Seattle Schools Community Forum

Good article over at Crosscut by Lisa Arnold.  I love the way she starts with a nod to all that parents do to raise money for their schools.  Selling cookie dough is good. Widespread, ongoing citizen action directed at the Washington State Legislature is better.  She quotes me and I probably could have stated it better  about this issue.  Parents have and do want to advocate for fully funded schools but, in the absence of much movement in that direction (even with McCleary), parents hunker down for their child's school (and that's good and bless them). She makes some good points about what does work in this advocacy recently around issues like the MAP boycott: Each movement made a single, clear demand; was hard to ignore; and wouldn’t go away. How can busy people who care about education create a focused, stubborn, cannot-be-ignored campaign that also overcomes the too-few -people and too-little-time barriers?   She has some good advice es...

Whether it's ed reform or just plain old reform, there is praise to be given to anyone who speaks up for public education.  I have respect for even those with whom I disagree because public education matters. (I do have less respect for those in ed reform who do not want to have a dialog unless you agree to agree with them.  That's happened to me on charter schools.  I also have less respect for those who only want to tell one side of the story.  Tell me the WHOLE story and then we can agree to disagree but ed reformers, taking a cue from conservatives will never say, for example, that there are any significant concerns with charters.) The Times had a guest op-ed by Kimberly Lasher Mitchell last week entitled "There's no shame in being an education reformer."   It was better than most ed reform writing and that's to Ms. Mitchell's credit. I waited to write about this because I had submitted an op-ed that challenges some of her statements and was wai...

Diane Ravitch and other noted public education activists have joined together to form a national group, The Network for Public Education . Here's what they are: We created the Network for Public Education as a way of connecting groups and individuals around the country who are devoted to preserving public education. This is no small task. We're up against a well-funded corporate reform movement that's waging a slick PR campaign based on misleading information and junk science. But while they may have the billionaires, we have something far more powerful: the authentic voices of teachers, parents and students who understand that public education is a pillar of our democracy. The NPE website will be at the very center of our efforts. In a matter of weeks, an all-volunteer team has begun to create a site that can function as a clearing house for public education advocates. With the help of our network of academic experts , we're pulling together reliable, easy-to-use...

In the continuing kerfuffle over BEX, one of the women in the trio of NE moms trying to get the BEX to fail (albeit quietly via very large neighborhood e-mail lists) has sent quite a pointed e-mail to Director Peaslee that was less-than-effective.  This e-mail is in reference to a video that Director Peaslee helped Jane Addams K-8 make in order to try to attract more students that in turn, would help take the pressure off neighboring elementaries and, of course, Eckstein.  This mom seem to believe, without quite coming out and saying it, that Director Peaslee has done something unethical.  (And fyi, the district HAS a method to alert them to any potential or perceived ethics violation and it has been well-advertised.)  The mom asks a laundry list of very pointed questions to Director Peaslee, most of which should be answered by district staff, including the Legal department. Short of name-calling, this e-mail breaks almost every rule in the activist rulebook....