Seattle Schools Community Forum

I bookmark many education stories but wait until I have a mass and/or time to post them. First, up worry over teachers labeled " highly qualified" teaching Special Ed students.  This story comes from the Special Ed section at Ed Week. Earlier this year, the Senate merely left the door open to extending a provision that allows teachers still working on their certification to be considered "highly qualified"—a designation created by 2001's No Child Left Behind law. The law says teachers must already be certified to qualify, but Education Department regulations created about the law allowed for teachers in alternative routes to be considered highly qualified, even if they were still working on their certification. For example, people in the classroom as part of the Teach for America training program would fall into this category. The department's regulations on these alternative routes were set to expire, but as my colleague Alyson Klein explains over at ...

I think there may be an announcement soon of another top-level management person leaving the district.  My sources tell me this is pending.  I don't see any announcement yet at the SPS website.   I'll keep you updated.  Also, there was this somewhat curious announcement at the website: Seattle Schools' policy on religious holiday celebrations: Seattle Public Schools has been receiving numerous questions regarding the District's policy on the celebration of religious holidays. We have a "Religion and Religious Accommodation" policy, approved by the School Board in 1983, stating that "no religious belief or non-belief should be promoted by the School District or its employees, and none should be disparaged." There are no new District policies on religion or holiday observance guidelines. For more information, Religious Holiday Observances Guidelines Religion and Religious Accommodation Policy Not sure why the district felt the need to...