laboratory, it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of "virtual schools" — charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet — as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.  (More on Florida which has continued it fall in education AND business rankings.  Scientology in charters in Florida. But some in Florida are fighting back against these reforms and winning.  Lamenting this series of defeats, Patricia Levesque, a top adviser to former Gove...

From Education Week, coverage of the Int'l Society for Technology in Education convention in San Diego in late June.  Here's what Yong Zhao, the associate dean in the College of Education at the University of Oregon had to say about what our public education system is doing. "Right now, we are lost in terms of what's the purpose of education," said Zhao, addressing a crowd of nearly 5,000 in the packed San Diego Convention Center. "We are in the U.S. pushing for the idea of Race to the Top. But race to the top of what?" Zhao pointed to results from PISA, an international exam that measures students' skills and knowledge in a variety of countries as a widely recognized yardstick for determining the quality of a country's education. However, many of the countries that rank highest in PISA results—China, South Korea, and Singapore, to name a few—rank lowest on entrepreneurial skills, which correspond to stronger economies, Zhao argued. "We...

I was watching NBC news last night and they featured a story about Sal Khan.  He's a guy who was trying to help his cousin in another state with math.  He made a video lesson of himself teaching and got her through it and now's she's pre-med at Sarah Lawrence. He created the Khan Academy which is a warehouse of about 2100 10-20 minute  FREE video lessons from K-12 math (the original one) to biology, chemistry and physics with a little humanities (history and finance).  From the website : Each problem is randomly generated, so you never run out of practice material. If you need a hint, every single problem can be broken down, step-by-step, with one click. If you need more help, you can always watch a related video.  You can also get stats on how you are doing.  You can track your progress or, if you are a teacher, your class' progress.  Sal started doing this while his wife was doing her residency.  He had started to dip into his savin...

Tonight the Board is voting on adoption of a new policy for on-line courses. At the time of introduction of this item, the Board had requested information about what was currently being done in the district. The information below is a new part of the Action Item being voted on. At Introduction, Board members requested information on what current online learning activities are underway. We contacted the head counselors in the high schools and discovered that there is not a lot of online activity underway. Many schools reported that they formerly used the Digital Learning Commons (DLC), but ceased when the district stopped funding the program. A few schools have students doing online course through Brigham Young University. Students who do use online opportunities typically take a course for 0.5 credits/semester—the same as they would earn in an SPS class. Students appear to be taking courses all along the spectrum, including math, US history, science, CTE, health and PE. Student...

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 ...

The Board, at their next meeting, will vote on a new Online Learning Policy . As the Board Action Report acknowledges, " The community was not actively engaged in the development of this policy. " which, to me, is reason enough to defer adopting it. I think that it is interesting that the proposed policy says, in part, " The board directs the superintendent to provide information to parents, students and staff regarding online learning options and the guidelines for participation. " yet online learning options were not mentioned in the recent Math Pathway document. The Superintendent Procedures that accompany the policy require students to seek prior approval before taking online courses for credit. There is no assurance that the approval will be granted or even considered on a timely basis. Has anyone had experience with WAVA (Washington Virtual Academies) and with their high school math classes? Does anyone have any other experience to contribute to this discussio...